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

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

#61

Post by jakelazaroff »

bdrool wrote: post #48

Amazon is complete crap these days. It's becoming more and more difficult to figure out who you are buying from, and as a result there are outright scams sitting on Amazon's store at this moment that they continue to do nothing about: https://www.amazon.ca/ORIGINAL-MACBOOK-Magsafe-ADAPTER-CHARG... See that? That's the infamous "dangerous" counterfeit Apple Macbook charger that made the rounds[1][2] a while back. Noti…

If you read the article, it's actually Amazon and sellers who's being scammed by the buyers, who are purchasing iPhones, replacing them with blocks of clay, and claiming the refund for "fraud".

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

#62

Post by thebokehwokeh2 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #46

As others have pointed out, dealing with fraud at scale is really really difficult. As a result its cost are often priced into sales (either transaction costs or product costs). While the privacy implications are large, it is an area where the more data around the transaction can identify systemic fraud. (which is to say organized group that spread their activity across a wide area to keep it below the radar of fraud…

> So perhaps there is a startup idea for a private investigation group in large cities that would go get scammers and recover merchandise. Such action would quickly reveal if the scammers were part of a larger organization or acting independently.

You mean the police?

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

#63

Post by wvenable »

thenomad wrote: post #59
ndesaulniers wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Craigslist

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

#64

Post by anon1234321 »

bdrool wrote: post #48

Amazon is complete crap these days. It's becoming more and more difficult to figure out who you are buying from, and as a result there are outright scams sitting on Amazon's store at this moment that they continue to do nothing about: https://www.amazon.ca/ORIGINAL-MACBOOK-Magsafe-ADAPTER-CHARG... See that? That's the infamous "dangerous" counterfeit Apple Macbook charger that made the rounds[1][2] a while back. Noti…

It's the same deplorable ethics that Youtube used to rise to where they are today. It was probably the biggest copyright heist in history. Almost all of their traffic was to illegally uploaded music videos and they knew it. They put up so many procedural barriers to effective takedown that content owners gave up and accepted YouTube's licensing terms, because you'd rather make something than nothing.

(Of course, now that their place as a/the top video site is secured, and now that they've strong-armed everyone into licensing to YouTube, they've stepped up enforcement, so they can pretend to be good citizens. It's like a mobster turning around and using some of his ill-gotten gains for charity.)

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

#65

Post by codingdave »

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.

That opens up opportunities for package handlers to start stealing stuff. For the most part, employees of UPS, Fedex, etc are not allowed to open packages (with international shipments being the exception, when they check for customs compliance). Your suggestion would be a massive policy change, possibly regulatory changes, and would open up more holes in the system.

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

#66

Post by anon1234321 »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #61
bdrool wrote: post #48

Amazon is complete crap these days. It's becoming more and more difficult to figure out who you are buying from, and as a result there are outright scams sitting on Amazon's store at this moment that they continue to do nothing about: https://www.amazon.ca/ORIGINAL-MACBOOK-Magsafe-ADAPTER-CHARG... See that? That's the infamous "dangerous" counterfeit Apple Macbook charger that made the rounds[1][2] a while back. Noti…

If you read the article, it's actually Amazon and sellers who's being scammed by the buyers, who are purchasing iPhones, replacing them with blocks of clay, and claiming the refund for "fraud".

To be fair, I don't think bdrool is claiming the situations are analogous. He's just using the opportunity to point out other problems with Amazon's operations.

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

#67

Post by JonathonW »

profeta wrote: post #40

given the amount of garbage amazon sells nowadays, if it didn't favoured the buyer they would be gone by now. Almost everything i buy that is not books i have to return once or twice until i receive the item from a seller that is not trying to fence a couterfeit version. This happens with $100 pro SD cards down to $15 arduinos clones (which i think amazon still do not carry the original, but all ads show the original…

Which is why I don't generally purchase from Amazon unless the item's shipped and sold by Amazon or a third-party seller I trust (I only have a few of those).

If I wanted to play the eBay "buy it now" roulette, I'd buy off eBay.

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

#68

Post by treebeard901 »

thebokehwokeh2 wrote: post #62
ChuckMcM wrote: post #46

As others have pointed out, dealing with fraud at scale is really really difficult. As a result its cost are often priced into sales (either transaction costs or product costs). While the privacy implications are large, it is an area where the more data around the transaction can identify systemic fraud. (which is to say organized group that spread their activity across a wide area to keep it below the radar of fraud…

> So perhaps there is a startup idea for a private investigation group in large cities that would go get scammers and recover merchandise. Such action would quickly reveal if the scammers were part of a larger organization or acting independently. You mean the police?

Nice home you have here, Mr. Amazon Seller. Be a shame if somebody disrupted it.

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

#69

Post by Dylan16807 »

bdrool wrote: post #48

Amazon is complete crap these days. It's becoming more and more difficult to figure out who you are buying from, and as a result there are outright scams sitting on Amazon's store at this moment that they continue to do nothing about: https://www.amazon.ca/ORIGINAL-MACBOOK-Magsafe-ADAPTER-CHARG... See that? That's the infamous "dangerous" counterfeit Apple Macbook charger that made the rounds[1][2] a while back. Noti…

> It's becoming more and more difficult to figure out who you are buying from

Definitely. One of the worst parts is that reviews calling out damaged or fake products don't have any way to look up which seller they bought from.

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

#70

Post by lfowles »

wvenable wrote: post #63
thenomad wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Craigslist

Even worse, "Man sued for $30K over $40 printer he sold on Craigslist"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11847858

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