Question about a fishy deal... new D4 for 500 USD?

[cash365]

Hello,

I am very happy to have found this great forum!

I have been online for many years now, but I never ever thought of looking for a forum on photography, although I have been selling photos for more than 30 years now.

Today I joined here, because I want to hear what you think of the following deal, which seems to be too good to be true. Maybe someone can enlighten me of what is going on here:

I am living in Colombia, South America and now and then I look for cheap camera deals on Amazon and Ebay.

Yesterday I searched for a Nikon D4 and found this really unbelievable deal on Amazon (well, there are 3 similar deals, one for a D700 and two for a D4, from different vendors: they offer them for 500 USD AS NEW and state in the offer you must email them for details.)

Here is what they responded to my inquiry:

"I will explain in this email all terms and condition
The Nikon D4 16.2 MP CMOS FX Digital SLR with Full 1080p HD Video (Body Only) (OLD MODEL) is BRAND NEW, never used, ( US model, not grey market or refurbished), but Amazon does not let us list it as new. The product is Sealed in its original box and comes with full Warranty, receipt, all manufacturer supplied accessories...
The total price is $500.00 including all shipping taxes if you are in US and for international shipping you have to pay extra 29,99 $ (outside US) .
If you want to buy, send me your phone number, full name, shipping address and I will contact Amazon asap to process your order. Dispatch is by normal UPS Services, which takes 1-3 days depending on where in the US you are.
My return policy is full money back in 30 days."

Both vendors I wrote to responded with the exact same wording...

Once I sent them my details, they responded:

"I'm offering free delivery and I will agree for a full 30 days inspection period, after the date you receive the item. This means that you have 30 days to inspect the item for any damages and decide if you want to keep it or not!
Because I will sign Amazon's return policy, your money will be insured by them and you will have the option to reject the deal, only if we go through Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee as well. If this is the case, you will receive a full refund from Amazon Payments and I will have to take the item back on my cost!"

So this seems to be a deal with all the necessary guarantees and stuff to purchase without hesitation.

And yet I ask myself: what's the catch? What am I missing? I always think that if something is too good to be true, it most probably is.

So I decided to write to Amazon support:

"Hello, dear Amazon support people:

Yesterday I found a really unbelievable deal on Amazon (well, there are 3 similar deals, one for a Nikon D700 and two for a Nikon D4, from different vendors: they offer them for 500 USD AS NEW and state in the offer you must email them for details.

Here is what they responded on my inquiry:

"I will explain in this email all terms and condition
The Nikon D4 16.2 MP CMOS FX Digital SLR with Full 1080p HD Video (Body Only) (OLD MODEL) is BRAND NEW, never used, (US model, not grey market or refurbished), but Amazon does not let us list it as new. The product is Sealed in its original box and comes with full Warranty, receipt, all manufacturer supplied accessories...
The total price is $500.00 including all shipping taxes if you are in US and for international shipping you have to pay extra 29,99 $ (outside US) .
If you want to buy, send me your phone number, full name, shipping address and I will contact Amazon asap to process your order. Dispatch is by normal UPS Services, which takes 1-3 days depending on where in the US you are.
My return policy is full money back in 30 days."

Both vendors I wrote to responded with the exact same wording, so the two are obviously the same.

Once I sent them my details, they responded:

"I'm offering free delivery and I will agree for a full 30 days inspection period, after the date you receive the item. This means that you have 30 days to inspect the item for any damages and decide if you want to keep it or not!
Because I will sign Amazon's return policy, your money will be insured by them and you will have the option to reject the deal, only if we go through Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee as well. If this is the case, you will receive a full refund from Amazon Payments and I will have to take the item back on my cost!"

So this seems to be a deal with all the necessary guarantees and stuff to purchase without hesitation.

When the email from Amazon Marketplace arrived, it turned out that I had to purchase via a gift card under the name of Juan Gomez.

So if I already was suspicious of the offer before, now this completely confirmed my bad feelings: how is it possible to get a guarantee if I am impersonating Juan Gomez buying through a gift card?

This is the Amazon Order you sent me:

"Order Confirmation
Order #XXXX-XXX
Hello Juan Gomez,
Thanks for your Amazon Marketplace order with ~ XXXXX-Shop ~. We’ll let you know once your item(s) have dispatched. Your estimated delivery date is indicated below.
Arriving:
Monday, October 18 -
Wednesday, October 20

Your delivery option:
Express Delivery

Your order will be sent to:
ETC.
Miami FL 33195-5649
United States

Order Details
Order #XXXX-XXX
Product Details Nikon D4 16.2 MP CMOS FX Digital SLR with Full 1080p HD Video (Body Only) (OLD MODEL)
Condition: New
Sold by ~ XXXX-Shop ~




$500.00

Item Subtotal: $500.00
Postage & Packing: $0.00



Order Total: $500.00
Selected Payment Method: Gift Voucher


Any invoices that are not paid within 24 hours will expire and your item will no longer be reserved.
Payment Details

In order for you to complete this purchase you need to buy an Amazon.com Gift Card in the value of $500.00

How to complete the payment
To purchase your Amazon.com Gift Card please follow our instructions as detailed below:

Complete Gift Card details... etc.

Amazon Payments - Guarantee Protection
We guarantee purchases from third-party sellers when payment is made via AmazonPayments. Customers who pay for purchases from Amazon Marketplace via AmazonPayments are eligible to receive all amount of the purchase price, including delivery charges.

Please note! Do not redeem this Amazon.com Gift Card to your Amazonaccount!Click here If you need further assistance.

We hope to see you again soon.
Amazon.com"

So please tell me what is going on here!

