Avoid Credit Card Fraud

We recently shipped an engine to a customer in the great state of Louisiana near the end of December. It was a nice, expensive Cadillac engine. The customer said that their boyfriend was a mechanic and was going to install the engine, so we shipped it to their home (home delivery is not at all rare - many folks install their engine themselves). Everything our system asks for (and it asks for a lot as we take Credit Card Fraud very seriously) matched on the credit charge.

Needless to say, we got a call about two weeks later from our merchant services. The owner of the card had reported it stolen. At first, we were a bit miffed because of the fact that the owner of the card had signed for the engine. We thought it was a case of someone ordering an engine and simply deciding that they didn't want to pay for it.

Well, today we got a phone call from the police. They let us know they had recovered our engine. Turns out that this person was a huge identity thief. They worked at some kind of online merchant and stole a lot of folks info - the cops recovered massive amounts of data in notebooks on people.

We at Low Mileage Engines are proud of the methods we use to minimalize credit card fraud. Sadly, even the best systems aren't perfect.

Oh well. One fraudster is going to jail.

Feeling Good About Things

God is giving me a peace about the way things are going. I've started to actually enjoy selling engines. I'm not sure if this is because we're off that temporary spike in warranty claims, or if it's because I'm just getting more confident on the phone. I do know that I was impressed we filled every valid claim we had, which very few salvage yards would do.

I'm also very excited about pursuing my dealer's license. I wish I could talk about some of the things I'm going to do... but people actually do a lot of searches for the type of car I'm going to be selling. The Dodge Intrepid... specifically the 2.7 Litre, which I will be selling after conversion to 3.2. There, I spilled it. :p It's gonna make me some cash, hopefully. Dodge, thanks for your mistake.

Dadgum It

One of the guys that works for us got a DUI last night. We're all praying for him. Bad choices. I hope God helps him steer things right.

The World Does Nothing, Genocide Spreads

For the last few years, I have been appalled at the way the world has handled the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Way to go world, proving how selfish you are even after Rwanda.

The BBC is reporting on this.

World, you suck.

Goodness, Frustration!

I'm getting very frustrated with "the way things are going."

To quote Hootie:
Time, why you punish me?
Like a wave crashing into the shore
You wash away my dreams
Time, why you walk away? oh, oh
Like a friend with somewhere to go
You left me crying

And you'll teach me 'about tomorrow
And all the pain and sorrow running free?
'Cause tomorrow's just another day
And I don't believe in time