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Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

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Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#51

George, do you have any domains with your whois/registrar information matching your Amazon account information? I guessed that was the vector they used to attack me. I had several domains with my home address as my address, along with my email and name. Voila. The entire triangle of data the CSRs need. I was able to get a CSR to show me some of the logs of the chats with the scammer, which was particularly enlighteni…

This is precisely why I use whois privacy services.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#52
post #14

Here's a working hypothesis: | Why is Amazon's security for replacement orders so lax? Amazon values customer satisfiction above their fraud write-off. | Why would they send a replacement to an address that has never been associated with me, and is in a wholly different state than the one the original item was sent to? Because the time between ordering an item, and defect can be sufficiently large to cover moves: peo…

> Amazon values customer satisfiction above their fraud write-off. I doubt this is the case. I've had to place chargebacks against Amazon to get my money back for purchases that were not delivered due to Amazon screwing up and telling the vendor that the software key(s) were not purchased. For anything software related, they offer no refunds even when they and/or their vendor screw up to the point the product is unus…

I thought they had an "ultimate" get your money back option, with the big limit of your only being able to invoke it 5 times in your life. I started to do it once, during which I noticed the limit and decided to reserve it for really big purchases.

I have noticed that there doesn't seem to be any category of items sold by 3rd parties with more fraud than software, although this doesn't sound like such a case.

What does Amazon do after you place a chargeback against them?

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#53
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon values customer satisfiction above their fraud write-off. I doubt this is the case. I've had to place chargebacks against Amazon to get my money back for purchases that were not delivered due to Amazon screwing up and telling the vendor that the software key(s) were not purchased. For anything software related, they offer no refunds even when they and/or their vendor screw up to the point the product is unus…

I thought they had an "ultimate" get your money back option, with the big limit of your only being able to invoke it 5 times in your life. I started to do it once, during which I noticed the limit and decided to reserve it for really big purchases. I have noticed that there doesn't seem to be any category of items sold by 3rd parties with more fraud than software, although this doesn't sound like such a case. What do…

So far, nothing. I got my money back because they couldn't deliver the software during the entire dispute window. That being the case, the Credit Card company just handed me my money back.

From what I can tell, Amazon failed to process the chargeback correctly on their end and the order doesn't show it was ever done on Amazon's end. I'm not really surprised.

The last email I got from them on the subject was that the software was now available like 3-4 days after the dispute ended. I didn't even bother to download it since I just got it elsewhere with the refunded $$.

However, I didn't do the chargeback until after 3 separate CSRs [including 1 from the vendor] all told me they wouldn't do a refund.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#55
post #14

Here's a working hypothesis: | Why is Amazon's security for replacement orders so lax? Amazon values customer satisfiction above their fraud write-off. | Why would they send a replacement to an address that has never been associated with me, and is in a wholly different state than the one the original item was sent to? Because the time between ordering an item, and defect can be sufficiently large to cover moves: peo…

> Amazon values customer satisfiction above their fraud write-off I do get this, and as an Amazon customer, I'm glad this is their stance overall, but on the other hand it seems like they could handle this situation more securely than they do. It seems to me that you could have some sane middle ground where you do no-questions asked replacements, but with some caveats like no ability to change the address the item is…

I'd think this could be prevented by a) stop giving out order numbers via chat and b) require customers to request replacements (or at least confirm them as you've suggested) by logging into their account.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, yes. The domain this linked post is on is registered to my current mailing address which is the same as the one I have on my Amazon file as my shipping and my billing address. I've changed my Amazon email address as you suggested in your helpful email and hopefully that will be enough since I don't think it would be practical to try to put my mailing address back in the bottle at this point.

Change your registered domain address! There's basically no upside to having your "real" address listed.

What should I put instead? Isn't a bogus address grounds for ICANN to take your domain name away?

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#57

George, do you have any domains with your whois/registrar information matching your Amazon account information? I guessed that was the vector they used to attack me. I had several domains with my home address as my address, along with my email and name. Voila. The entire triangle of data the CSRs need. I was able to get a CSR to show me some of the logs of the chats with the scammer, which was particularly enlighteni…

How bizarre. What legit customer asks for fucking order numbers? A whole bunch of them?

They really need to train their customer reps better. Good customer service is not black and white, you can keep out the frauds and still offer excellent service.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#58
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly a confirmation email should be sent when the address is new

Yeah this is what kills me; if I send something legitimately to an address it hasn't seen for me before it requires me to re-enter my full credit card number and other information to prove I am me; I don't understand why they don't do the same for replacement orders. It doesn't seem like that hard of a problem to solve when not solving it means they are out $1000 worth of product from my account alone times however m…

But when you add a new address to your account, shipping to that new address could cost you money. When Amazon ships a replacement to a new address, it could cost them money. The risk profile is very different, so the implementation is different.

For the record, I don't understand why Amazon keeps allowing this. It seems like it could be fixed without much of a hit on customer experience, and the fraud ultimately does cost all of us more, as they have to cover those costs through higher prices.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#59
post #17

> Amazon is out quite a bit of product and a lot of trust from me. The product is still a drop in the bucket for Amazon. Hopefully some of you actions will trigger their fraud protection dept. to blacklist the address or maybe they think it's not worthwhile blacklisting a whole address with multiple suites for a tiny amount. Anyway, I don't think it's reason enough to lose trust in Amazon. As long as they got the hon…

Amazon might not even loose money from this at all. It is common for retailers to charge these costs back to the supplier.

This is a logistics issue: shipping to an unverified address before receiving back the original product. Amazon should be solely responsible for it.

Re: Amazon orders subject to replacement fraud (still)

#60

George, do you have any domains with your whois/registrar information matching your Amazon account information? I guessed that was the vector they used to attack me. I had several domains with my home address as my address, along with my email and name. Voila. The entire triangle of data the CSRs need. I was able to get a CSR to show me some of the logs of the chats with the scammer, which was particularly enlighteni…

That post linked to some socialengineered site, which has thankfully been taken care of in a roundabout way:

http://socialengineered.blogspot.com/

Thank god. Less scum out there doing shit like this, the better.

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