Fraud sucks.
We sell primarily online, so we’re very wary of fraud.
We’ve been targetted several times in the past by fraudsters from the four corners of the globe. While it’s easy to say that country X or country Y is a “hotbed” of fraud, the reality is that fraud is an international problem.
People get phished all the time. It’s not nice, but it happens.
Before we launched our new system we had to completely block orders from outside Ireland and the UK, as the old billing system’s fraud checking was pretty rudimentary (and that’s being polite about it!).
With our new order system we can accept orders, but we put them on hold until they’ve passed a simple fraud check. (If your order gets flagged you’ll get an email from us asking you to prove that your order is legitimate)
Before the order passes the fraud check your credit card is NOT billed, so the order is NOT processed.
Yes, we know it’s a pain in the neck and we are sorry that we have to do the fraud checking, but we have no choice in the matter.
Like most online companies we do get hit with credit card chargebacks. It’s a reality of doing business online.
A LOT of internet companies run fraud checks on orders from outside their home country, so we are not the only ones doing this.
If you want to blame someone, then please take it out on the fraudsters!
