Beware of Phony Amazon Partners

Shady Lane

Retailers, Manufacturers, ePay, AudiogoN, Paypal or whatever. Buying and selling advice.

You can find some good deals on electronics through the "partners" who list items on Amazzon. These are often open box, close out, discontinued models deals. Nothing wrong with them.
BUT! Some scam artists have found a way to pose as legitimate Amazon Partners (high-jacking merchants's logon IDd and passwords, perhaps??). I recently narrowly averted something like this with what seemed like a good deal on a gray market plasma screen unit. The listing claimed and appeared to be from a real, live, legitamate seller. After I placed the order I got two emails one from that said my payment to Amazon had been refunded and the second that said the seller wanted payment by Western Union wire to an address in Romania.
My scam radar went off and I emailed Amazon that NO WAY was I sending a wire transfer to Romania and that as far as I was concerned the order was cancelled. I then went back to the Amazon listings and found a similar deal for the same item at the same price but throgh a different seller. I did some googling on the two sellers; both seemed to be real business but had nothing to do with plasma screens. I mentioned this to Amazon as well.
Next I got an email from Romania saying the unit was already packed and waiting at DHL for shipment to be authorized. I ignored this. Next I got a follow up from Amazon that confirmed my order was cancelled. They said the listing was "unauthorized". Most important of all Amazon warned NEVER, NEVER under any circumstances respond to a request by an "Amazon Partner" for direct payment -- ONLY make payment through Amazon.
So if you see anything like this -- consideryourself warned.

http://www.drachen-audio.com (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Beware of Phony Amazon Partners - sam9 09:53:25 08/26/05 (0)

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