MERCHANT BANK ACCOUNT SCAM - ANY IDEAS?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:45 am

This scam seems to be like the old ‘cash our cheques for commission’ scam, but with a difference. This character wants me to open a merchant bank account. In the UK, this is not straightforward; one has to apply, be interviewed, approved (or not), and the process takes weeks.

Be grateful for any views from those who may have first-hand experience of such a scam, ie, how it would work. Thanks.

Quote:

Dear (edit),

Thank you for your reply and sorry for the delay in answering.

Our company name is GEO Consulting Ltd, Reg. Num.: 95264, Place and date of registration: Gibraltar, September 2005.

Please find attached scans of the respective documentation: Incorporation Certificate, Share Certificate and the Incumbency Certificate. A product sample is also attached.

Our website is www.geoconsultingdc.com, currently it is in a beta version, therefore data submission is not working, but all the content and samples are uploaded, and that is how we intend the webshop to look like, given we collaborate with you and the merchant account to accept credit cards on site is opened.

The functions to be performed by you will be:

1) Opening a merchant account in a local bank with our fullest assistance,

2) Transferring us (after deducting your commission) funds resulted from the merchant account activity.

All the rest will be performed by us.

The volume of payments will be in the order of EUR 400,000 – EUR 500,000 per month. The commission percentage we are offering you is 4%.

Please also find attached a Representation Agreement proposal between us and you, where many points are clarified.

The following are the steps and description, which our collaboration is to consist of:

1. Your company would open a merchant account for E-commerce and telephone sales in a bank with most attractive conditions for such.

2. The bank will provide integration manuals to connect our website with their systems for the purpose of credit card acceptance at the website. The bank will render access to the gateway for credit card acceptance by telephone sales. We will be handling all these.

3. The company data listed on the website will be yours, however all customer service, sales, technical part, etc. are to be handled by us. The only actual job to be performed by you, once the merchant account is established will be handling communication with the bank, which will be minimal (one phone call per week or so)

4. Incoming proceedings from sales via credit cards will be deposited by the merchant bank into your business bank account.

5. The sale proceedings will be transfered by you from your business bank account into our bank account, minus your commission of 4%.

Yours sincerely,

Cesar Garza
General Manager

GEO Consulting Ltd.
Suite 8, Ellesmere House
29 City Mill Lane
Gibraltar 646

Tel: +350 200 61287
Fax: +350 200 42642

So, I reply, feigning customary interest and enthusiasm.....

Quote:

Dear (edit),

Thank you for your fast answer !

Right now, I can recommend approaching several banks (3 or 4 should do), in order to enquire about their conditions on merchant accounts for credit card acceptance (both E-commerce and telephone sales) and then I will assist you to select the best.

Additionally, I would appreciate if you could provide a scan of your company Incorporation Certificate.

Yours sincerely,

Cesar Garza
General Manager

GEO Consulting Ltd.
Suite 8, Ellesmere House
29 City Mill Lane
Gibraltar 646

Tel: +350 200 61287
Fax: +350 200 42642

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:35 am

This looks like a new and more sophisticated version of the cheque mule scam.

The lad wants you to open a merchant account so that you can accept credit card payments online and over the phone and you will then presumably get a load of payments using phished or stolen credit card details.

I would guess that he'll then want you to send him the money less your comission by bank transfer or WU so that by the time the thick and brown stuff hits the fan,he's got the cash and he's long gone.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:02 am

Hmmm.....yes, it appears that way. Quite a complicated scam, requiring a lot of work by the victim. Certainly, all UK banks offering merchant accounts scrutinise the websites that customers propose to link to their merchant account, and I doubt that any credible bank would accept any of his sites as legitimate.

It would be difficult for me to bluff opening the merchant account, since he wants to link it to an e.commerce website, which would be run by him.

I’m wondering how to best bait him.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:14 pm

Requesting permission to kill his website.
(unless you'd like to do it yourself)

Please send me his e-mail so I can gather further evidence.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:47 pm

Did the emails originate from the domain or from a separate email provider?

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 5:26 pm

Bless, he assumes British banks are freakin' idiots. To open a proper card merchant account for a brand new company without any trading history you'll need to leave a huge deposit on file in case of chargebacks etc.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:35 pm

Maybe he'll leave you to flounder for a bit, then introduce you to a helpful bank manager, played by the lad himself, with a helpful bank website, no doubt.

If you're really lucky, he'll hit you for a bank opening fee or a minimum deposit.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:06 pm

Ezio wrote:

Requesting permission to kill his website.
(unless you'd like to do it yourself) Please send me his e-mail so I can gather further evidence.

Looks like its already been done! http://www.geoconsultingdc.com

woody999 wrote:

Did the emails originate from the domain or from a separate email provider?

Here's the header:

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from smtp2.hushmail.com (smtp2.hushmail.com [65.39.178.134])
by imap5.hushmail.com (Cyrus v2.3.7-Invoca-RPM-2.3.7-7.el5_4.3) with LMTPA;
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:18:58 +0000
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3
Received: from smtp2.hushmail.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
by smtp2.hushmail.com (Postfix) with SMTP id C1240E67CB
for <(edit)[email protected]>; Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:18:58 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from ultra.ultradnszone.com (ultra.ultradnszone.com [72.18.155.66])
(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
(No client certificate requested)
by smtp2.hushmail.com (Postfix) with ESMTP
for <(edit)@hush.com>; Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:18:53 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1])
by ultra.ultradnszone.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256)
(Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1Pt8o7-0002fe-6m
for (edit)@hush.com; Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:18:51 -0700
Received: from 77.225.224.246 ([77.225.224.246]) by valuatorsre.com (Horde
Framework) with HTTP; Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:18:51 -0700
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:18:51 -0700
From: Cesar Garza <[email protected]>
To: (edit)@hush.com
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Answer on local representation offer
References: <[email protected]>
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=UTF-8;
DelSp="Yes";
format="flowed"
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) H3 (4.3.9)
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - ultra.ultradnszone.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - hush.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - valuatorsre.com
X-Source:
X-Source-Args:
X-Source-Dir:

Thanks also to MBL and RC for comments/suggestions. I'll let him stew for a couple of days and then see how he reacts to my 'what do I do now?'.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:41 pm

The email appears to be from [email protected] -IP: 77.225.224.246 - Madrid, Spain

At the moment I do not see any evidence of fraud involving www.geoconsultingdc.com

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:47 pm

I looked it over and agree with Woody999.
Most likely he just referenced the website to make himself more credible.

The valuatorsre.com website is just an index.

I suspect he is putting together a bank website and then will tell you "Look, sign up with this bank, they are cooperative" - he's probably anticipating that you will tell him about the difficulties of setting up a UK merchant account just so his bank will look like the easy alternative.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:03 pm

Hmm...possible. It makes a change from the standard advance fee baiting. I'll keep all informed.

MERCHANT BANK ACCOUNT SCAM - ANY IDEAS?	View next topic View previous topic