A Fraudulent Action Inspires a Positive Action

Blog Action Day, that took place October 15th, engaged bloggers everywhere to publish posts that discuss poverty in some way. By all posting on the same day the aim was to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause, poverty.

One blogger, Entrepeneur's Journey, combined a bad situation that we should all be made aware of, however, that in the end, lead to a "positive action" on his part, that served to make poverty a little less daunting for three children.

After enjoying moderate success with my online store I made a tragic mistake. I received an order from someone in Thailand for a full case of cards, with a value of about $600. I took the order through an offline credit card processor (called a “click-clack”), but before I did this I phoned the card fraud hotline to make sure the card wasn’t reported as stolen, as per the standard procedures provided by the bank.

The card checked out fine, I charged it for the case and shipped off the product.

Fast forward a few months and I had sent off over $15,000 worth of product to Thailand, when I received a letter in the mail, telling me the very first order had received a charge back request. Basically, the owner of the card had said they had not made the purchase and wanted their money back.

Over the course of the next few weeks over $12,000 was charged back. It was clear my Thai customers were fraudsters, using a stolen credit card, and I had lost a ton of money.

I recovered from that instance after putting in ALL my savings and some money from my father to cover the dept. I was so heartbroken about the situation that I closed the online store shortly after and went into a depression that took several weeks to recover from.

After he recovered, he was inspired to sponsor one child suffering from the effects of global poverty, which eventually lead him to sponsor three children.