Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

coryklein.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 243 posts

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#51

Post by canuckintime »

joezydeco wrote: post #24
tomjen3 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some shipper has to provide verified shipment as a service: you packaged will be opened, a photo will be taken of the content and it will be packed and sealed by the shipper.

And the shipper can't be an accomplice in this adventure? A collusion between scammer and a dodgy shipper would work very well.

I believe the OP was implying a shipping service like USPS, FedEx, DHL etc offering the feature. Amazon now has their own logistics delivery team too and offering pickup with picture would be a logical next step to combat this scam.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#52

Post by brador »

soyiuz wrote: post #23
brador wrote: post #14

The only solution is a verifying third party. Postal service could offer this for a fee to make some easy money.

I would use this service. However, see my comment above. How would the Postal Service verify counterfeit merchandise, for example?

They can't verify counterfeit merchandise but they could take a picture of the contents of the box and turn a device on to verify it works, like a pawn shop. There is no perfect way to solve this but the above solution would help.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#53

Post by Animats »

tomjen3 wrote: post #16
laksjd wrote: post #4

I'm going to guess this only works with sellers that aren't fulfilled by Amazon? It's an annoyingly effective scam: How can sellers protect themselves?

Some shipper has to provide verified shipment as a service: you packaged will be opened, a photo will be taken of the content and it will be packed and sealed by the shipper.

Amazon could X-ray the items just before shipment, using a standard package inspection scanner.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#54

Post by Shank »

Scirra_Tom wrote: post #15

I wonder if the postal services could create an additional service which calculates a heat map of the weight distribution for the package. You could then very accurately I imagine determine if there is actually an iPhone in there, and if someone shows a photo of clay it will be obvious they are scamming if the weight distribution passed as an iPhone distribution during transit.

This is such a complex solution, I'm sure it would be an additional fee, time consuming to implement, and in general, outside the scope of most shipping carriers.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#55

Post by coderdude »

waterphone wrote: post #43
soyiuz wrote: post #17

I've had a similar thing happened to me a few years back when I sold a no longer needed but still unopened Windows Vista DVD that I purchased directly from MS Store (on Microsoft campus). The buyer returned the package, but the returned merchandize was clearly counterfeit. The box was of a light material, missing holograms, faded colors etc. The buyer's history was full of similar purchases. I've been careful about d…

They're draconian in some other areas, too, which affect regular customers. I was blacklisted from Amazon Payments, which I've only ever used to fund a few Kickstarter Projects. They will not tell me why, will not consider an appeal, and will not respond to further inquiries anymore. From reading online, this is due to their use of Experian for identity verification. But if you don't have any credit history, as I do…

I hate to say this but you basically have to trust these types of authorities when it comes to this type of "trust." You wouldn't believe how many people are out to scam. It's endemic in anything that involves money. I'd say "few bad eggs" but it's mostly shit eggs amongst a few good eggs.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#56

Post by jackarbitrage »

soyiuz wrote: post #17

I've had a similar thing happened to me a few years back when I sold a no longer needed but still unopened Windows Vista DVD that I purchased directly from MS Store (on Microsoft campus). The buyer returned the package, but the returned merchandize was clearly counterfeit. The box was of a light material, missing holograms, faded colors etc. The buyer's history was full of similar purchases. I've been careful about d…

>This works because Amazon heavily favors customers in their A-Z Guarantee claim process, and sellers don’t tend to record video evidence when shipping expensive merchandise (which they should)

FWIW my friend and I made an app called "Emberall" it makes it easy to record/label video and save it to the cloud. It's mostly used my new moms recording their kids, but would be equally useful to anyone that wanted to regularly record and archive video evidence like the article suggested.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#57

Post by makomk »

vblord wrote: post #5

I can't believe that this works at all. I imagine that between an established seller and a brand new buyer, Amazon would be on the side of the seller. In the cases where the buyer wins, who pays the cost of the device (the seller or Amazon)?

This would allow sellers to carry out selective scamming: send buyers with longstanding accounts genuine iPhones, send new buyers boxes with clay and pocket the cash. Not so common on mainstream sites because it's hard to get away with currently, but apparently used to be rife on darknet marketplaces.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#58

Post by jrowley »

codecamper wrote: post #28

Another thing that could be done... is that shippers could help out. UPS, Fedex, USPS could all offer last step photo verification of packages, as a service. A few more dollars and you get a photo of what is inside and the handler packs the box up.

They could automate it by x-raying instead of taking a photo. It would clearly show the iphone vs a piece of clay and save them a bunch of time opening/resealing boxes.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#59

Post by thenomad »

ndesaulniers wrote: post #45
soyiuz wrote: post #17

I've had a similar thing happened to me a few years back when I sold a no longer needed but still unopened Windows Vista DVD that I purchased directly from MS Store (on Microsoft campus). The buyer returned the package, but the returned merchandize was clearly counterfeit. The box was of a light material, missing holograms, faded colors etc. The buyer's history was full of similar purchases. I've been careful about d…

The same could be said for eBay. Buyer of my MBP opened a claim against me cause I didn't include the OS install disks (which Apple stopped shipping years earlier). Had to bend over backwards to prevent this con artist from keeping the laptop and money. Now I don't sell shit on eBay.

I recently decided not to sell several expensive bits of electronics on eBay because multiple people warned me about this sort of fraud.

Real pity because it's hard to know where to sell that sort of thing these days.

Re: Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With Clay

#60

Post by jrowley »

Scirra_Tom wrote: post #15

I wonder if the postal services could create an additional service which calculates a heat map of the weight distribution for the package. You could then very accurately I imagine determine if there is actually an iPhone in there, and if someone shows a photo of clay it will be obvious they are scamming if the weight distribution passed as an iPhone distribution during transit.

Or they could x-ray the box on the conveyer belt and intercept any suspect packages in real time for closer inspection.
Post reply on HN