- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 239
Hi Dealer Folks,
Last December various Festool dealers, predominantly Woodcraft stores, were hit with a fraud scheme in which a woman would call with a story about a crew working in the area having their equipment stolen and needing replacement. I think, in all, nine dealers were hit and though the perpetrator was apprehended, she got off lightly. The credit card used belonged to somebody who had recently died and the address was phony as well as the name of the company. Yesterday, a similar scam call came into our store. A woman called and wanted us to very quickly send an MFK 700 to some address. I told her I had to check inventory to buy time. She called back in ten minutes and I told her I was too busy to check at that time. Then I looked the number up in our customer database.....an account had been created ten minutes prior and some various Festool and other items were sold. When I checked the associated address with Google maps, it was a non-descript industrial building. My point is just be careful when taking phone orders from strangers with no account and who request specific items without general knowledge of what the tool is.....all red flags. You have to make a lot of sales to overcome the hit of one fraud case like this as your inventory will likely never be recovered.
Last December various Festool dealers, predominantly Woodcraft stores, were hit with a fraud scheme in which a woman would call with a story about a crew working in the area having their equipment stolen and needing replacement. I think, in all, nine dealers were hit and though the perpetrator was apprehended, she got off lightly. The credit card used belonged to somebody who had recently died and the address was phony as well as the name of the company. Yesterday, a similar scam call came into our store. A woman called and wanted us to very quickly send an MFK 700 to some address. I told her I had to check inventory to buy time. She called back in ten minutes and I told her I was too busy to check at that time. Then I looked the number up in our customer database.....an account had been created ten minutes prior and some various Festool and other items were sold. When I checked the associated address with Google maps, it was a non-descript industrial building. My point is just be careful when taking phone orders from strangers with no account and who request specific items without general knowledge of what the tool is.....all red flags. You have to make a lot of sales to overcome the hit of one fraud case like this as your inventory will likely never be recovered.
