G8Only Doubles Revenue and Gets 8,000 Hours Back With NoFraud

Joseph LaBruzza founded three online retail sites that service the aftermarket automotive performance market — G8Only.com, LSXOnly.com, and SSOnly.com. This is the story of G8Only.

How It All Began

In September 2013, Joe LaBruzza brought home a Pontiac G8. As a very short-run production vehicle that was imported under GM but manufactured by its Australian subsidiary, Holden, he quickly realized finding parts specific to his new vehicle was harder than expected.

Joe was looking for a bumper splitter that fit the car well, but realized he needed to take matters into his own hands. With his design background, Joe crafted his own splitter and shared his creation online with the G8 community. Community members took notice and began requesting Joe’s custom splitters for themselves. However, accepting payments online required him to register as a business; and thus, G8Only.com was born.

As Joe dove headfirst into the automotive performance market, he noticed a massive opportunity to become the go-to source for G8 parts — a trusted site for G8 aficionados that would take the guesswork out of finding the right parts. He invested his time and resources into building the site’s inventory, and soon his side passion became his full-time job.

The Power of Community & Confronting Fraud

“The community we serve is a very niche and tight-knit group of dedicated individuals who know each other,” shares Joe. The passionate group converses and collaborates through online forums and Joe makes himself available to customers and community members alike to talk shop after-hours. So naturally, it felt personal — and was incredibly disheartening — when he learned that even some of the community members were defrauding him.

Joe collaborated with others in the community, who rallied behind him, as he shared fraud cases in an effort to band together and reduce the growing fraud problem. He even contacted a few fraudsters directly to confront them and was amazed by the stories they told to justify their crimes. Joe says many responses were essentially, “Oh, I’m sorry! I thought you were a larger company, so I didn’t feel bad ripping you off.”

Joe’s outreach was successful in a few cases as some fraudsters ended up legitimately paying for the parts they stole, but most cases left the company without parts or payment. Joe attempted to work with local police departments to recoup his losses when he learned the discouraging reality that there was nothing they could do.

In one example, Joe reported a theft — a $1,300 chargeback — for which he provided all the transaction, shipping, and address details proving the crime to authorities. The shocking response from the police was a hard reality to accept. They did not recognize Joe as the victim in this case; instead, it was the unassuming cardholder. Frustrating to say the least, as the cardholder was able to get their money back from the credit card company, the fraudster got $1,300 worth of parts for free, and Joe was left without parts or payment.

“eCommerce fraud is not a victimless crime, but in the eyes of the law, it can seem that way,” says Joe. Even though he had all the transaction details proving the crime, law enforcement referred Joe to the FBI Cyber Division. However, since the fraudulent transactions were under the $10,000 threshold, it wasn’t a priority for the FBI cybercrimes team.

Unfortunately, Joe is really the only victim in this case — and many other merchants suffer the same fate. Time was ticking and the growing fraud problem was going to meet its match real soon.