That's weird, I ordered that from eBay not Amazon

[Whales]

I don't have an account with Amazon.  I've never used them.  So imagine my surprise today when I received an Amazon package addressed to me.

Inside: items I bought off eBay, some Amazon receipts and a little note from Amazon telling me to "enjoy my Gift from <person's name>".

I assume the seller put an Amazon order in, marked it as a "gift" and gave my name+address.  I paid $3.06AUD for this (the price you see probably changes depending on your bloodtype).


I think this makes me happy.  They probably pay an Amazon subscription; which (as I understand) is a business model designed to (on average) make customers lose more money overall and lock them in.  Via this method only one person has to pay Amazon the subscription, not two, and I suffer no lock-in.

On a moral front: I know Amazon has lots of problems.  eBay also has lots of problems in other ways.  I try to use other suppliers & their websites where I can (fun fact: many WA suppliers are much cheaper than NSW ones even once shipping is factored in), but there are many things I can only get from greymarket platforms like eBay/Alix/etc.

[bob91343]

I think there is some sort of unholy alliance between Amazon and ebay.  I don't like to deal with Amazon cuz their prices are too high.  Even with prime.  Really big business.

[Fire Doger]

Same happened to me with AliExpress.
Maybe the seller sells on both platforms and use Amazon warehouse for both.

[antenna]

Probably drop shipping. Many people find products and relist them without an actual inventory. The order is placed by the drop shipper with your address as the ship to address pocketing the markup you didn't notice because you didn't shop around.

[Daixiwen]

Or it could be fraud too.



As it is a "gift" I suppose you don't have the bill from Amazon? If the cost from Amazon is higher than what you paid on eBay it could indicate they used a stolen credit card.

[ataradov]

This happens quite a bit. It is easier to have Amazon maintain the stock and use other platforms for promotion and diversification.

[Whales]

Or it could be fraud too.

<video>

As it is a "gift" I suppose you don't have the bill from Amazon? If the cost from Amazon is higher than what you paid on eBay it could indicate they used a stolen credit card.

Oh wow I never thought of that, thanks for the video.  The price I paid was OK (unlikely to have much markup, but hard to check for certain given amazon shows different prices to different people).  If they pocket _all_ of the sale price and pay for the items using stolen credit cards then it makes more financial sense!

EDIT: Hmm on the other hand this was only $3.  I would expect them to aim higher?  Or perhaps these little transactions are less likely to raise flags (be noticed by the real cardholder)?

[amyk]

Same happened to me with AliExpress.
Maybe the seller sells on both platforms and use Amazon warehouse for both.

Agreed. Was rather confused when something I was expecting to take a while from China arrived within a few days, then noticed the Amazon packaging.

[Caliaxy]

Probably drop shipping. Many people find products and relist them without an actual inventory. The order is placed by the drop shipper with your address as the ship to address pocketing the markup you didn't notice because you didn't shop around.

^^^^ This. There are quite a few eBay  (and even more AliExpress) sellers embracing this business model. They sell things they don't actually have. You generally encounter them if you hunt for the lowest price on the specific platform (without checking others). They tend to offer in their "store" lots of totally unrelated brand new items (e.g., multimeters, nylon stockings and baby diapers). After ordering, you sometimes get an apologetic email stating that your item is out of stock and you are kindly asked to cancel your order without leaving a negative feedback.

[Whales]

More information: two packages of what I bought arrived.  I assumed I must have ordered two, but no, I only ordered and paid for one.

This is very much now looking like the triangle fraud (effectively laundering cash on stolen CC's) that Daixiwen linked a video of.

The packages came with Amazon receipts, so I might try emailing Amazon. 

[Whales]

(For those not in the loop: if this is actual fraud then it means someone's credit card is being used without them knowing.  Eg your grandmother's.)

Amazon: reported to stop-spoofing@amazon.com.  I don't know if it's the right email address, but it looked like the only option I have to contact them if I don't have an account with them.

Paypal: no email address to report fraud to, they tell you to login and do a dispute.  Except Paypal won't let me login today:



This does not appear to be skippable.  The irony of them saying it's to "help prevent fraud" is not lost on me.

