Recently I had been contacted via email from a person from the Washington DC area (so I thought!) inquiring about purchasing a opt-in email list for opportunity seekers.   After locating a good list for his email blast and persenting him with my payment opitions he wanted to wire me the funds.   I said OK and gave him my bank account information for him to completed the transaction and order the list.  Big mistake on my part as he stole my account information and proceeded to write and send bogus checks via UPS to folks who responded to some sort of employment scam for handling payments.   Fortunately I only had minimum amount in my checking account for handling wire transfers so no funds were lost on my end.    I thank God that my local Community Bank,  Bank of New England,  promptly advise me to shut down the account and open up a new account. 

I even got a check from the scammers from a company in the Midwest for $3950 advising me to deposit the funds and wait for further instructions on where to send a portion of the proceeds.   The check looked authentic but I knew it as bogus.    I called the company up and told them what had happened and they advised me to destroy the check as they had also closed their account as well.

The moral for this story is to always know who you are doing business with and NEVER accept wire transfers with anybody you don’t know or trust.   Accept only credit cards or use Paypal for any foreign or domestic  transactions until you know who you are doing business with.    Run from anybody in Nigeria as they are the scam capitol of the world.

Also, be sure to avoid doing business with any company that wants you to handle payment  funds in the U. S. and send monies overseas.   They are all scams in my opinion.  Also, be very leery of a website called  www.jbc-fabrics.info from India as the nature of their offer to handle payment transactions for them in the states could be a scam.  Make sure to get references and check them out with the Better Business Bureau.

Remember if it sounds too good to be true it is probably a scam of some sort.    These scammers are only in it to steal your money.   They are very clever so be aware.

According to Canada Poste, Canadian consumers are feeling underserved by their respective retailers and are interested in doing business with American retailers.   Canadian consumers are paying top dollar to buy goods and services in Canada so the market is ripe for Americans to begin marketing their products to Canadians.    Canada Poste has begun working with many US retailers through its Border Free product. 

This product allows retailers in the U.S. sell to Canadians directly online in Canadian dollars without having to deal with taxes & import fees. 

Canada has only around 150 online or catalog retailers whereas, the U.S. has 13,000 or more.   

The Canadian dollar is now  worth $1.00USD so we can now compete very well against any Canadian retailer for the same product.    The demand is there so why aren’t more American retailers targeting the Canadian market?    Either they feel the market is too small or they have tunnel vision.  

Direct marketers would do well to mail into Canada with relevant products and services.   Mailing lists are readily available and it is a lot cheaper to mail into Canada than Europe.    

Please feel free to post your comments and questions regarding marketing to Canada.