Unfortunately, the Internet is not always a safe place, and fraudulent orders with stolen credit cards are becoming increasingly common.  Here are some red flags to watch out for, as well as simple steps you can take to verify suspicious orders.

Red flags:

• Ship-to and Bill-to addresses do not match
• Order is from a customer you do not recognize, who is not in your area
• The customer requests expedited shipping (they're worried the stolen credit card will be discovered before their order ships)
• The email address does not match either name on the Ship-to or Bill-to addresses
• The phone number has an area code which does not match the billing address
• The order is for one or more very expensive items, such as medical or legal textbooks

If one or more of these red flags appear on an order, we recommend that you take the following steps:

• Attempt to contact the customer by phone.  You should use the phone number reported with the Bill-to address.  A legitimate customer will appreciate the phone call to verify the order.  Fraudulent orders will likely use out-of-service or continually busy phone numbers.
• If you suspect an order is fraudulent, simply mark it as Payment Received and wait a few days to hear from the legitimate owner of the card before shipping the order.  Payment Received orders can always be cancelled/refunded, and you will not yet have shipped the book if the order turns out to be fraudulent.