1500 bucks purchase 2nd hand from a seller with 1 review?
10/10 bravery
I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
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Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#32It won't get your money back, but it is worthwhile to file a fraud complaint with the USPS as well. Mail fraud for $1500 is a big deal to sweep under the rug with a charge back.
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.
He should certainly do a charge back to get his money back, but also file a report with the USPS.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Does it bother them enough to get other police departments involved? I imagine no one they can arrest is within their jurisdiction...
Usually they will forward the case on to the relevant department as long as you stay involved and apply pressure. There's nothing stopping you from personally contacting the relevant department, either.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 de…
> This is an entirely predictable outcome
Said someone about every security bug ever. This is the shipping fraud equivalent of "this never would have happened if you used rust". It's not helpful.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#35Maybe 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.
no noSQL? it's not webscale
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#36I don't even buy anything that is not sold via Prime. I assume anything non-prime is of the lowest possible quality or a scam. For some reason I feel comfortable with prime thinking that the items have had some sort of quality approval. (at least getting my item as described and expected.)
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#37As the author says, this is what the credit card dispute system ought to sort out.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#38I never purchase an expensive item (>$25 or so) unless it is sold by Amazon. Right now, I've been looking at buying a Nintendo Switch, which only is available from third party sellers.
No thanks, I'll wait.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#39I don't get why he kept hammering on them for the fact that it was delivered to the wrong address. The bigger problem here, and a better basis for a refund, is the fact that they sent the wrong item. If they sent the wrong item to the correct address it should be eligible, right?
Amazon probably has a process for "wrong item at right address", but since this is "wrong item at wrong address", they don't have a process for it. That's why this seller did this; they probably made a mistake once and discovered the loophole, and now they're driving a truck through it.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#40It won't get your money back, but it is worthwhile to file a fraud complaint with the USPS as well. Mail fraud for $1500 is a big deal to sweep under the rug with a charge back.
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.