Sweetwater Credit card and I.D Check

[joelplagues]

I recently ordered some gear from sweetwater and received an email that showed up in my junk box from my "Sales Engineer".

part way through this email it asks me to scan my credit card, front and back and a copy of my government authorised I.D(drivers license or 18+card)claiming it to be standard operating procedure.

he then says the things I'd expect like his background in recording and blah blah at sweetwater we love you

is this normal? it sounds like a pretty easy way to scam someone using all their details,having their credit card number and security pin(on the back) a picture of the person.

seems like a great way to make fake passports/i.d's and going on an online shopping spree with the credit card?

has anyone experienced this?

Thanks guys.

 

[JeffTD]

Send an e-mail to your sales engineer, or any sales engineer (using a manually typed-in address, not one in the e-mail send to you), and ask. This should also alert them to the fact that their customers'/potential credit card holders' name/e-mail addy is being leaked somehow to a scammer (if this is a scam).

Sounds fishy as fuck to me, though.

 

[joelplagues]

Send an e-mail to your sales engineer, or any sales engineer (using a manually typed-in address, not one in the e-mail send to you), and ask. This should also alert them to the fact that their customers'/potential credit card holders' name/e-mail addy is being leaked somehow to a scammer (if this is a scam).

Sounds fishy as fuck to me, though.

Exactly my thoughts.

this is my first time ordering from sweetwater which makes me think it could be real, as I dont have another email from a sales engineer but still seems weird. no company that I have ever ordered off needed scans to verify my info. I'm sure they have other ways of doing it.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Don't give them shit. It's a scam with 99% certainty, and in case it falls into the 1% chance that it's not, they still have no business to ask you for such things. For what it's worth, I just ordered from Sweetwater for the first time (PT9 digital delivery) and paid with Visa, and all it took was the normal authentication process where you type in the card's information.

 

[muckypup1]

It sounds like a scam, i'd ignore it, you don't want your ID being used and shit

 

[drew_drummer]

SCAM.

 

[Line666]

Whats the full email address its being sent from?

If its not something totally official like blah@sweetwater.com and instead its something like blah@sweetwater.blahblah.com then chances are its a scam.

 

[Skinny Viking]

scam

I get calls from my guy at sweetwater and any emails I get from him never mention anything about that ... Jeff nailed it as far as what you should do

 

[crillemannen]

In some cases they ask for ID card and Visa number. A site did that when i placed an order worth allot of $. I took a picture on my ID and Visa erasing the last 4 numbers on the visa in Photoshop. No way that they would ask for a photo both on front and back on your visa

 

[egan.]

Absolutely do not do it. Sweetwater would have definitely called you if this was legitimate. They are huge on customer service and would have given you a personal explanation if this was real.
Absolutely do alert them to the fact that there are scammers using them as a backdoor.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

What Egan said, I have ordered from them numerous times paying in various ways and that has never been something to come my way.

 

[SocialNumb]

What everyone else said. Also, blast them with piss.

 

[Wolfeman]

It's actually in their policy to NOT take credit card info through emails.

So I'd say it's 100% a scam.

 

[Jind]

I've ordered several items from Sweetwater and never heard of anything like that. The online ordering system asks for your card number and security code, as long as the name and address you ordered under matches the card information they shouldn't need anything else to process the order. The only time I can see asking for additional information is if the credit card was in some other persons name. Sounds like a scam to me.

 

[Virgil.]

Whats the full email address its being sent from?

If its not something totally official like blah@sweetwater.com and instead its something like blah@sweetwater.blahblah.com then chances are its a scam.

Even email addresses can't prove legitimacy... they can be spoofed. The best bet is what Jeff said above, email them (by manually typing in your sales rep's contact email) or calling them and asking them. Even if the rep did ask me for that, I still wouldn't do it. He could be losing his job soon and wanting to collect as many CC's as possible. You never know. People in this world are shady as shit, and just because someone works for a legitimate company, still doesn't make me trust them.

 

[pipaguapique]

i have done that a couple of times. with Sweetwater, with OasisCd and Musiciansfriend. It's a way to know you are the owner of the credit card you're using. It only happens to people outside the US though. they do that because there's a lot of stolen credit cards out there. just make sure that email is from sweetwater.

This is basically the same thing that happens when you go buy something at the mall with your credit card and they ask you for your ID.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

i have done that a couple of times. with Sweetwater, with OasisCd and Musiciansfriend. It's a way to know you are the owner of the credit card you're using. It only happens to people outside the US though. they do that because there's a lot of stolen credit cards out there. just make sure that email is from sweetwater.

This is basically the same thing that happens when you go buy something at the mall with your credit card and they ask you for your ID.

No, no, no, no, no, do NOT do it, even if you make sure the e-mail is from Sweetwater. They DO NOT need to see scans of the front and back of your credit card and your driver's license. It's way too easy to get seriously fucked (the information you are sending is enough to provide someone the tools for credit card fraud and identity theft) to take the risk. Call Sweetwater and let them know about the situation, and if they really insist on you sending the images (which I doubt they will), shop somewhere else.

 

[Eddy]

i have done that a couple of times. with Sweetwater, with OasisCd and Musiciansfriend. It's a way to know you are the owner of the credit card you're using. It only happens to people outside the US though. they do that because there's a lot of stolen credit cards out there. just make sure that email is from sweetwater.

This is basically the same thing that happens when you go buy something at the mall with your credit card and they ask you for your ID.

To verify this post, I need you to scan your credit card and driver's license/ID and email them to me at: notgoingtoscamyou@forrealz.com.



But seriously, what Jarkko said. Take you money to somewhere else, that pay more attenttion to security.

 

[pipaguapique]

^Done. Check your email. hahah

that was a while back though. and the credit card that i used is already canceled. I never got charged anything i wasn't supposed to though. The reason it was canceled was because i changed to another bank. Now i only use Paypal. If the store im buying from can't do paypal, then i look somewhere else.

 

[JBroll]

I've gotten phone calls from them after big orders (and I'm glad that they did), but I'd expect that everyone involved knows not to go for email nonsense like that - call your representative before doing anything. (Even if nothing else, they'd want to warn other customers not to fall for that if it's a scam.)

Jeff