It is worth noting that there is a common saying in the online world that when there is anything good that starts in the market, it is often riddled with scams and people trying to get the benefits out of them and since the company is a customer-centric one which means that they care about their customers and believe whatever they say is right, they will get away with it as well. We are talking about the biggest e-commerce marketplace in the world right now which is Amazon.
If you don’t already know, Amazon is totally filled with buyer scams and customers who are trying to cheat the buyers for their hard-earned money just for the fun of it or for reasons best known to them. We are here to tell you about the different types of scams that take place at Amazon and it is also worth noting that Amazon might take action on them but the scammers create hundreds of new accounts daily in order to dupe the sellers so the marketplace is also helpless in most of these situations. Since Amazon is known for their customer care, buyers pretend to be genuine in their requests which is when the sellers have to suffer.
Talking about the various scams on Amazon, it is worth noting that there are loopholes being found every day on it and they are patched as soon as possible too but the fact is that there are loopholes being discovered every other day by these scammers which means that when you fix the first one, they have found multiple other ones which they take advantage from. However, there are some Amazon scams that are so common and have been around ever since the platform was started.
You must be aware that Amazon has a no-questions-asked return policy which means that the customers can return any products they don’t like and the cost will have to be beared by the sellers as the company and the buyers can benefit from this program. While we know that there are some products and returns that are genuine because of quality or other issues, there are returns created for products that are perfectly fine but the order was placed just to frustrate the buyer or it is also seen that the return parcel does not have the same item that was ordered which is one of the most common scams on Amazon.
In this article, we will tell you about the 7 most common types of buyer scams on Amazon that you as a seller need to be aware of:
1. Failed Delivery Scam
Everyone who is running an e-commerce store will attest to the fact that failed delivery is one of the most common type of scams being run by buyers and this is not just limited to Amazon but it works very well on Amazon because of their customer-centric approach where they believe whatever the buyer claims is true.
Basically, what happens in this type of scam is that once the delivery of any product from Amazon is out and the delivery partner delivers the order then the buyer claims they have not received the delivery and while Amazon delivery partners take proof of delivery, it gets missed sometimes and that is when the buyers can scam the sellers since Amazon takes buyer’s side.
2. Fake Replacement Scam
Another common type of Amazon buyer scam is the fake replacement scam and this is prevalent the most on Amazon in the gaming sector because of how easy it is to find replacement of the same product. Talking about this scam, it is seen that the buyer who receives the product creates a return request where he/she will send you the product back but upon receiving the product, the buyer would notice that the product they received back is not the one they originally sent.
Basically, the buyer sent you a faulty or fake replacement product. In this situation, what the buyer can do is attach stickers on parts of the product that do not need to be opened so that if the stickers are tampered or not present at all then you can confirm that the returned product was not the same as the one you sent. You can communicate this to Amazon as well so that they also the proof of your method.
3. Phishing
Phishing scams are common not just on Amazon but everywhere around the world be it on mail or SMS or somewhere else. However, phishing scams on Amazon work too well because of the fact that they pretend to be from Amazon and send you a link inside the phishing mails which you are most likely to click thinking that the item you ordered has some changes to its delivery date or something else. Once you do that, you are part of this phishing scam.
4. Email Scam
As we mentioned in the phishing scam, email scams are also similar where you get an email from someone pretending to be from Amazon but always note the email from where you received it because Amazon’s official mails are always sent from addresses ending with amazon.com. Apart from that, Amazon says “The emails you get from buyers will appear in your Seller Central Account.” Amazon will also never ask you to log in to your account or share your credentials so never share them in any case.
5. Returns Scam
Similar to the fake replacement scam, the returns scam is also very common on Amazon where the buyer would raise a return request as soon as the product is delivered and quickly replace the working product with the one they have that is not working. In some cases, we have also seen that the product being returned is not a product at all but just some deadweight such as stone or something else just to make sure that the return pickup guy accepts it.
6. Credit Card Scam
One of the most troubling scams on Amazon being run nowadays is the Credit Card scam where the buyers purchase the items from a stolen credit card or credit card information they have found from a BIN which means that it is most likely to get a chargeback request raised as soon as the credit card holder finds out that they have been charged for a purchase they have not done.
Now, the problem here is that Amazon is pretty fast on their deliveries which means that if the delivery is done and then the chargeback is raised then the seller can’t do anything else as the buyer’s information is fake and the delivery is often requested on a location which is different from the original one as well.
7. Address Forwarding Scam
Address Forwarding Scam has been recently found out on Amazon and a lot of Amazon sellers have started complaining about the same as well. It is worth noting that there is a niche where this works very well and these are for the products that are delivered by sellers and not by Amazon. Basically, such orders are merchant-fulfilled orders.
When the merchant decides to fulfil and order by themselves and not pay Amazon for their services, the scammers who already know about this raise a request to forward the order to another address claiming that they have moved or something else.
Now, the problem here is that the buyer can’t do that because it is against Amazon’s policies and it is obvious that the buyer will now raise a refund request which Amazon will have to fulfill as the order is not delivered so even if the seller has sent out the order, they will have to face the refund request as well as the lost money in couriers.
Things you can do to avoid these scams
After reading all the above scams, you would have known that some of them are pretty obvious but they do work and if you are a seller then you must have been affected by such scams too. Now, we know that Amazon trusts the buyers a lot but you as a seller can also take advantage of Amazon’s customer service by showing them the proofs of what you have done so that they can take your side as well.
First of all, it is worth noting that you as a buyer should always use tamper-proof seals for your products which can’t be removed or even if they are removed then they can be visible so that you can know and even prove that the product has been tampered with.
Apart from that, you should always use shipping methods that have trackers in order to let Amazon know that you have really shipped your order and the buyer can’t claim that their package wasn’t delivered because you can tell the delivery partner to take proof of delivery as well as request customer’s signature.
Also, you should always send a shipping confirmed message to your buyer so that they, as well as Amazon, get informed that the order has been shipped which also means that you have proof that the order was shipped out to the location and the buyer will know that there is no chance to scam here.
