Got a call earlier from Stan Kilbas at Wheels of Wellington in Wellington, Florida regarding a scammer that’s apparently targeting bike shops in his area.
Kilbas received an e-mail from a “Pastor James” looking to order 35 bikes to ship to an orphanage in Ghana through the Shawana Shipping Company. The scammer provides the name, address and telephone number for the shipping service. He provides a stolen credit card number as a form of payment, and oftentimes, the initial charge goes through, but is later denied by the credit card company. By that time, the goods have already been shipped.
Kilbas sensed something suspect and did not accept the order, but said another shop in the area was hit two months ago. Fortunately, that shop was able to get refunded from the credit card company.
Kilbas did some research and discovered this is a fairly common scam that has hit numerous industries over the years. This certainly isn’t the first time he's run across a potential scam.
“We get calls every two or three years here where somebody wants us to ship bikes somewhere and they’re always in a hurry," he said.
