I have been looking at a lens, looked on Amazon and this morning a new used item on Amazon Marketplace popped up. at a price that was maybe 25% lower than the normal used price. On the description it claimed that you should contact them first to confirm availability.
When I emailed the address (a gmail one) they said that they would enter an Amazon order in my name and I would get an e-mail from Amazon for payment.
Sure enough I get a pretty official-looking email from an auto-confirm@payments-amazon.com address with the description, the Amazon A-Z guarantee, and with instructions to purchase a Amazon gift card (complete with a link) in the amount and then send the seller the claim information.
That seemed pretty odd and the price being too good I contacted Amazon's CS chat line. They confirmed the order no. was not legit and the e-mail sender was not them.
I forwarded all the correspondence to Amazon's spoof dept.
It was actually pretty slick as they used the Amazon marketplace (used items) to post an item with instructions to go outside the Amazon order system. And a very good spoof of an Amazon e-mail, logos, style and typeface and all.
So be Careful!
When I emailed the address (a gmail one) they said that they would enter an Amazon order in my name and I would get an e-mail from Amazon for payment.
Sure enough I get a pretty official-looking email from an auto-confirm@payments-amazon.com address with the description, the Amazon A-Z guarantee, and with instructions to purchase a Amazon gift card (complete with a link) in the amount and then send the seller the claim information.
That seemed pretty odd and the price being too good I contacted Amazon's CS chat line. They confirmed the order no. was not legit and the e-mail sender was not them.
I forwarded all the correspondence to Amazon's spoof dept.
It was actually pretty slick as they used the Amazon marketplace (used items) to post an item with instructions to go outside the Amazon order system. And a very good spoof of an Amazon e-mail, logos, style and typeface and all.
So be Careful!
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