Amazon Scam

I have made a purchase of a used item (digital camera canon 20d) through amazon.com. The details are shown below. The seller had told me that in order for both of us to be secure, he will register the item with amazon and then I can send my payment. After doing so, I have received an email from amazon specifying that the purchase is secure. The amazon email said it is backed up by the amazon a-z guarantee, and that " this seller has $4,000.00 deposit in an Amazon.com managed purchase protection account. Transactions with this amazon seller are covered 90% in case of fraud and description errors." Please see the details below, I may be wrong but I belive that it is a very convincing scam.

In reading this email I understood that my purchase would be safe with the seller. Even if I should have run into any complications, then it would have been backed up by amazon (according to your guarantee).

Anyhow, I have made this purchase not to long ago, although ever since the seller got his money he has not contacted me nor replied to any of my emails.

You might also be interested to know that there are a number of scam artists on the amazon site. I know this because after being cheated by this one I have acquired about the same product and the sellers have the same routine. They only accept western union and they use the amazon email as guarantee. Also after suggesting to pay with a secure method, they do not respond. I have run into 3 cases as such, including the one I have been cheated by.

The saddest part of this is that I called the authourities and advised them of this. It seems as if they don't even want to bother. Even worse I have offered to practically hand this over on a plate for them and still noone is interested. I have all the ip addressed which just have to be refferenced with AOL, at who a member has to pay with a credit card in order to have an email. Among some other thigs. Anyhow, as you can see this is rather easy for the authorities to trace these scammers.

Another ishue is that I found four cases on Amazn and amazon doesn't want to do anything about it. SO BUYERS BE WARE OF AMAZON. By the way, does anyone know of a contact phone number for amazon? It all seems to be done by email.

The following is the tex of the scam which was sent to me.


From: "Amazon.com" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: [email protected]
Subject: Amazon Secure Payments
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 19:47:32 -0500



Thanks for your order, (name) !

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We are glad to inform you that the seller Andi Daniel Mitrache( [email protected] ) deposited to your name and address the product Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens to us Please go to an Western Union Money transfer office and deposit the money to this seller name and address which you will see below ,after you had made the payments please send the scanned paper to the sender so he can confirm to us that he received the payment confirmation so we can start the shipping.

If something goes wrong we unsure you that you will get the full money back from us

Purchasing Information:
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Billing Address:

xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
Shipping Address:



Order Grand Total: $300.00 USD
Earn 3% rewards on your Amazon.com purchases with the Amazon Visa Card. Learn More
Order Summary:
Shipping Details: [email protected]
Have questions about this order? Please contact the seller..
Order #: Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
Shipping Method: Standard Shipping
Total Price: $300.00 USD
Shipping & Handling: 0.00
------
Total for this Order: $300.00 USD


Shipping estimate for these items: 1/02/2005 1 " Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens "
$300.00 USD



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Payment Method:
The seller requests to be paid via Western Union Wire Transfer.
Thank you for the understanding.




To submit the payment with Western Union Money Transfer you have the following option:
Pay for the transfer with cash at a local Western Union agent.
Click here to locate the agents in your area :
http://www.westernunion.com/info/agentInquiryIntl.asp


Once the payment was sent, provide the seller with the following information:
1) MTCN (Western Union Money Transfer Control Number):
2) Sender name :
3) Sender address :
4) City where you sent the money from:
5) Amount sent:
Then wait for the confirmation that the payment was received. Within 2 business days,
you will receive the tracking number for your product.

Shipping from Address and Payment Information:
E-mail Address: [email protected]

Ship from Address:
Andi Daniel Mitrache
Str. Aleea Tineretului
Dragasani 245700
Romania
Payment Address:
Andi Daniel Mitrache
Str. Aleea Tineretului
Dragasani 245700
Romania

Note: Due to this terms the shipping will be supported by the seller.




Purchase Protection and Refund Information:
Currently, this seller has $ 4,000.00 deposit in an Amazon.com managed purchase protection account. Transactions with this amazon seller are covered 90% in case of fraud and description errors.
You have 14 days after you receive the product to request a refund.
Refund requests are processed within 3 days.
For your safety, this account was blocked today, for 14 time. The seller is unable to withdraw the money within this period.
The seller was informed about this transaction being started and is awaiting for your payment.


You can review your orders in Your Account.

Please note: This e-mail message was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.



