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Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

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Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#41

Post by GhostVII »

bloopernova wrote: post #4

My (anecdotal) experience with dodgy sellers was this: I bought something that didn't work correctly, I left a review. The seller contacted me and offered money direct to paypal, bypassing Amazon. They did so by attaching an image with the offer to the ticket. I wasn't comfortable with that kind of interaction, so I informed Amazon. Lots of copious apologies from Amazon, and I assume the company was "fired". But the…

How much money were they offering? I definitely would have taken it, and then re-posted the same review a day later.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#42

Post by gnicholas »

anonymouzz wrote: post #20
del82 wrote: post #2

https://outline.com/rjnnqM

Thanks! A short note what is under the link would get more clicks/be more usable. Otherwise you're asking too much trust.

On HN, it is well known what an Outline link is for, especially on WSJ articles.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#43

Post by sigfubar »

GhostVII wrote: post #41
bloopernova wrote: post #4

My (anecdotal) experience with dodgy sellers was this: I bought something that didn't work correctly, I left a review. The seller contacted me and offered money direct to paypal, bypassing Amazon. They did so by attaching an image with the offer to the ticket. I wasn't comfortable with that kind of interaction, so I informed Amazon. Lots of copious apologies from Amazon, and I assume the company was "fired". But the…

How much money were they offering? I definitely would have taken it, and then re-posted the same review a day later.

I was just thinking the same thing. Street taught me that criminals can be victimized to no end because they won’t call the police no matter what.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#44

Post by jsonne »

rootusrootus wrote: post #13

As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers. I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more. At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to ha…

You could eliminate most of the problem by Amazon just ditching seller central and moving to exclusively vendor central where Amazon is purchasing from the buyers but they still manage their listings, marketing, etc. Since Amazon purchases and resells the inventory I imagine they have a vested interest in it not being junk products.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#45

Post by jayess »

rootusrootus wrote: post #13

As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers. I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more. At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to ha…

Or separate regular Amazon from the marketplace so a user can search one or the other.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#46

Post by ikeboy »

jackhack wrote: post #21
strict9 wrote: post #6

>Amazon in recent weeks also has deleted thousands of suspect reviews, That's a drop in the ocean. But it's not reviews and brushing, the real issue is fraudulent and counterfeit products. I don't even trust Amazon to buy books anymore. Just like craigslist, facebook, and countless other things, once something gets to be too big, it gets co-opted by bad actors and the risks outweigh the benefits. edit: highly recomme…

Thus the importance of sites like https://www.fakespot.com/ checking for likely-fake 5-star reviews before making an expensive purchase is a good idea.

Fakespot and others like it have crappy algorithms. I know sellers that have never done anything shady for reviews that get graded poorly by fakespot. And their Chinese competitors that blatantly fake reviews get A.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#47

Post by ilovetux »

reaperducer wrote: post #37
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's a lot of specific products that are always wildly overpriced on Amazon. Mostly anything that is out of print/out of production, no matter how recently it went out or how easy it is to find, but I recently ran into it with Hanes underwear of all things--there wasn't a single seller that wasn't asking at least 50% over Target's online price. For out-of-print books/toys/games/etc., eBay is usually your bes…

I've mentioned elsewhere that I dropped eBay because of a series of bad experiences with sellers. I switched to Goodwill, which was OK, but sometimes you just want to buy something used actually that works and doesn't smell like cat vomit. Last week I tried Mercari, and it was... OK. Better selection than Goodwill. The shippers don't seem to be in a hurry to get things out. Both sellers offered excuses when they miss…

I dont like Facebook. That being said, I've had great experiences with Facebook marketplace. The creepiness works in the buyers favor because you get a name and face of the person selling.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#48

Post by mherdeg »

jmcgough wrote: post #12
deegles wrote: post #10

(Please hold your pitchforks) Since a lot of these scams come from Chinese sellers, I wonder if Amazon could talk to the Chinese government about interfacing with their new social-credit system... you can't sell on the platform if your score is below XYZ, and reports of fraud affect them directly. Obviously this would lead to a lot of sellers mysteriously relocating to other countries, and there would be a lot of pat…

The much talked about social credit score doesn't really exist yet https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social...

Yeah I suppose it's true that a system which has only "blocked more than 11.14 million flights and 4.25 million high-speed train trips by the end of April [2018]" http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1103262.shtml is not "real".

Chinese high-speed rail carries more than a billion passengers per year ( http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/1110/c90000-9291147.html ).

If vastly fewer than 1% of rides are affected by the so-called social credit blacklist, is it a real thing?

Personally I have been disappointed that the commentators are making the "Black Mirror" comparisons without carrying the reference further back to Cory Doctorow's "Whuffie".

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#49

Post by joering2 »

sigfubar wrote: post #43
GhostVII wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money were they offering? I definitely would have taken it, and then re-posted the same review a day later.

I was just thinking the same thing. Street taught me that criminals can be victimized to no end because they won’t call the police no matter what.

They wouldnt call the police. They would simply open Paypal dispute and tell paypal that he agreed to remove his review for money and now he posted it again.

Re: Amazon, Amid Crackdown on Seller Scams, Fires Employees Over Data Leak

#50

Post by devbot9 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #13

As proof that I am clearly not qualified to run a nearly trillion-dollar company, I offer this advice to Amazon -- ditch the marketplace. No more third party sellers. I have been a reliable Amazon Prime consumer for years, but I have begun making purchases elsewhere because I can not even trust "Ships from and sold by Amazon" any more. At the very least, quite intermingling stock. And at this point you're going to ha…

As a long time independent seller, Amazon has virtually already done this by gating nearly every brand under the sun. It's hard to sell so much as a box of pens without a bulk purchase invoice and a picture of you high-fiving the manufacturer's CEO.
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