Victim Location 61568
Total money lost $3,000
Type of a scam Other
A third party wanted to purchase a large amount of product and have it shipped to Norway by using World Trust Express. Turns out, after a lengthy law enforcement investigation, that it was a scheme to funnel "bad" money into "good" money using small business. Turns out we lost about $3000 in fees but consider ourselves lucky it didn’t escalate. AVOID!!! This is very short explanation of what was otherwise a convoluted, sneaky scam.
Victim Location 32218
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
A "customer" called our business, interested in shipping multiple pieces of equipment to a family member with a business overseas. The person appeared knowledgeable about the equipment and asked good questions. He said he preferred to work with World Trust Express to handle the overseas shipment and provided an email address to send shipping dims and weight for a quote to be added to his total. We told him payment would need to be secured by us before we would release the product. Since then we found out that takes a few days or longer for a payment from a stolen credit card, once the card is closed, to be pulled back out of an account and refunded back to the owner of the card. The "customer" continued to stay in touch daily asking for updates about when the funds were secured and when the product would be ready for pick up. Both the "customer" and the "freight company contact" were very polite. Upon receiving a detailed freight quote we then quoted the customer, he accepted the quote calling in with credit card information.
The whole thing felt like something wasn’t quite right. Approximately 2 business days later, the funds were deposited into our account through our credit card processor, so I thought it may actually be legitimate at that point, but at the time I didn’t understand what happens when a fraudulent transaction is refunded to the card holder. The equipment is in transit to our location now and the product has not been picked up. So last night, just as last opportunity to put my mind at ease, I googled the number for the global VISA database (link below) which before last night I didn’t know existed. I gave them the card number. They provided me with the issuing bank, contact number and hours of operation. I called the issuing bank to verify the card information and sure enough it was a mismatch. The card had actually been shut down the day before, but the process had not completed to the point of contacting my bank to retrieve the funds.
The monies are secure in our account waiting to be returned to the card holder and this morning I am feeling very fortunate to have that instinct to dig and research if something just doesn’t sound right. I would like to share this information for any business accepting credit card payments from new or one-time customers. It saved me in the neighborhood of $***. We were also able to keep from ever getting involved with a much smaller transaction that again, just wasn’t handled normally. That card was also a mismatch but had not been reported yet. We are a new small business so this would have been devastating to us had they succeeded.
Victim Location 73104
Total money lost $1,500
Type of a scam Business Email Compromise
A man calling himself Chestnut Wiliams emailed our company to order a few products. He claimed that his wife, Kari Wiliams, just inherited a clinic in Norway and that she needed to stock some supplies. Since we do a lot of international orders, nothing (except the name) stood out as out of the ordinary.
Once we had helped him decide on what products he needed, he said that he wished to use a shipping company that he claimed he had used to deliver other products internationally just a week previously, World Trust Exchange. He paid for the increased cost of the shipping and products with a credit card, and we proceeded with the wire transfer to the shipping company once we could confirm the money was received.
When the shipping company claimed that they only accepted wire transfers, we raised a red flag and looked into his credentials and backstory. He turned out to be a complete fraud. The credit card he used to pay for the products were stolen and they never came to pick up the products. It is safe to assume that this is part of a larger systematic scam, as I talked with as many as three different people operating as every moving part of a regular process. They are undoubtedly working full-time to scam companies all across America. Never trust World Trust Exchange.
Victim Location 30083
Total money lost $3,400
Type of a scam Credit Cards
Donald Griffin reached out to our company wanting to purchase around $*K worth of product and asked that we use World Trust Express to have it shipped via air freight to Brazil. I reached out to World Trust Express for a quote and they said it would be $3400 to have our product shipped. I sent our prices to Donald Griffin and he paid for everything with a Credit Card with billing in Delta, PA. Once his credit card was cleared we then wired the $*** to an account at the American National Bank, name of the account was Martin Villa/WTE, which was the name of the rep who had sent us the freight quotes. On the day we had arranged for pick-up, Donald emailed me wanting to increase the order size substantially. Once he gave me the final quantities, I emailed World Trust and received a new invoice for about 16K. We ran Donald’s card again, and again it went through. However, this time World Trust wanted us to send the money to a new bank and under a different name. After seeing this I started to look around online and saw the reviews about World Trust Express on BBB and I immediately cancelled the order.
Victim Location 80020
Type of a scam Credit Cards
A customer contacted us, purchased 5K in product (not an unusual amount for our business) and asked us if he paid for shipping to Norway if we would set it up with his shipping company, World Trust Express. (We ship worldwide, so not unusual for our business) We agreed and asked World Trust Express for a shipping quote, which they provided at $2429.60. World Trust Express sent us an invoice and wire transfer instructions. The wire transfer instruction account was in a personal name, so we started checking some info. We called our credit card company and the original transaction WAS CREDIT CARD FRAUD. We called the bank World Trust Express said they banked at and they confirmed that the account had been open less than one month and there were no transactions in that account and that there was a flag on the name of the account for FRAUD.
The original credit card charge has been charged back from the rightful card holder, and if we would have made this wire transfer, we would have lost 10K. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS
Victim Location 33149
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Received Email from Donald Griffin requesting purchase about $4,000 dollars worth of product to be shipped to Brasil but demanding to use World Trust Express shipping company. Donald would pay for the shipping and COGS with stolen credit card and Company would pay directly the World Trust Express. But upon receiving billing WTE bank account address does not match to any of the address in the website. The bank account name is to the name of Jesse Paul. The address in Florida listed in the website is for other type of business. Thankfully no payment was made to the fake shipping company