Thanks again for shopping with us.

And remember this seller is protected and authorized by us to deal with western union and we guarantee this transaction with this seller


Amazon.com
Earth's Biggest Selection


Anyhow, I have contacted the FBI fraud department as well as the Amazon fraud department with the hope that they will catch this crook.

Byers Be Ware! These are the following scammers I have cought to have the same routine.



Andi Daniel Mitrache [ !]
Str. Aleea Tineretului
Dragasani 245700
Romania

Florin Silviu Toader [ !]
Stefanesti - Valcea
245700 Romania

sashxian chau ([email protected])[ !]




These guys are giving Romania a bad name!!

 

Hi dariusceg,
I'm sorry to hear abuut your getting ripped off.
I don't think amazon can help you with this as it's pretty obvious that amazon's email address was spoofed because the text from the email you posted and that you say they sent you is full of misspellings and bad grammer. If you went to Amazon's site and looked into any type of safe transaction guarantee they may have, it would surely not cover this tranaction as all the signs of a rip waiting to happen are right there.

1. Never use western union or other cash transfer for an online purchase, it is only for sending money to friends or relatives as it is not safe and it is even warned to everyone on westernunion's website.
2. Giving the seller the MCTN is like giving him the password for the entire western union transaction, they can go online and use the MTCN to change the name of the person recieving the cash or anything else about the entire transaction.
3. Don't deal with countries like romainia, nigeria and others that don't have basic banking agreements with US banks.
4. And the most obvious sign of a pending ripoff is "if the price sound too good to be true is most probably is" This camera kit retail for about $1700 to $1800, $300 is about 1/4 of the wholesale price, no one is going to sell at this price unless it is a scam or stolen merchandise. I am sorry about you getting ripped off, but your lucky your lesson only cost you $300, it could have been for much more.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

You really got be careful buying and selling on the internet. When I sold my Compaq laptop on ebay, I had four scam artists try to buy it before I sold it to a legit seller. Couple of them looked completely sincere upon first glance. Until I did some further checking.






I know things, things that could get me killed

 

Lesson learned! I just wish they could get these guys, especially when I am giving them an aol address which has a credit card linked to it.

 

Hey Dariusceg-

I almost got screwed by the same guy. Any chance of getting the correspondece you had with this guy emailed to me? Maybe if we both send what we have in together it'll get a bit of attention. Guy used the same name both times. Looked up his name on google and found this site. Hell, I was trying to get a digital camera as well -though one that was a bit more expensive. I'm gonna pass my info through my father who knows a few Law Enforcement guys, so maybe we could nab this guy.

 

I am sorry to hear that there are other naïve amazonners out there like myself… I was just about to become a victim of the Romanian scam for a Canon digital camera… Thanks to your forum I did not go forward with the transaction. I even had the money withdrawn from my bank account and was just about to go to Western Union… what a bummer… I would participate in any effort to nib them, if at all possible…

 

Guys, I'm sorry to say this but these scams have been around for many years. They are operated by organized gangs, yes very scary indeed. Not only in Amazon, but infest eBay as well. They all give the similar punchlines..... Hi thank you for your interest in my *ITEM* but please be informed taht I an currently in Rome/Italy/Spain/France/Romania blah blah blah.

The best way to be safe is NEVER, EEEVVEERRR, use Western Union or money order to pay. Both eBay and WU warn you to only send cash to people you trust, like relatives. WU is convienient but NOT good for transactions, because they are not responsible for anything. The BEST way to pay is Paypal or Credit Card, highly recommend the latter because if anything goes wrong you can do a chargeback and BOOM, your credit card company gives you back your money and sends the feds to the criminal.

 

i had exactely the same experience last week. i also bought a canon EOS 20D digital from amazon from Andi Daniel Mitrache...got a fake e-mail from amazone for the payement ...went to a western union office for the payement and waited a week to get some news from the seller. he e-mailed me many times as i could not pick up the money?!
fortunately, western union blocked the payement, lucky me. certainely as this ****ing Andi daniel was knew by their services. also because it happend to you guys just few days ago.
this morning, i ran to the nearest western union office to get my money back ( $ 550 USD ) witch i have now in my pocket!

without a such a good security service from Western Union and from your informations, i could have lost my money, sorry for this others.

i hope amazon or the authourities will do something to stop that.
thanks for your message and be carfull.
Pierre
Switzerland