Read this article and a part of it had me thinking, although it is out of context…
"The Finans created hundreds of false identities and fake accounts in order to pull off their scheme."
Do you think they're aware that people are creating multiple accounts to take up the new user AMAZON20 offer? What would be the consequence at most? IP ban? Could possibly get around it using a VPN imo.
More on the article here
Not really, a true ozbargainer would use a spare or disposable email and get that discount to avoid paying full price. Does not take more than 2 mins to fill in shipping details at checkout!
Worth it if you really need something, don't say you've never tried it ;)
Yes, but you can't change your identity for your credit card payments or the address things are delivered to. It shouldn't take Amazon long to check these details before allowing the offer to stand.
I think $20 < $1.2million so I think you're fine
What’s the point of using a VPN when you still need to give Amazon a delivery address?
What would be the consequence at most? IP ban?
Doubt even that. At most I see cancelled orders and blocked account. They still want your business, they're not going to block your IP and risk losing that.
…reported them as damaged. Once Amazon replaced the products, they would sell them to a third person — Danijel Glumac — who then sold them to a buyer in New York
Did Amazon just replace the item while they kept the broken item? I ordered a whole bunch of things from Amazon US the other day and one was dead on arrival - they've told me to ship back the faulty item for a replacement (and that they'd refund postage costs "this one time").
Apparently. From another article:
Due to the sheer volume of transactions administered by the retailer, the company doesn’t often follow up on claims that items were defective or damaged upon receipt, finding it easier to simply refund a customer’s money on good faith.
Also:
Amazon’s customer service policy allows, under certain circumstances, customers to receive a replacement before they return a broken item.
I thought that was the case and they had a generous refund policy. I imagine it would've been the case here - shipping a $20 item back to the US and refunding the postage costs would cost them more than just refunding it
Maybe they've changed it, or I got an unlucky CS rep
Might've changed it because of stories like this one - at least to randomly require returns so people can't reliably get away with this kind of stuff.
randomly require returns
You'd still come out ahead. If you had hundred of accounts ordering a few items each with only 1% needing to be physically returned, that's still a lot of free replacements.
At some point someone has noticed "Gee, Nowhereville sure gets sent a lot of damaged stuff."
@D C: Yeah - that's what the criminal prosecution does. It adds a low-chance of an extremely severe consequence, to even out the risk-reward equation.
Here is clearer story on how they abuse the return policy:
https://money.good.is/articles/amazon-electronics-scam
ive been thinking of buying some amzn.au items, until i can do some proper product research
then return those placeholder items above ..
It sounds like a lot of work for a measly $20 voucher.