Warm regards"

So I got the following answer from Amazon Support:

"Per your request we verified your transaction with the vendor XXXXShop and we can confirm you the sale of theNikon D4 16.2 MP CMOS FX Digital SLR with Full 1080p HD Video (Body Only) (OLD MODEL) is legit. You as buyer and seller XXXX-Shop are both protected and covered by the Amazon Payments Protection Program. The Amazon Financing Center Agent will secure the payment until the buyer receive inspect and approve the product.

If you have any questions, please contact the Amazon Payments customer support at: [email protected]

Thank you for your help in keeping Amazon Payments a fun and safe place to trade."

So I was completely baffled to get this confirmation from Amazon, I thought the vendor was pulling a cheap trick.

But what am I missing? How is it is possible that they sell a new D4 for 500 USD and make you go through all these loops and hurdles?

Thank you for your indights!

 

[tirediron]

It's a scam... pure and simple.

 

[Designer]

Too many red flags.

I'd almost consider it if it was stolen.

Scam.

 

[astroNikon]

Scam

Anything related to gift cards for purchase is a scam. You can't get a refund of gift cards.

 

[cash365]

Yes, thank you, guys, that's exactly what I thought... but I really didn't expect the replay from Amazon support... (as subject of my email I wrote: "Suspicious transaction") and after explaining them the whole situation they say:

"...we can confirm you the sale of the Nikon D4 16.2 MP CMOS FX Digital SLR with Full 1080p HD Video (Body Only) (OLD MODEL) is legit. You as buyer and seller XXXX-Shop are both protected and covered by the Amazon Payments Protection Program. The Amazon Financing Center Agent will secure the payment until the buyer receive inspect and approve the product."

How can they assure that if the transaction is through a gift card? Obviously someone messed up BIG time!

 

[robbins.photo]

Just out of curiosity did you send Amazon an email directly using an email address or contact form on Amazon's website, or did you send it to this support@notify-order email listed above?

If so my guess is that email is probably not Amazon at all, it's most likely the same scammer trying to get you to pay via a nonrefundable method.

Oh ya, this has got scam written all over it.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[astroNikon]

Never use links that someone else provides.
Always go directly to a website and use links from that website.
This should be protocol for anything, any email etc

 

[jcdeboever]

So many scammers out there... Amazon should be ashamed of themselves for not catching this. They have all the tools in place to catch this so that tells me their employees are not doing there job, which is why they have been hacked criminally, multiple times this past month. I am constantly changing my password with Amazon Prime. I noticed the hacking script activity on several occasions after I had added things to a cart or clicked on that "to good to be true" deal. I screen shotted the scripts and forwarded to the appropriate people who are no longer employed there and the response was definitely automated. I quickly sent out emails to all of my old customers who I directed to use Amazon Drive ( I used to do it for them until I moved into the sticks) for their critical storage. Every one of them redirected their business.

 

[cash365]

Of course, robbins.photo, THAT is the logical answer!

They shot me an email with the "Amazon Order" from [email protected], in there was the contact email for support, to which I stupidly wrote! It was the same "[email protected]" which was a link that popped up a form from my gmail to fill out the mail...

So glad you helped me to uncover the mystery, thanks a bunch to all of you, specially robbins.photo!

Have a nice weekend!

 

[cash365]

I just found the whois information of notify-order-amazon.com:

Domain Name: notify-order-amazon.com
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.google.com
Registrar URL: https://domains.google.com
Updated Date: 2016-10-14T00:00:00Z
Creation Date: 2016-10-14T00:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-10-14T00:00:00Z
Registrar: Google Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 895
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:

@google.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8772376466
Domain Status: ok https://www.icann.org/epp#ok
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Registrant Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Registrant Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Registrant City: Toronto
Registrant State/Province: ON
Registrant Postal Code: M4K 3K1
Registrant Country: CA
Registrant Phone: +1.4165385487
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:

@contactprivacy.email
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Admin Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Admin Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Admin City: Toronto
Admin State/Province: ON
Admin Postal Code: M4K 3K1
Admin Country: CA
Admin Phone: +1.4165385487
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:

@contactprivacy.email
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Tech Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 124859511
Tech Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Tech City: Toronto
Tech State/Province: ON
Tech Postal Code: M4K 3K1
Tech Country: CA
Tech Phone: +1.4165385487

But surely the info is also fake?

Interestingly, the domain was just purchased yesterday!

I am going to write to the Registrar Abuse Contact Email:

@google.com and report the scam there.

 

[cash365]

I just wrote to [email protected] to report them, but immediately received "the following recipient failed permanently: [email protected]"

The email addy is: [email protected], in case anybody wants to do me the favor to send them some nice spam, hahahaha.

What else can I do to stop these people from scamming?

 

[Piccell]

Amazon support employees will not use the word 'legit' lol that is all you needed to say right there.

Report it to the FBI at: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Home

 

[robbins.photo]

Of course, robbins.photo, THAT is the logical answer!

They shot me an email with the "Amazon Order" from [email protected], in there was the contact email for support, to which I stupidly wrote! It was the same "[email protected]" which was a link that popped up a form from my gmail to fill out the mail...

So glad you helped me to uncover the mystery, thanks a bunch to all of you, specially robbins.photo!

Have a nice weekend!

No problem. Spent a few years working risk assessment. So fraud prevention is sort of a specialty.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[Designer]

What else can I do to stop these people from scamming?

Nothing.

You can't stop them from scamming.

The domaine is only one day old today, but depending on traffic, it might not be valid tomorrow. Then they get a new one tomorrow.

 

[cash365]

Thank you, Piccell, I will report it to the FBI.

Yes, you may be right with "legit", but speaking English as my third language I didn't catch that... and speaking of Amazon support, I also searched for it and only found phone numbers and a chat for affiliate support, but I would prefer to send them something written. I will call them and hear if there is a possibility to send them a letter...

Have a nice weekend!