Amazon Australia shoppers hit by new scams, with fake stores ‘selling’ goods that don’t exist

Australian shoppers are being tricked by a new wave of scams on Amazon’s Australian website, with fake stores ‘selling’ hundreds of items that never arrive.

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Scammers are flooding Amazon’s Australian website with fake shopfronts and products that don’t exist, stealing thousands of dollars from unsuspecting online shoppers who think they’re buying bargains.

The criminal operators, many from China, are listing hundreds of well-known products at a time and duping victims with fake shipment details and fraudulent refunds.

A News Corp investigation has identified more than 30 suspected scam stores operating on Amazon.com.au in recent months, and efforts to steal money over more than 700 transactions.

The online retail giant said it was using software to identify the “bad actors” that made up a “tiny fraction of activity on our site,” but experts warned they had the potential to damage Amazon’s reputation and frustrate more consumers.

Analysis by US firm Marketplace Pulse identified 36 third-party sellers on Amazon Australia that appeared to be scammers, having attracted more than 50 per cent negative feedback.

And News Corp discovered even more scam sellers flogging items on the shopping platform, including companies that quickly listed more than 100 items for sale before attracting complaints from buyers who did not receive their goods.

None of the Aussie shoppers who thought they had purchased a $99 DJI Mavic Mini drone after Christmas received the item, for example, and consumers who paid for cameras, vitamins, and even clocks reported similar scams.

Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukėnas said Amazon scams flooded the US site in 2017 and evidence showed the scammers were now targeting Australian consumers.

“There is a growing number of (Amazon Australia third-party) sellers who have now dozens of negative reviews and not a single positive review,” he said.

“It’s clearly a thing that has happened recently and now is becoming more common in Australia. This behaviour is apparent on all Amazon country sites and Australia is the latest one to join.”

Experts say Amazon Australia shoppers should carefully check sellers' feedback scores.

The scam is costing Aussie bargain hunters thousands of dollars, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ScamWatch reporting losses of $5500 between January 1 and 19 alone.

“Scammers generally pose as genuine sellers and post fake ads on the online shopping platform,” an ACCC spokeswoman warned.

“Following payment, you may receive a fake email receipt or item tracking number, however you won’t receive the goods or receive something different to what you ordered, and you will not be able to contact the seller.”

Scam sellers flooding the Amazon Australia website are attracting plenty of negative feedback from buyers who say they never received the goods for which they paid.

One scammer using the Amazon Australia website sent a customer stolen China Post tracking details, and later lied about refunding the customer’s payment in gift cards.

Customers who have paid the scammers using Amazon’s service can apply for refunds using its A-to-Z Guarantee but face long waits.

It’s understood the scammers seek to delay refund requests in order for Amazon to release customer funds to them.

An Amazon Australia spokesman said the company worked hard to maintain customers’ trust but admitted “bad actors” did try to exploit its platform.

He said Amazon used artificial intelligence to identify scammers and may pursue legal action against them.

“We use sophisticated tools, including machine-learning, to combat them and we are making it increasingly difficult for bad actors to hide,” he said.

“Beyond blocking bad actors from our store, we are also committed to holding them accountable offline and may conduct investigations, withhold funds, pursue civil or criminal litigation and work with law enforcement if required.”

Scam sellers flooding the Amazon Australia website are attracting plenty of negative feedback from buyers who say they never received the goods for which they paid.

Gartner global retail principal analyst Thomas O’Connor said the new scam wave showed Amazon needed to take urgent action to “clean up its marketplace” and protect customers and its brand.

“They don’t have a choice because if they don’t customers will start to distrust the platform and that doesn’t send a good signal for future trade,” he said.

“There have been reports in the last 12 months questioning Amazon’s customer obsession. If Amazon doesn’t appear to be truly customer-obsessed they will start to lose some of their great equity. There’s a lot at risk.”

Mr Kaziukėnas said consumers should take care to check recent feedback from sellers on Amazon Australia, should question companies offering cheap items, and warned that “buying from ‘just launched’ sellers on Amazon is almost always a bad idea”.

“Ideally, consumers should not have to think about it and Amazon should implement protections, and obviously they’re doing some amount of work but there are cracks,” he said.

Originally published as Amazon Australia shoppers hit by new scams, with fake stores ‘selling’ goods that don’t exist