Ready
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I seem to have got myself caught up in a scam playing out on the Amazon web site, so I thought I would share my experience hoping that I can save others from the aggravation.
I was looking for a TV cart on the Amazon web site, and the one I wanted seems to be in high demand so it's always out of stock. I keep it on my wish list so I can quickly scan it to see if any new inventory comes in. One day when I scanned it, a third party seller was offering it for sale. They priced it at $254.00, when the Amazon price is $399.00. They claimed to be having a clearance sale on the item. Their listing, under "Other Sellers", requests that your send them an email before placing the order. I figured maybe the box was damaged and they wanted to let me know before I place the order, or something like that. So I send them an email, and they respond confirming the item is in stock, and ask me for my shipping address and phone numbers to place the order. They inform me the order will be purchased through "Amazon Marketplace" but is still subject to a 30 day satisfaction guarantee just like any other Amazon product.
So I let them know I'd like to place the order. A few hours later I receive an email from what looks like Amazon, with the proper logos, a picture of the item, and an order number. The email requests that I purchase an Amazon gift card for $254.00 to process the payment, and then send them a screen shot of the gift card to confirm I've made the purchase.
So at this point, I know I've been scammed and I don't purchase the gift card, but it really bothers me that they have my name, address and phone number now. And I see that just today they've already set up shop under a new name, offering to sell the cart for the same $254.00, but with a new address to send an email to.
I've sent the spoofing emails to Amazon's fraud department, and I've called Amazon twice to report the scam. Amazon was very nice in taking down the information and filing a report, and they offered me a $50.00 credit for my inconvenience, which was very nice of them to do.
So...if you see a vendor on Amazon asking you to send them an email before placing an order, you can pretty much bet it's a scam and you should stay away from it. Hopefully Amazon will find a way to stop this from continuing to happen, but apparently it's very easy to become a third party vendor on Amazon.
I was looking for a TV cart on the Amazon web site, and the one I wanted seems to be in high demand so it's always out of stock. I keep it on my wish list so I can quickly scan it to see if any new inventory comes in. One day when I scanned it, a third party seller was offering it for sale. They priced it at $254.00, when the Amazon price is $399.00. They claimed to be having a clearance sale on the item. Their listing, under "Other Sellers", requests that your send them an email before placing the order. I figured maybe the box was damaged and they wanted to let me know before I place the order, or something like that. So I send them an email, and they respond confirming the item is in stock, and ask me for my shipping address and phone numbers to place the order. They inform me the order will be purchased through "Amazon Marketplace" but is still subject to a 30 day satisfaction guarantee just like any other Amazon product.
So I let them know I'd like to place the order. A few hours later I receive an email from what looks like Amazon, with the proper logos, a picture of the item, and an order number. The email requests that I purchase an Amazon gift card for $254.00 to process the payment, and then send them a screen shot of the gift card to confirm I've made the purchase.
So at this point, I know I've been scammed and I don't purchase the gift card, but it really bothers me that they have my name, address and phone number now. And I see that just today they've already set up shop under a new name, offering to sell the cart for the same $254.00, but with a new address to send an email to.
I've sent the spoofing emails to Amazon's fraud department, and I've called Amazon twice to report the scam. Amazon was very nice in taking down the information and filing a report, and they offered me a $50.00 credit for my inconvenience, which was very nice of them to do.
So...if you see a vendor on Amazon asking you to send them an email before placing an order, you can pretty much bet it's a scam and you should stay away from it. Hopefully Amazon will find a way to stop this from continuing to happen, but apparently it's very easy to become a third party vendor on Amazon.