Walmart to Amazon Triangulation Scam Amazon Sellers Be Aware With Customer Messages!
Amazon Seller for 11 years now. I have been noticing strange customer messages as if someone is using a translator. Similar to past conversations with manufacturers on Alibaba. I have been noticing a pattern with these messages using the same or similar words and/or phrases. All customer messages were referring that they never received their package wanting a full refund regardless of what the tracking shows.
I started digging deeper in the seller forums. I was told that our Amazon listings get hijacked by a Chinese based company. That will copy the Amazon listing information to create new listings on Walmart Marketplace.
Essentially, what is happening is this Chinese based company receives an order on the Walmart Marketplace. They will then, I assume, create or alter an existing Amazon customer account using the Walmart customers name. They will place an order with the Amazon seller to have that item drop shipped to the Walmart customer. The chinese based company will then collect the funds from the Walmart sale and message the Amazon seller stating they didn't receive the package. Which based on Amazon's policies mean they are unfortunately getting a full refund majority of the time.
To prove fraudulent intent, I went ahead and placed an order on Walmart using my personal Walmart+ account from a company that I suspected was the cause for my product/customer issues on the Amazon side. 2 hours later I received an order from the fraudulent company using my name as the "customer" for my Amazon seller account. At that time it proved my hunch that I was correct. However, to take it a step further I fulfilled my own order in hopes the company disguising themselves as me would message asking for a refund claiming the package was not delivered. In which they did exactly that.
Here are examples of the patterns in messages that are supposed to be different customer but yet are same fraudulent company placing dropship orders.
"Hello, where is my order? i checked my surroundings and asked my wife's confirmation, they never saw any package left at my house. it has been several days, i guess it must be lost. these days extreme weather happens suddenly, I have no idea whether there are associated. could you refund for my lost package now? i no longer want it!"
"Solution! i need a solution! i am urgent and desperate please. i want my money back and i will not accept money paid without successful delivery, i cannot bear big loss. i hope you can understand! thanks."
"According to tracking info it seems delieved successfully, however, there is no any package left nearby. i tried my best to locate it and found out nothing there. now i hope you can just refund my lost package and i am thankful for ur understanding!"
"what's wrong with my order? i checked everywhere it may have been delivered, but the result is nothing I found out. i don't want to wait anymore, Please refund. i will appreciate your service here."
"excuse me, i want to ask why my package still not arrive, something happened? please help me with a refund, i still haven’t received the parcel."
"I confirmed there is no parcel left at the mailbox, also I have asked neighbors for the parcel of the order many times, no result. they don't care about it at all. Please refund. i can't bear the loss."
"Excuse me? is there someone who can help me to refund my order since i never receive it. i purchased it days before, i don't want to have them since it so long time and still not show up yet. i want my money to be returned please."
"i have checked everywhere it may have been delivered, at the same time i asked the neighbors, The result was nothing I found out. I wasted so long time for this matter. I don't want to wait anymore. please refund my lost order."
"this shopping experience is not good, i never get my item yet which has been accidentally marked delivered. for me this is not fair, i lost my money and i cannot bear the big loss. Please refund, otherwise i will report your shop for its worst shopping experience."
Walmart to Amazon Triangulation Scam Amazon Sellers Be Aware With Customer Messages!
Amazon Seller for 11 years now. I have been noticing strange customer messages as if someone is using a translator. Similar to past conversations with manufacturers on Alibaba. I have been noticing a pattern with these messages using the same or similar words and/or phrases. All customer messages were referring that they never received their package wanting a full refund regardless of what the tracking shows.
I started digging deeper in the seller forums. I was told that our Amazon listings get hijacked by a Chinese based company. That will copy the Amazon listing information to create new listings on Walmart Marketplace.
Essentially, what is happening is this Chinese based company receives an order on the Walmart Marketplace. They will then, I assume, create or alter an existing Amazon customer account using the Walmart customers name. They will place an order with the Amazon seller to have that item drop shipped to the Walmart customer. The chinese based company will then collect the funds from the Walmart sale and message the Amazon seller stating they didn't receive the package. Which based on Amazon's policies mean they are unfortunately getting a full refund majority of the time.
To prove fraudulent intent, I went ahead and placed an order on Walmart using my personal Walmart+ account from a company that I suspected was the cause for my product/customer issues on the Amazon side. 2 hours later I received an order from the fraudulent company using my name as the "customer" for my Amazon seller account. At that time it proved my hunch that I was correct. However, to take it a step further I fulfilled my own order in hopes the company disguising themselves as me would message asking for a refund claiming the package was not delivered. In which they did exactly that.
Here are examples of the patterns in messages that are supposed to be different customer but yet are same fraudulent company placing dropship orders.
"Hello, where is my order? i checked my surroundings and asked my wife's confirmation, they never saw any package left at my house. it has been several days, i guess it must be lost. these days extreme weather happens suddenly, I have no idea whether there are associated. could you refund for my lost package now? i no longer want it!"
