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I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

petapixel.com

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Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#11

Post by caffodian »

a similar scam has been going on for a while, with at least video games, board games, and bike gear, from what I've seen on Amazon Canada.

Third party sellers with a "real" looking name will list an item at a ridiculous discount off retail. If you buy it, you get a Chinese international tracking number. This takes forever to "arrive" and it turns out Amazon only really cares that the tracking number shows to Canada. I'm not sure what is actually in the package, since it's not possible to figure out more than just the city it went to.

Eventually, Amazon will refund you, but it's a bit annoying. It's pretty easy to spot once you get bit the first time, but you'll usually see the third party seller spike to several hundred bad reviews before the entire situation gets resolved.

This seems like Amazon CSR just failed to read the writer's complaints correctly. It should eventually get fixed, because it often does get fixed, even for hundreds of customers at a time.

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#13

Post by eutropia »

Maybe this sort of fraud becomes impossible if we had cryptographic ledger based delivery confirmation systems (keyed to sender, recipient, delivery address). Edit: Because apparently technological solutions aren't to be discussed if they involve recent, trendy tech?

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#14

Post by Balvarez »

caffodian wrote: post #11

a similar scam has been going on for a while, with at least video games, board games, and bike gear, from what I've seen on Amazon Canada. Third party sellers with a "real" looking name will list an item at a ridiculous discount off retail. If you buy it, you get a Chinese international tracking number. This takes forever to "arrive" and it turns out Amazon only really cares that the tracking number shows to Canada.…

Just had this happen to me with a video game. Luckily amazon just gave me a refund

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#15

Post by rhizome »

ajross wrote: post #9
davidu wrote: post #2

It seems like the Amazon reps weren't paying attention to the detail, or the seller was also supplying fraudulent evidence of delivery. This blog post will likely get it resolved for the buyer, though it shouldn't have to be this way.

I'm more sympathetic to Amazon here than most. Scams are hard to detect. They set up a shipping confirmation process that's worked fine for them for almost two decades now. It has a hole (it only checks the town and has no closed loop to verify that the shipper shipped to the right address in that town), but none of the existing employees actually know that it has a hole. They get a report about a missing shipment, c…

It has a hole (it only checks the town and has no closed loop to verify that the shipper shipped to the right address in that town), but none of the existing employees actually know that it has a hole.

This is an entirely predictable outcome, especially for the brains at Amazon. This was implemented according to specifications and designs that involved several people, meaning that it was a conscious and deliberate decision to only check the city, which is obviously imprecise. This imprecision does not even require computers to recognize it.

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#17

Post by mi100hael »

eutropia wrote: post #13

Maybe this sort of fraud becomes impossible if we had cryptographic ledger based delivery confirmation systems (keyed to sender, recipient, delivery address). Edit: Because apparently technological solutions aren't to be discussed if they involve recent, trendy tech?

lol blockchain.

It'd only work if they wrote the APIs in Rust and the management UI was isomorphic React.

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#18

Post by waqf »

ajross wrote: post #9
davidu wrote: post #2

It seems like the Amazon reps weren't paying attention to the detail, or the seller was also supplying fraudulent evidence of delivery. This blog post will likely get it resolved for the buyer, though it shouldn't have to be this way.

I'm more sympathetic to Amazon here than most. Scams are hard to detect. They set up a shipping confirmation process that's worked fine for them for almost two decades now. It has a hole (it only checks the town and has no closed loop to verify that the shipper shipped to the right address in that town), but none of the existing employees actually know that it has a hole. They get a report about a missing shipment, c…

> hard

> messy

Yes, but that's why we entrust it to a half-trillion-dollar company. If it were realistic for everyone and their dog to set up a trustworthy marketplace on their Wordpress site, that's what we'd have.

Amazon should be solving hard, messy problems, it's their job.

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#19

Post by mi100hael »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #10
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #6

The only way I've got problems solved with Amazon is going to the police and let them sort it out. Worked every time. Amazon was in now way responsive or helpful before I've got the police involved.

What did that process look like for you? Do you just call up your local non-emergency number and and tell them Amazon cheated you?

Not OP, but pretty much. Works much better if you can investigate and assemble most of the evidence yourself so all they have to do is make an arrest.

Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

#20

Post by mikeash »

ajross wrote: post #9
davidu wrote: post #2

It seems like the Amazon reps weren't paying attention to the detail, or the seller was also supplying fraudulent evidence of delivery. This blog post will likely get it resolved for the buyer, though it shouldn't have to be this way.

I'm more sympathetic to Amazon here than most. Scams are hard to detect. They set up a shipping confirmation process that's worked fine for them for almost two decades now. It has a hole (it only checks the town and has no closed loop to verify that the shipper shipped to the right address in that town), but none of the existing employees actually know that it has a hole. They get a report about a missing shipment, c…

The author appealed, stating that the delivery address was incorrect. Amazon's rejected the appeal on the basis that the tracking information "shows that someone at your address signed for the package." That's not a mysterious hole that low-level employees are unaware of, that's just inattention on the part of whoever was handling the appeal.
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