Suspicious email address - fraudulent order?

[MargueriteJ]

We fulfilled an order yesterday that passed fraud detection with zero red flags. However, this morning I happened to glance at the email address on the order and alarm bells went off:

txn-zestbillings@skim.cc

Zest Billings is the name of our store. I did a couple of Google searches and of course the word “skim” and the abbreviation “cc” bring up articles about credit card skimming. 

The order is already out the door, and if we lose it so be it. I have two questions:

1) what fraud detection apps have other store owners used and had success with? Would your app have flagged this order?

2) is there anyway this order is being used to skim credit card data from our system?

We are primarily a brick and mortar store but have been expanding our online sales through the use of Google merchant campaigns. We don’t need fraud protection on our POS transactions, just online orders. 

[Nick_Marketing]

Forward any suspicious emails that you receive to Shopify's safety inbox at safety@shopify.com.

[EmmanuelFlossie · Accepted solution]

In the past I have worked for a physical eCommerce business in the UK, and I have found that sometimes some consumers, would create 1 email address per website, to avoid getting spam.

I would see the name of the business I worked for in the email address, and me too found that very suspicious, until 1 client explained to me why they did it. That was 10+ years ago.

So what you are seeing might be simply someone who created a temporary email, simply to avoid getting spam.

Ofcourse, it might indeed be suspicious, just wanted to give my 2 cents.

[MargueriteJ]

I think you’re absolutely right that this is the case! And I feel a little silly now realizing that “skim” could also be S. Kim - the first initial and last name of the customer. Very relieved. 

[Markssxx]

Interesting and definitely not silly. I think you are being wise to check. I am looking to have a double layer of security.