How Amazon became a breeding ground for scammers
Just discovered a series of unexplained purchases from Amazon Australia? Sadly, you’re not alone. The world’s largest online retailer is failing all of us big time, writes Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson.
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Unreal deals, fraudulent shipments, disappearing products, fake refunds, and anxious waits: purchasing from Amazon Australia can be a wild ride.
It’s been 14 days since I paid for a camera from Amazon – the company Gerry Harvey claimed would send Australian department stores out of business.
So far, I’ve lost $905, called Amazon customer support countless times, sent nine emails to my scammer, and not snapped a single photo.
The scam works like this: a Chinese company registers to become a third-party seller on Amazon.com.au. They list seemingly legitimate products, with descriptions and professional images swiped from other sellers. Some items are priced at a significant discount.
My scammer hosted an Amazon storefront with 127 items for sale, ranging from high-end cameras and drones to electrical tape and vinyl records.
The only hints to the firm’s true intentions were its incomprehensible name, bargain prices, and its just launched tag from Amazon.
If you buy from one of these scam firms, you might not suspect it for days and that’s what they rely on.
Three days after my ‘purchase,’ I received a shipping confirmation from my scammer. The item was apparently being sent by China Post and had been ordered weeks earlier and delivered to an S. Chan in South Australia.
I contacted the seller by email and reported the strange behaviour to Amazon. But here’s the kicker: Amazon’s policies allow these scams to flourish.
To receive a refund, you must wait three days after its latest estimated delivery date.
Next, you must contact the seller and wait 48 hours for their response.
If the seller decides to issue you a refund, you must wait another 10 days for it to show up on your credit card.
And if the scammer lies to Amazon about sending gift cards as repayment, as mine did, you’ll wait up to two days for an executive team member of Amazon to investigate your predicament, and another 10 days for a real refund. That’s a total of 34 days with no product, no money, and a lot of stress.
For scammers, that reportedly puts them well beyond Amazon’s payment clearance period and allows them to keep whatever funds they’ve collected and start again, luring more unsuspecting shoppers.
When it comes to this seemingly tried and tested scam, I’m not alone.
Fraudulent third-party sellers are on the rise among the Amazon Australia ranks, and the company seems to be doing little to stop them.
Experts say it’s damaging the company’s brand and, as I can tell you from experience, it’s doing little to convince customers it’s safe to buy goods online.
Take the example of a group of Aussie consumers who snapped up a cheap DJI drone in December.
The $99 kit was not actually sent to any of its buyers and the company’s angry Amazon feedback reflects that.
Some buyers received shipment tracking numbers for goods sent to other parts of Australia.
Some were promised refunds that never appeared.
Many waited impatiently for Amazon to return their money.
And many are still waiting.
Ultimately, if customers persist, Amazon Australia takes the financial hit, scammers take the money, and consumers fret and wait and pace and argue while hoping to see their funds returned.
This is not the kind of experience for which you ditch bricks and mortar. And it’s the purgatory in which I now live: no camera, no money, calling customer service daily, serving out Amazon Australia’s waiting periods.
The scammer who took my cash appears to have shut down his store and opened a fresh one with another 100 items for sale.
I strongly suspected this company’s camera listing was a scam. I contacted Amazon Australia customer support before purchasing it, and I was even well versed in Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee for refunds, but I massively underestimated the hoops I’d have to jump through, the bureaucracy, the waiting periods, the lies, and the anxiety before seeing a refund.
The company’s safety net has very large holes.
Third-party sales are responsible for a lot of Amazon’s riches — more than half of its revenue in the US, and 21 per cent in Australia during 2018 — but this system is broken and requires an urgent fix.
How can buyers be confident buying goods from Amazon when scams are rife and almost indiscernible from the real thing? Even if Amazon is willing to eat the loss, buyers shouldn’t have to go through this stress.
Until Amazon takes proactive genuine moves to stop these scams, no consumer should fully trust sellers working with ‘the world’s largest online retailer’.
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson is the national technology editor.