TromboneChat

I have seen a lot of predatory eBay listings lately and decided to see what happened when I bought one of these items. I purchased an item titled and described as a 'Adams Marching Euphonium ME1S" (though there were no photos and the listing photo said "Pearl Replacement Parts" for about $25. Transaction went smooth, and was sent an Amazon notification of a package on the way. Item that I received was a metal rod in a Pearl package, something like a cymbal arm. In the box was a packing slip indicating it was bought/shipped from Amazon and a gift receipt so as not to disclose the price of the item. I have no qualms with drop shipping, lots of businesses do this, but the way this auction proceeded was fishy. I have since been refunded through eBay, but think I played in unknowing role in fraud. 


I believe the scam is two-fold, with the first offering a higher return, but the second still netting a profit.

1. Buyer gives up and doesn't return, not wanting to deal with the hassle. Seller has bought low and sold high, had the item drop-shipped after marketing the item deceptively

2. Money laundering, edit:Profit scam using false/fake goods. Seller sells on eBay, then buys the item from their own Amazon store using a dummy account to get a commission on the sale, item is drop shipped to take advantage of Prime shipping. When the buyer request a return, the refund is given through PayPal/eBay with Amazon having no knowledge of the eBay transaction.

Seems to me you'd have to do an awful lot of transactions to launder a significant amount of money.

I agree. Money laundering is the wrong term, given they are not using dirty money. It's more of a profit scam using false/fake goods.

I don't think the return aspect would be particularly profitable, but assuming a buyer gives up, they've made profit plus commission with Amazon. And Either way they've got the Amazon commission. Because they have Fulfillment By Amazon, they can send a bunch of junk widgets worth very little to an Amazon Warehouse to handle all of the packaging/shipping, make a dummy listing on Amazon and on eBay (for something more interesting) then wait for buyers. I tried to search Amazon for the listing and it doesn't show up in the general search, it only shows up when I search by the Amazon item number on the packing receipt, sort of like a hidden listing that's only available to the Amazon seller.

It's Not a ton of money, but if they make several eBay listings across a wide slice of categories, then ship the same item- how many purchases might come in a day? 50? More? Assuming they've made $15 per $25 item, that could be $750. Half of the buyers give up and don't pursue- $375 in their pocket for a day.

They didn't ask me to send the item back, either. They just refunded my money, so they don't have to pay return shipping. All of this (minus shipping widgets to Amazon) can be done with clicks on the computer. It wouldn't be very time consuming to perpetrate.

I agree. Money laundering is the wrong term, given they are not using dirty money. It's more of a profit scam using false/fake goods.

I don't think the return aspect would be particularly profitable, but assuming a buyer gives up, they've made profit plus commission with Amazon. And Either way they've got the Amazon commission. Because they have Fulfillment By Amazon, they can send a bunch of junk widgets worth very little to an Amazon Warehouse to handle all of the packaging/shipping, make a dummy listing on Amazon and on eBay (for something more interesting) then wait for buyers. I tried to search Amazon for the listing and it doesn't show up in the general search, it only shows up when I search by the Amazon item number on the packing receipt, sort of like a hidden listing that's only available to the Amazon seller.

It's Not a ton of money, but if they make several eBay listings across a wide slice of categories, then ship the same item- how many purchases might come in a day? 50? More? Assuming they've made $15 per $25 item, that could be $750. Half of the buyers give up and don't pursue- $375 in their pocket for a day.

They didn't ask me to send the item back, either. They just refunded my money, so they don't have to pay return shipping. All of this (minus shipping widgets to Amazon) can be done with clicks on the computer. It wouldn't be very time consuming to perpetrate.