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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

#391

Post by wfunction »

stryk wrote: post #353
snowwrestler wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have shifted all my budget and used buying from Amazon Marketplace to eBay. At this point it seems like there are new stories about Amazon Marketplace scams almost daily. Does anyone think Marketplace is a priority for Amazon leadership these days? Does Bezos even know it is still operating? It's not getting the A team, obviously. Meanwhile connecting sellers and buyers is all eBay does. They don't make devices, pr…

If you're buying eBay is great. If you're the seller however, it's an entirely different story. eBay heavily, heavily, heavily favors the buyer in almost all disputes -- so much so that at times it seems as if it's automatic to the buyer's favor. I guess that's how they get people to spend money on the platform, and of course take their cut of the transaction. There are tons and tons of seller horror stories, especia…

eBay is only in the buyer's favor in terms of refunds. It doesn't actually go after fraudsters who refund you immediately to make you shut up after you call out their counterfeits and whatnot.

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

#392

Post by jaclaz »

exergy wrote: post #389
jaclaz wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What we need is maybe a species of md5 for mail packages Or maybe just more honest people?

And where do you propose we find more such "honest people"?

No ideas, most probably it will be many years in the making, you have to start with children ...

It was just an alternative (jokingly) to the idea of the "MD5 for mail packages".

The actual issue is not with the Postal Service or the delivery, it is with Amazon checks on it.

The package was sent to address B instead of address A, it was delivered by the post/courier to address B, and properly signed for by a valid recipient at address B.

It is the Amazon checks that failed to detect that the order was intended for address A and that having it delivered to address B does not represent a fulfillment of the order.

There is however IMHO no need of a complex verification algorithm, and a statistic p-value calculation triggering this or that action.

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

#393

Post by maxxxxx »

balls187 wrote: post #184
noncoml wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

Especially with camera equipment there are a ton of sellers that have no reviews and great prices. I am sure they almost all are scams.

I also use only sellers that have many reviews and 90+% positive.

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

#394

Post by maxxxxx »

balls187 wrote: post #186
matwood wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't publish this too much. I think scammers could easily destroy that forum if they jumped on it

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

#395

Post by maxxxxx »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #148
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…

The real damage to Amazon from this behavior is that it's no longer reflexive to buy things on Amazon. The problems with fraudsters makes it enough of a cognitive burden to buy small items at a reasonable price -- which often are cheap knockoffs requiring careful vetting or overpriced resellers -- that I routinely find myself thinking "Eh, maybe I'll just stop by the store on my way home." It's not that I'll stop buy…

Same here. Somewhen last year I realized that buying on Amazon is becoming stressful with so many questionable sellers. Unfortunately Newegg and Walmart have gone in similar direction. For camera stuff Adorama and BH are still reliable but fir other stuff it's difficult to find a good seller.

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

#396

Post by maxxxxx »

snowwrestler wrote: post #285
koala_man wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I order from Amazon exactly because I don't have to deal with this bullshit. If I was willing to carefully scrutinize sellers, comb through intentionally misleading ads, build a working knowledge of common scams, and keep all records for the occasional resolution process, I would use eBay or Craigslist. I would much rather switch to ordering from Best Buy and Target than adapt to this kind of adversarial buyer beware…

The point of this thread is that if you are ordered from Amazon, you actually might have to deal with this bullshit. Selecting a seller requires as much care as eBay at this point. It's not what it was.

That takes away most of the reasons for using Amazon.

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

#397

Post by smsm42 »

ghostly_s wrote: post #245
georgemcbay wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still use Amazon because of the convenience and because the vast majority of the time I never have to deal with their customer service, but in the rare instances I do I've noticed that over the past few years Amazon has become very Google-like in terms of putting everything behind systems that are either automated or may as well be (strict script-following offshore customer service). There used to be useful links (…

Personally, I would never buy anything on Amazon with a price tag more than a couple hundred dollars. They can't even confirm what carrier they will ship through; I'm not about to trust them for high-value items.

I think buying from Amazon itself is relatively OK, I'd have hard time believing Amazon would run any scams. But third party sellers, given no customer service beyond robots and robot-like script readers... yep, better to steer clear.

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

#398

Post by beautifulfreak »

ransom1538 wrote: post #152

Why do people do mail fraud? While mail fraud crimes often involve the use of the United States Postal Service, or USPS, you can also commit the crime when you use any interstate carrier, such as FedEx, UPS, or other delivery services. Mail fraud is super easy to prove [prints on box, cameras at fedex offices, credit cards used for materials, amazon accounts, logged ips, bank accounts involved, federal authority] and…

I was on a jury that indicted a guy who did the same basic scam. He'd have packages delivered to addresses in the same zip code area, but pick up the packages himself. Felony.

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

#399

Post by tombrossman »

jacquesm wrote: post #237
dbcurtis wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for comingling of SKUs. If a supplier ships knock-off producrs to a particular product code it all gets mixed in the warehouse and you get product roulette.

They don't prefix with the vendor? So they mix the stock of all their suppliers? That's pretty unbelievably sloppy, is there some public proof of this?

This has been widely reported, is ongoing for years, and is the source of frequent complaints from both users and manufacturers.

Here are a few examples, starting with Amazon's own website explaining commingling:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...

https://cblr.columbia.edu/amazons-war-on-counterfeits/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-amazon-pooled-merchandise-op...

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

#400

Post by gergles »

Hollow3d wrote: post #336

Long time lurker here. Amazon has let a lot of shady business in lately. Abuses on all sides. Even my local USPS abuses the system for the 2 day delivery. (They marked a packages as incorrect address, and than, not available to sign... I called them, the woman said the were too heavy, so I now get it on day 3..). Now I know about the free months of prime, but I would have to get USPS to confess to Amazon what they to…

Calling your postmaster about the USPS will get the problem fixed. I had a similar problem where my carrier refused to do Sunday deliveries – they'd always use the disposition of "nobody available to accept package".

I called the postmaster and complained, and she said they'd look into it. Two days later, she called back and explained that they had pulled scan records for the packages going to my apartment building and that all the Sunday packages were scanned as "nobody available" while the packages were still at the post office (!).

Apparently, the USPS has GPS attached to all their scan records, so she was easily able to tell that there was chicanery and to deal with it. I've not had a problem with Sunday deliveries since.

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