Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

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reisner
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:34 pm

Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by reisner »

I found just the binoculars I wanted at Amazon. The best price by far was offered by a new independent vendor. I could not place the order through Amazon. I had to send him my name, address, and phone number. He said Amazon then would get in touch with me. They did not. He said they claimed they had. I said they had not. I then promptly received what appears to be a legitimate Amazon invoice. But--it came from him and it requires me to pay with an Amazon gift card. Anybody ever have this experience? Fishy? He writes well, so this doesn't sound like it came from a Nigerian internet cafe.
mptfan
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Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:58 am

Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by mptfan »

It sounds fishy to me. I have never found anything on Amazon that I was not able to order through Amazon? I did not know that was possible? I certainly would not pay in any way other than through Amazon, and I would not give out my name and address and phone number. In my opinion, if you cannot pay through Amazon, then you do not but it. That simple rule will save you from being taken.
Last edited by mptfan on Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
alfaspider
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by alfaspider »

At a minimum, I would verify this with Amazon. Sounds VERY fishy.
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mhc
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by mhc »

I would walk away.

If you pay with a credit card, you have protection. If you pay with a gift card, there probably is no recourse.

On second thought, I would run away.

Google it and see what the wise say.
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ilostmywallet
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by ilostmywallet »

turn the tables. give him a used amazon gift card instead.
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Taz
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by Taz »

Likely scam. Here's one reported on one of the Amazon community pages:


By Abul Imam on 18-May-2016 16:03 America/Los_Angeles
Hey someone named MEDIA MARKET CENTER tried to make me pay for a Canon T6i with Gift Card and said Amazon will send me an order Confirmation which looked legit but ultimately is a fake amazon page. Be careful everyone if the price of something is really cheap and the seller has a good rating.
The destination matters. | "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't don't stop and look around once in a while - you could miss it." -- Ferris Bueller
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LAlearning
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by LAlearning »

Scam....
I know nothing!
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gatorking
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Location: MA

Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by gatorking »

There was a warning about this exact scam on the gift card display in CVS.
joebh
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by joebh »

reisner wrote:Fishy? He writes well, so this doesn't sound like it came from a Nigerian internet cafe.
It's a scam.
Some scam artists write very well. Don't let you guard down due to how someone writes, talks, or dresses.
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CAsage
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by CAsage »

Probably no recourse? Absolutely none, and you will never hear back. There are multiple fraud warnings on Craigslist about similar things, people contacting you to buy pricier things... but you need to run out and buy them gift cards, send the number to pay for the pickup/delivery/shipper.... and keep the difference. I had fun stringing them along for a while pretending I could not figure it out .... But if you can't buy it directly, it's a scam.

I don't know if it's possible to report them to Amazon, but the local police can't do anything since it's out of state (at least!).
Salvia Clevelandii "Winifred Gilman" my favorite. YMMV; not a professional advisor.
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Toons
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by Toons »

Never heard of such.
Been buying from Amazon since
2004
:D
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
curmudgeon
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Re: Required to pay with Amazon gift card!

Post by curmudgeon »

reisner wrote:I found just the binoculars I wanted at Amazon. The best price by far was offered by a new independent vendor. I could not place the order through Amazon. I had to send him my name, address, and phone number. He said Amazon then would get in touch with me. They did not. He said they claimed they had. I said they had not. I then promptly received what appears to be a legitimate Amazon invoice. But--it came from him and it requires me to pay with an Amazon gift card. Anybody ever have this experience? Fishy? He writes well, so this doesn't sound like it came from a Nigerian internet cafe.
If the listing was on Amazon, report it to Amazon as a fraudulent listing.
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