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Dear Friends,
We really don't know how to start this post, except to say thank-you so much for the enormous, collective HUG you have all given us over these past few days! We have been truly OVERWHELMED by the response our blog post about our situation has received. Although we have only 8 "official" followers, it has become clear that many more of you are viewing our website, tweets and blog than I had ever imagined. Even MORE of you have shown your support to us by posting links to our blog on your own websites, blogs, tweets and facebook pages.
Your support has shown me that my sincere wish to find good in every person on our planet is not one that is completely naive after all. Since all of this came to light, I have been beating myself up for being so naive, in accepting the orders from the "target" (this is how the Commonwealth Bank refers to the guy who did this to us).
Certainly, I know now that a few of you were also contacted by the same guy and for a number of reasons didn't follow through with his requests. Steve (my hubby) summed this up completely when he said "those others were probably not as desperate for the income as we were". It is true that we REALLY needed the income that these "orders" were going to give us - as I originally posted, we thought someone was offering us a ray of light, and "helping" us to set up our shop by sending this guy to us. How wrong we were.
I have, since posting about this, been in contact again with Commonwealth Bank. They have NO INTENTION on letting this slide. According to them, WE are unequivocally responsible and lible for the complete amount of $23, 995.00 once all of the charge backs come through. They have unfrozen our bank account, thankfully, but will not let us use our EFTPOS machine. They are pretty clever really because whilst we can't use the damn machine, they are "allowing us to keep our merchant status" meaning that we still have to pay the monthly fees associated with having it!
The Commonwealth Bank has gone so far as to say that I must submit to them an outline of everything to do with our business, right down to every piece of stock we have, the lease to our new shop etc. I am really saddened by this as I know what it truly means - they want to know just what we have and what Ankle Biters is worth so that they can prepare to take it all from us. Of course, the young girl on the end of the telephone (who, I'm sure has no idea what it feels like to have 5 kids depending on you for their next meal), denies this, saying it is just for "their records", but I am not to naive to know otherwise.
"Gabby" (the compliance officer for our "case") recorded our conversation and is sending us the Merchant Fraud Pack that apparently outlines our obligations. Funny, I thought that we should have been given this BEFORE being accepted as a c/card merchant and being handed an EFTPOS machine with absolutely no training except on which buttons to press to make the thing work!
We were never told at any time that by using the MOTO function on our machine to process payments where the cardholder wasn't present (ie. over the phone or internet), we would become liable for any chargebacks that occured. Umm, hello, we are an INTERNET based business, so how do you suppose that we only accept transactions when the cardholder is present?!?
Besides, when we processed these transactions they were shown as "approved" which, we thought, indicated that they were fine. Apparently not.
Since going public with all of this on Friday, I have received MANY emails with stories from other small businesses who have experienced similar situations. Here are just some of them:
"I got your message the other day and just thought I would let you know that this happened to us but from America and we only lost $1000 not the huge amount that you did! We were also made to pay this back and felt so violated by this so I now how devastated you must be and I am sorry this has happened to you."
"To get this exposed via the media you just have to send them the information in a letter/press release 'new business ripped off by overseas fraudster to the tune of $x'. I was the victim of internet fraud a few years back. £10,000 was stolen from my bank, it was the deposit for my home - it went from my account the day before I was due to exchange contracts but the police and my bank worked together to trace the funds. It's terrible that your bank are not helping - definitely get a high profile media to take up your cause it could help! "
"Well we feel so sorry for you - sounds like a nightmare. what we dont understand why the bank would not be responsible for this as clearly not your fault. I would take it to A Current Affair as this not right. We had fraud and ANZ honoured this."
"I am so sorry to hear this has happened to you, that amount of money is a massive loss for any small business. ....I have been the victim of international fraud myself (certainly not that amount of money) and it seems there is very little that can be done about it when it is an international issue. The best suggestion I have is to contact the likes of today tonight or ACA and have them hear your story."
"I have just read your email and am horrified that something like this can happen. I had something happen to me on a much smaller scale involving only $5,000 where Westpac had actually let a company take out a loan in my name and deduct money from my account with any signature from me whatsoever. It took me about a year of constant phone calls to get that money back and Westpac have still not resolved this issue and I am constantly sent lists of questions that I have to answer making me feel like the criminal.
...I hope the Commonwealth Bank is doing the right thing by you (which is a big ask when talking about a bank). Not that I ever had much but I have no faith in our banking system. It was only when I threatened to contact A Current Affair that Westpac did something about my money."
"I am both sorry and angry for you! Its time the banks took more responsibility for this I am so sick of them taking money every time we have a charge back, despite, likeyou, a trading history, ID, THEIR authorisation, they are happy to take the money but why does the small business have to suffer."
"I am so sorry, I read your story and felt terrible as the exact same thing happened to us at the end of last year. Unfortunately we were not able to recover any funds and there was no one to help. We felt exactly the same way with our 4 orders and we also thought that someone was looking out for us as we had just purchased the business a few months before. There have been many tears and I feel like such an idiot now looking back.
I was contacted by the bank two days later and of course it was too late. "
"We too were the victims of a sting!!! Not as bad as you though.
We had internet orders from a customer who said they were in the UK - but were actually in Africa. They gave us a stolen credit card - but they were contacting us by email and were VERY believable.
...We actually rang the CBA before dispatch to ask if the card was fraudulent and they said they couldn't tell us!!!"
I am absolutely shocked and dismayed by just how many of you have similar stories to share. These banks are making a fortune out of all of us without one ounce of consideration for the families that they are affecting!
