When the world's largest online retailer allows anyone and everyone to list products for sale without requiring proof of inventory or legitimacy there's always going to be a handful of bad seeds. In the past couple of months, however, instances of Amazon third-party seller fraud have absolutely exploded, and thanks to leaked login credentials of reputable sellers, it's now harder to detect than ever.
If you've visited the Amazon listing for the Nintendo Switch in recent weeks you've probably noticed the huge number of third-party sellers with listings for "Brand New" merchandise at prices well below actual retail. Being the intelligent individual that you are, you know when something is too good to be true and avoided the tempting deal entirely, but not everyone is so skeptical, and lots and lots of people have fallen victim to third-party seller fraud. It's always been a problem on Amazon, but with so many username and password leaks from other sites and services out there, sketchy sellers have begun commandeering the accounts of real, but inactive, sellers and using their good names and positive ratings to con buyers.
Amazon is attempting to crack down on the troubling trend, but it can be hard to spot in some cases. Many of the fake listings, which can be up to $100 or more below retail price for any given item, sometimes come from accounts with 4- and 5-star ratings and long histories of positive transactions. The hacker, using stolen credentials, takes over the account and changes banking information, then places the phony listings, cashing out even before the buyer realizes they've been conned.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, not all of the hacked accounts are dormant ones, and some active sellers have seen their profiles and profits taken over by fraudsters who withdraw their hard-earned cash to brand new accounts before the account holder has time to react.
So if you're shopping for ridiculously good deals on Amazon, be sure to double-check both the seller's info and your own common sense before swiping your digital credit card.
Concentration camp survivors gathered at a memorial near Nordhausen, Germany, to commemorate the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora. Hitler’s V-2 rocket, the first long-range ballistic missile to be used in combat, was produced in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.
No comments:
Post a Comment