Uhh... Too good to be true?

Heather Koch · Nov 5, 2014

astroNikon said:
This thread reminds me of when I was initially looking at a d7100 or d600 before Christmas 2013.
I searched a few sites including Amazon. I found a d600 for a fantastic price.
Anyways, I went through the buying process and the scammer essentially had all the red flags ==> Help | Amazon Payments

I had a writeup going through the steps.
The funny thing is the seller (based in brazil upon my research) was saying the seller (based in Coldwater, Michigan) was going to send me the package as soon as I sent payment. Now Coldwater is actually fairly close to me. He game me the address it was coming from but no phone number. I was able to track and call the dude. No, he wasn't selling a d600.

My computer then crashed and I forgot about the writeup I was going to post here on TPF. I might go back and look for it.

But, if the price is too good to be true, it's usually some sort of scam.

Agree 100%... Its sad that there is people like that in this world. But I guess there are signs and whether we chose to see them or not, is the conclusion we come to/have... Whether out of a few hundred dollars or a few hours wasted. Thank God Amazon is good, though. I never use d eBay for this exact reason, it would take years to get my money back and I am always afraid of scammers.

astroNikon · Nov 5, 2014

The one scammer was really good
He had fake Amazon invoices and such that were emailed to me. All looked legitimate.
it's just he wanted payment by Western Union, and in Amazon you could not find the invoice that was emailed. Nothing was confirmable through Amazon.

pretty sneaky.

Heather Koch · Nov 5, 2014

astroNikon said:
The one scammer was really good
He had fake Amazon invoices and such that were emailed to me. All looked legitimate.
it's just he wanted payment by Western Union, and in Amazon you could not find the invoice that was emailed. Nothing was confirmable through Amazon.

pretty sneaky.

Yeah through Amazon you can only pay with their payment options. And for someone to ask for something different, definitely fishy.
Amazon also offers the A to Z Guarantee, which I haven't yet had to use...

PS: If I mod wants to keep this thread open, which it should be now, can you re-name the title, something along the lines, "Have you been scammed" or "Share your scam stories."
Since people have been commenting, this may be helpful for others in the future...? No, yes?

Derrel · Nov 5, 2014

People eager to beat the manufacturer's distribution system in their country are the reasons so many scammers exist. When a person thinks that he or she can somehow perform an internet search, and then obtain a camera that retails for close to $1200 for a price that is less than HALF of the wholesale price...well...the desire to "beat the system" and to make a purchase allowing them to, "get something for almost nothing" is what keeps scammers in business.

I used to sell photo/video goods at retail", and I can honestly tell you that cameras have VERY low markup!!! The small accessories are the profit centers. Name-brand cameras are VERY expensive, even at wholesale! That's part of the reason there are so,so,so few actual brick and mortar, independent, retail camera stores left in the world. Dealers make a pittance on each camera sold, unless it is some reallllllllllly cheap, made in China cheapie.