I don't own a mobile phone.  I guess only mobile phones are allowed to report fraud, humans don't count.

Ebay: again no email address, I have to login and file a report.  The only way that looks like it might work is to "report item" on the sales listing, but my reason isn't listed in their drop-down of options.

The closest I found was "stolen property", but then they say this:

Reports of stolen property on eBay need to come from a law enforcement official. This reporting reason is only to be used by law enforcement.

Wow, thanks.  Useless.

I might just email their "email spoofing reporting" addresses instead as that's the only way I have of contacting them.

EDIT: found an eBay reporting form that lets me choose "The seller has violated one of eBay's policies" as the reason, then lets me choose other.  I've submitted to that.  Unfortunately it does not allow me to attach photos/scans and they say this after I hit submit:

We've received your report on <username redacted>.
We'll look into this and take appropriate action if the seller isn't following our policies. For privacy reasons, we won't disclose the outcome.
Please note that there's no need to contact us again. It would create a new report and prolong the process.

LOL.  Sounds like it's a black hole to save costs.  I have zero confidence they will do anything.

[eti]

Seller has an Amazon account. You place the order, they order from Amazon to your address and pocket the mark up. I’ve had paper towels delivered this way a few times. Also seller doesn’t need to leave home.

Why not. 🙂

[djacobow]

People selling in Amazon can either do their own fulfillment (packaging and mailing) or use Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA). With the latter, you mail it arrange to have mailed your product to Amazon, where they warehouse it for you. When someone orders, they ship from their warehouse.

It is very convenient and the cost of competitive with other fulfillment services.

But the thing is, Amazon will happily do fulfillment for you for orders that came by another channel; they even have an API to make this easier. They charge the same fulfillment fee in this case, but no other charges.

It's rather attractive for sellers.

I'm an Amazon seller and have used this for sales I earned on Tindie and Etsy. You have to be careful, as some people do NOT like getting Amazon packages and don't like getting "tricked" into doing business with Amazon, though in reality, it was you, not them, who did business with Amazon.

[Gary350z]

This happened to me twice, a few years ago. A lot of companies sell on both amazon and ebay. If you order from said company, maybe it doesn't matter to them if they ship with amazon and ebay. Maybe one is cheaper. I don't know.

Three years ago, I ordered an item from ebay, and I received it from Walmart.
Strange things go on with these companies.

[tszaboo]

Probably FBA.
https://sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon
I've researched this some time ago, as shipping something from NL is the same cost as getting hooked up hard drugs. But then my product idea has flopped, and there was 0 inventory worldwide of the electronics components, so its all fine in the end.

[bson]

I've ordered various stuff from sellers on Amazon and had it shipped by Sam's Club.  I'm not a member of the latter, so it's nice someone lets me buy bulk stuff using their membership, and I don't mind at all if they make money doing so.    Sam's Club on the other hand can't be too happy as I'm sure they'd prefer me to become a member there.  (No physical locations in my neck of the woods though.)

[EEVblog]

Yep, this is common, it's people setting up an automated hand-off reshipping service.
Once you order goes in on ebay their software orders the same (cheaper) item from Amazon as a gift using your address and they pocket the difference.
You can even buy automated software that does all this for you. Probably promoted by the passive income guru courses.

This seller of my BM235 in the US is likely doing this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/164552267604?hash=item2650145754:g:0TcAAOSwClBgpPLL
At least it looks like he took his own photo, usually the automated software just rips off the entire lists and photos. I've reported a few of them and had them shut down.

But the same seller screwed up the BM786 listign which has a photo of the 121GW!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/164892769033?hash=item26645ffb09:g:5tUAAOSwvzVgtd7M

I believe the software searches for the best selling items in each category and checks if there are other ebay listings. I noticed this years ago when my BM235 became one the best sellers on Amazon.

Looks like you can buy the book! 
https://www.amazon.com.au/Online-Passive-Income-Generate-Dropshipping-ebook/dp/B015A9WZNU