Photo Equipment Frauds and Scams on Amazon

First and foremost:  DON’T SEND MONEY TO OVERSEAS SELLERS UNLESS YOU ARE USING THE TYPICAL AMAZON CHECKOUT PROCEDURE.

I can’t believe I am going to be this cliché, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Here’s my story

I shop for everything on Amazon.  I absolutely love the way I can sit at my desk and order the stuff I need.  I am one of their Prime members so I am able to get free shipping on nearly everything that I purchase there.  Also, I am able to avoid the sales tax and shopping.

So, the other day, I was searching for a Nikon D3s, which is a $5,000 camera body.  I found a “seller” who was selling it for about half of the normal price.  Amazon wouldn’t let me checkout through their system, but rather had an email address (with a space instead of the dot) in the description.

I emailed them and asked about the camera and got a response with poor English.  Even poorer than my South Carolina born accented English.

After telling them that I want the camera, I got an email from auto-confirm@amazon-secure-pay.com.

Fortunately for me I search everything on Google before proceeding.  When the email told me to wire money to Greece first, I was more than a bit suspicious.

Here is what I found that you may want to read so that you don’t make this mistake too.

• Discussion on Amazon forum about scam –  This has copies of the scam’s emails.  I deleted the one sent to me accidentally.
• Another discussion on Amazon about this scam –  This one details some of the emails and tactics they use.