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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

#181

Post by maaaats »

kuschku wrote: post #145
ceejayoz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not necessarily going to protect you if they can link the two - same address, same card, etc. https://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/ > We have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies . As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled.

If Amazon refuses to tell you, you can make a request under EU law that they have to honor. For example, in Germany this is implemented in Bundesdatenschutzgesetz §34: You have, once every 12 months, the right to demand (and receive, for free) from any entity that stores any data about you, all data that they have stored about you, and all probabilistic models derived from it. So, you'd make a request under BDSG §34,…

I did this to my cell provider a few years ago. As a protest around some privacy law. Holy crap they got a lot of data.

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

#184

Post by balls187 »

noncoml wrote: post #118
mikeash wrote: post #26

I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…

This 100 times. I never buy from third-party sellers in Amazon, but I am having such a hard time explaining to friends and family how to do the same. They keep buying from third-party sellers and keep wondering how it is not "Amazon". I wish there was an option to set it once and never see third-party seller items again.

> I never buy from third-party sellers in Amazon, but I am having such a hard time explaining to friends and family how to do the same. They keep buying from third-party sellers and keep wondering how it is not "Amazon".

3rd party sellers are usually fine.

There are things I check for:

1. A "critical" mass of 4-5 star reviews

2. Prime Shipping

3. History of selling the types of items I want to buy.

If I am going to buy from someone who is a one-off seller, I'll do so locally via Craigslist, or OfferUp.

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

#185

Post by yahna »

morley wrote: post #100
ada1981 wrote: post #21

So glad that Jeff's assistant isn't even able to read an email. This sucks man. Appreciate you taking the time to document it and share it.

I'm guessing too many people know about the "email jeff@amazon.com" hack, and that they now forward everything from there to customer service.

Time to start mailing s-team members instead

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

#186

Post by balls187 »

matwood wrote: post #139
mikeash wrote: post #26

I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…

I agree. Amazon could also ban third-party for certain classes of items or make it harder to be a seller of those items. Camera equipment is notoriously fraud prone, and was before Amazon was even a thing. I only buy used camera equipment from B&H or Adorama, and even with new equipment I am very cautious on Amazon. I tried getting used lenses a few times on Amazon and every single time the first order was the wrong,…

Buy and Sell forums at FredMiranda.com are very very good as well.

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

#187

Post by ballenf »

simcop2387 wrote: post #40
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why he wouldn't get a credit-card chargeback authorized - he has clear evidence of fraud on the party of the seller, and evidence of the middle-man's (Amazon's) unwillingness to investigate further. As Amazon is accepting the credit-card payment they will eat the chargeback - if they do ever dispute this then elevate it to a small-claims court case and the judge will easily side with the customer.

One potential problem with that is that Amazon can retaliate by closing the users's account if they didn't agree with the charge-back even if they're unsuccessful at fighting it. That can be really difficult to deal with if you're also using AWS for hosting or other things.

FWIW, I've had Amazon instruct me to file a chargeback in one instance that they had already identified as fraud.

It was a very different situation, however: someone had my CC info and loaded it onto a new account and made a large purchase.

Oddly when I inquired Amazon said they had already flagged the fraud and I needed to send a chargeback. It appeared that they were not going to proactively let me (or my cc company) about the issue.

I get it, but can't help but lose a little respect for a company that knows with certaintly one of their customers has been defrauded and sits back and waits for them to notice. Maybe they couldn't initiate the refund, but surely they could send a notice or otherwise reach out.

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

#188

Post by ianferrel »

esMazer wrote: post #176
ChrisBland wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! They have just committed mail fraud and since they thought they were hidden behind amazon, all it takes is one postal inspector to request the banking details of the payout and now there is a person on the hook. You've already done the legwork. Take this to the proper authorities.

is it mail fraud because they used a bogus return address?

No, it's mail fraud because they sent a fake package to the wrong address and used the shipping confirmation to defraud someone out of $1500.

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

#189

Post by themagician »

mikeash wrote: post #26

I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…

There's a lot of good responses here, but the real reason is Amazon isn't set up to do it any other way. The arm of Amazon that does direct purchasing is fairly small and invite only. It's been this way since the beginning. They now have an automated program called Vendor Express that does direct purchasing, but only for certain categories and because it's 100% automated and self serve there are a lot of problems.

They are working on it though, and Vendor Express gets better every day.

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

#190

Post by inetknght »

ransom1538 wrote: post #175
giarc wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably hard to track the seller. They can use a fake email, illegally obtained credit card to sign up, PO box or just some random address, drop off packages to FedEx drop boxes or just drop ship an item. They may never even touch the packages.

Uh. No. If I were a federal officer I would just contact amazon and find out where the money went. Paypal or Bank account - game over. Contact whatever bank he picks it up from get security camera details, address info, on and on. I would also grab all the ips, entered in info and the prints from the box. I bet he would be in my office by lunch. Plea dealed to 5 years by monday.

Put your money where your mouth is. Go provide your legal services to article's author.

I expect to see an article on Monday, from you, which bemoans exactly how easy it is to track thieves like this. Show us the face of the accused, too.

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