Breaking News! As this article went to “press”, I received the following e-mail (actually 3-similar e-mails) from “Amazon. Check out how the bogus “sold-ship now” e-mail has Amazon logos and other “security” logos. It even has links back to Amazon…or are they?

Check out the links and return address, and it obviously DOESN’t go back to Amazon, but some bogus e-mail domain.

Also, Amazon never has  “Protected by” logos in it’s correspondence or it’s sites. If it doesn’t go to “amazon.com (only) it’s probably not the real thing.

Now on with our regularly scheduled blog….

As I have recently listed an item on the Amazon Marketplace (Just last night as a matter of fact), the bogus “customer inquirys” are already starting.

The following, while received thru Amazon’s legitimate channels, is a (very obvious) example of the type of bogus-inquiry you need to be aware of.

Now, not all of the questionable-inquiries are quite so obvious, but this example will give you an idea of what you might run into while trying to sell your stuff on-line. (see our other articles here).

The text of the message received through Amazon Marketplace is as follows:

Hello XXXXXX,

How are you and your family?I’m very much intrested in buying your
Nikon D70S 6. 1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) for a friend as a gift and
i will be offering you $70. 00 for the shipping fee with USPS EMS
GLOBAL EXPRESS to her, also I would have loved to ship out the item myself
but i am very busy with some hectic problems. kindly get the item
parkage to be ship to my firned that travel on an OXFAM sponsored missionary
work in Africa. get back to me so that I can immediately pay through
amazon. com andthe item can get there immediately. i will be Waiting for
yourresponse.

<>The first tip-off that this is bogus is the fact that they’re immediately offering a large sum of money for the shipping ($70). Now, up to this point, no inquiries have been made to the condition of the item, or any general questions as to shipping costs or proceedures.

<>Even though the ad in the marketplace states that there is no International Shipping is available on this item, they ask that it be shipped to AFRICA, which leads us to our next clue…

Having the item shipped to a recipient other than the ORIGINAL PURCHASER is against Amazon’s policies (which, as stated in our earlier article, are designed to protect both you, the seller, and Amazon).

Certain countries can also be a tip-off.

These most certainly include, but are not limited to:Africa, Russia, Eastern Bloc countries, Haiti, other island safe-havens, and the states of Florida, New York, and Utah (lots of good people there, to be sure, but there seems to be a higher incidence of fraud comitted in these areas).

Now, since the response is through Amazon to the buyer, I always reply in a polite, but direct fashion, in case the buyer is legitimate, and so Amazon doesn’t have any problems with a “non-response”.

Now the spelling, spacing, and punctuation are “as-received”, but aren’t always a tip-off as to the intent of the “buyer”.

All in all, selling on the internet is a great way of reaching a large-audience, but as in all audiences, they aren’t always made up of stellar-personalities.

I hope this example will help you have the awareness to make your selling-experience a positive one!