A Visual Image, Inc. is also not a box sales house. We do, however, maintain a web-site for service purposes exclusively, no purchases may be made through it. Although the caller claimed to have found us off of the site, the call came in off of the Atlanta line that is forwarded to our Dallas office. The Atlanta line has not been published on our web-site for sometime, as that branch is closed. So, we're not certain how they found us.

The caller was an individual with a very odd accent (described as a person with a Middle-Eastern inflection affecting a British accent). The caller, (name edited), asked if we had projectors in stock and available for shipment overseas, to London. He asked for a quote to be faxed over, and indicated he would call back if interested. The next day, he did call back, and faxed us a very official looking Purchase Order. It listed the company name, two addresses, two phone numbers, and a registry number for the company in England. The order was for five projectors, and specified five, sequential credit card numbers. <The caller> instructed us to overnight the projectors via Fed Ex, charge him the overnight charges, and he would pay VAT charges himself, locally. The PO even included a VAT number.

"If you do fall victim, be absolutely certain you spread the word as much as possible. Awareness is the only way we as an industry will wake up and stop being the victim."

When asked why he needed to use the five credit cards, he stated that each projector was for a different department and needed to be charged to a different card to ensure the cost was put through accounting to the proper cost center...very plausible and was supported by the sequential numbers on the cards. So, we shipped the projectors. Of course, the shipping address was for a "branch office", and was listed on the Purchase Order.

About a week later, he contacted us again, stating he had gotten the shipment, and wanted to purchase five more. After another PO, same shipping address, and four new sequential credit cards, we shipped the projectors. Approximately three weeks later, we started receiving communications from our credit card processor stating that the cardholders had disputed the charges. Thus began our nightmare.

We immediately attempted to call the numbers we had for him, both a fax and a main number. With both we got recorded responses stating that the cellular number we had called had been "switched off". We attempted to research the company name on the internet, but found many companies in England by that name, none with the registry number or addresses given on the PO. We searched for the address on the Internet also, but really could not get any information.


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