Something urgently needs to be done about this! It seems to me that the sheer volume of people being ripped off this way is an indicator of just how grave this situation is. There are people being taken through the ringer left, right and centre, and the banks are well, laughing all the way to the bank! It seems that it doesn't matter how many families and small businesses are affected by this, so long as they still make their billion dollar profit at the end of each year.
As well as the stories I have been receiving, I have had many, many words of support, and offers of help, and the forwarding of contacts etc. I personally have submitted our story to Seven Sunrise, A Current Affair and Today Tonight, as so many of you have suggested. I have had no response thus far from any of them, but will keep my fingers crossed. I also have the direct contacts, (thanks to you guys!) of the producers of some of these shows as well as some News contacts and newspaper contacts, so will follow all of these up on Monday.
In the meantime, I REALLY want to thank EACH and everyone of you for taking the time to call and email us! I physically cannot possibly send or respond to each of you individually, I would be here for weeks, so please know that your words have been warmly welcomed and gratefully received. You have really helped us to try and be optimistic about this, and somehow try to turn this situation around. I still really don't know how we are going to manage all of this, financially, we were already on tenderhooks (some of you may already know that we lost another large amount of $$ last year through our distribution company Green Revolt, when our manufacturer in Pakistan went bust). But, at least now, I feel supported and motivated to get through it, rather than defeated and ashamed.
I want to now show you guys the faces behind this! Here are our five little treasures, and the reason that we tried to build Ankle Biters in the first place:
If only the powers that be at the Commonwealth Bank could look at these pics, maybe they would understand the affect this entire situation is having.
Anyways, this post is getting ridiculously long, so I just want to finish off by listing the wonderful people who have contacted me over the past few days about this. I really don't know how to thank-you all, and just can't physically do it individually, so this is the best way I can think to do it. Some of you we have never had the opportunity to meet before, so it is extra special to receive your thoughts and offers of assistance!
So, thank-you to this huge list of simply AMAZING people...
EXTRA special thanks to Miriam at www.bubbachenille.blogspot.com and Liesa at www.handmadeheaven7.blogspot.com.
Also, Jodie at www.lovemum.com.au .
You ladies are absolute ANGELS!
Heather at www.babiesandkids.com.au
Stella at www.littlemissstella.com.au
Bonny at www.bonnibuns.com.au
Johanna at www.strawberrycommunications.com.au
Siobhan at www.downtoearthorganics.com.au
Tiessa at www.jtkids.com.au
Belinda at www.dewdrops.co.nz
Monica at www.beyondpinkandblue.com
Jodi at www.itchdesign.com.au
Melissa at www.ele-ahbaant.com.au
Amanda at www.stylecollective.com.au
Peggy at www.cookiesandcream.com.au
Jannine at www.natureschild.com.au
Lou at www.skouttradefair.com
Georgie at www.merinokids.com
Kerri at Molly and Jack, Oatley, NSW
Kim & Simon at www.stickytiki.com
Alison at www.agoo.com.au
Amanda at www.bay6.com.au
Mel at www.thehipinfant.com.au
Victoria at www.downtoearthbaby.com
Pam, Jude and Ros at www.organicbabe.com.au
Despina at www.backpacks4aussiekids.blogspot.com
Stephanie at www.moobeardesigns.com.au
Katerina at www.twinklelily.com
Jo at www.babyjo.com.au
Angela at www.kidsstylefile.com.au
Tracey at www.niftythriftyloveliness.blogspot.com
Lianne at www.mystical-entertainments.com
Anna at www.barefootmagazine.com.au
Pauline at www.funkyfriendsfactory.com
Terese at www.redhillchildrenswear.com.au
www.aussieproductreview.blogspot.com
www.ulitmateguide.wordpress.com
www.cleverstreak.com/wordpress
Also to our good friends Nat Saville, Barbara Bennett, Jill Blacker, Sandy Forbes, Kellie & Maryann Lister, Fiona Deegan, Tracy Couper, Iona Crichton.
Also, there are a number of you who posted your support anonymously on this blog and via email and we want to show our sincere thanks to you too!
And finally, we have also received emails of support from many of our dear, loyal customers of Ankle Biters, many of whom have expressed their concerns that we may not continue our business or may not open our physical store as planned. At this stage, we have decided to continue with our plans, assuming that we can afford to do so. We are going to try our darndest to not let the villains here destroy our dream, nor to prevent us from sharing our beautiful product range with you! If this should change, we will post it here first so that you are all kept well informed. However, for now, it is business as usual, albeit without the ability to accept credit card payments except through Paypal...
Most consumers feel they are 'protected' by their banks.
The banks guarantee that their money will be refunded but, what they don't tell the consumer - it is the business (mostly small businesses) that pay their money back.
The bank simply 'charges back' the money and, the business has no protection whatsoever.
So the business has paid the delivery charges and lost their stock.
Due to 'privacy policies' we small businesses are unable to validate if the delivery address is the card holders address and, the bank will not even give out the 'genuine' card holders phone number so, how can we check that it is the genuine card holder who has placed the order?
Even if we can validate the card holders address, we have to upset many potential new customers by refusing to send their (gift) order to a different address.
The consumer whose card is used fraudulently is protected as their bank refund their money.
The bank is protected as they get their money back from us, the small business.
There is no protection for the small business who has to take the card blindly in good faith.
The banks should spend some of their profits on tracking down and getting their money back from the fraudster and not ruining small businesses.
Most business who take cards online have been stung or scammed and it really hurts.
So sorry you have been a victim of this in such a huge way.
You're very welcome, although I feel like I havent really done anything except maybe offer some virtual hugs! I do recognise alot of familiar bloggers sending their support and this is lovely.
Make sure you keep us all up to date and I'm sure you will hear something from the media soon :)