Selling On Amazon? Watch Out For Scammers

I do a little bit of selling on Amazon, mostly laptops, iPads and few other items that I might find that looks like a good deal. I use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to sell my items. That means that you ship your products to Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and they store it until it sells and then they pack, ship, and provide customer service once it does.

But you can also use self-fulfillment. This means that you keep your item and once it sells you ship it to the buyer. This is where this scam comes in. A Myrtle Beach man was arrested few days ago for his involvement in an online scam targeting Amazon users who were self-fulfilling orders. Deputies recovered nearly $8,000 in stolen merchandise from the River Oaks home.

This is how the scam worked. Victims advertise items for sale on Amazon and a con artist posing as an Amazon representative emails the sellers and advises them the item they listed has been sold. The fake Amazon representative then told the sellers the buyers paid for the items and deposited the money with the company, but the cash would not be transferred into the seller’s account until the seller confirmed they had shipped the item(s).

Victims were then told by the scammers to ship the items next day priority to an address in Myrtle Beach. The sellers followed the instructions and shipped the items to the River Oaks home. When the victims requested payment for their sold items, the fake Amazon representative sent an email to the seller telling them the buyer never received the items.

The scam was uncovered when sellers contacted Amazon directly and learned that Amazon had no knowledge of a buyer for their items, as their items were still showing as for sale on their site.

Obviously not everyone would fall for such scams. I usually check my Amazon listing when an item sells and if I saw it still listed, then I would be suspicious. Sometimes the email itself looks suspicious, when it’s not coming for a proper source. So be careful if you sell on Amazon, especially if you’re just getting started and are not sure how things work.

You can read more about the scam here.