"Solution! i need a solution! i am urgent and desperate please. i want my money back and i will not accept money paid without successful delivery, i cannot bear big loss. i hope you can understand! thanks."
"According to tracking info it seems delieved successfully, however, there is no any package left nearby. i tried my best to locate it and found out nothing there. now i hope you can just refund my lost package and i am thankful for ur understanding!"
"what's wrong with my order? i checked everywhere it may have been delivered, but the result is nothing I found out. i don't want to wait anymore, Please refund. i will appreciate your service here."
"excuse me, i want to ask why my package still not arrive, something happened? please help me with a refund, i still haven’t received the parcel."
"I confirmed there is no parcel left at the mailbox, also I have asked neighbors for the parcel of the order many times, no result. they don't care about it at all. Please refund. i can't bear the loss."
"Excuse me? is there someone who can help me to refund my order since i never receive it. i purchased it days before, i don't want to have them since it so long time and still not show up yet. i want my money to be returned please."
"i have checked everywhere it may have been delivered, at the same time i asked the neighbors, The result was nothing I found out. I wasted so long time for this matter. I don't want to wait anymore. please refund my lost order."
"this shopping experience is not good, i never get my item yet which has been accidentally marked delivered. for me this is not fair, i lost my money and i cannot bear the big loss. Please refund, otherwise i will report your shop for its worst shopping experience."
98 replies
Seller_6piv3qIEVlgn8
Thank you for taking time out of your day to give a detailed explanation on this particular scamming method.
Seller_FeMbIu6qik1hR
Verify Addresses: Implement stricter verification processes for shipping addresses to ensure that orders are legitimate.
Use Signature Confirmation: For high-value items or suspicious orders, consider using signature confirmation upon delivery to reduce the chances of fraudulent claims.
Seller_WXN1oA05L0j9y
The problem stems from Walmart sellers' rights and policies. Walmart pays sellers before the order arrives, which is how scammers engage in fraud. The scam involves making a double dip in a short period until the scammer is caught by Amazon and Walmart authorities. The scammer receives payment from Walmart (essentially getting their money back) and then waits to receive money back from their investment on Amazon. There is a good chance that they will succeed because even if you purchased a shipping label from Amazon and Amazon does not refund the money, the scammer can still threaten you with negative feedback. According to Amazon's feedback policies, it may appear as if "this is a customer experience and this is how the customer feels about this transaction." Therefore, after receiving negative feedback, you may not want to harm your seller metrics. You WILL kindly ask the customer-scammer to remove the feedback in exchange for a full money refund and offer an additional $20 refund to address their dissatisfaction with the situation. And that's how the scam works.
Seller_GYBivd6QH6hzX
Thanks for sharing this - we too have seen this exact same script (literally to the letter) and while we do use Amazon Buy Shipping, so we haven't suffered a loss from it yet -though there have been successful A-Z claims- it's still infuriating to deal with these scammers.
...and yes, following your assessment of what's going on, we checked a few of the products that we've seen this script used on against WalMart listings and find the same thing, a random Chinese company or other (in one case, literally "shenzhenshiyuhekejiyouziangongsi") listing a gated product under a different brand name, with obvious screenshots of the real, authorized AMZ A Plus content, and with a roughly 20-day delivery time... which confirms that it'll be a drop-ship since there is literally no reason in the world that this product would ever take more than a few days to arrive from a properly authorized seller.
Not surprising in the least, unfortunately, but it's valuable to know that we're all being targeted by the same group of scammers - or at least the same script.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Well, I've heard of some people having problems, but I've never had one not work as intended.
Besides, if it's a scammer, they won't file anyway.
Seller_8ESHZD3bXlVUv
wouldn't this be against Amazon policy?
Seller_x0Q6SaCVrlDLE
Unfortunately, they won the A-Z Claim seller funded. But not affecting my metrics because of the protection buying labels from Amazon.
Even my bait Walmart order that has my name and address explaining the situation letting Amazon know they are using my name and address to drop ship their Walmart order. After delivery they are asking for a full refund proving intent of fraud. I explained that I received the package technically being their customer. I gave this information to report this customer. They responded 24 hours later saying they are not finding any violation for that customer. Are you kidding me Amazon??
Seller_TeK7HYTK7PiOb
We were the victim of triangulation fraud on our website. A fraudster was selling a Bible on eBay for a below-market price then placing an order on our website with a stolen credit card to be shipped to an unsuspecting buyer. I managed to contact one of the unsuspecting customers (fraudster just changed the last digit of their phone number by 1 digit and it happened to be the spouse who had a sequential phone number). I tracked down the fraudster on eBay and confronted them via messaging and they claimed to also be a victim of a supplier that was drop shipping for them. I filed a police report and tried to report it to eBay but nothing ever happened. Once I recognized the pattern I was able to cancel future fraudulent orders and they eventually stopped.
Seller_HP0CuTSNvJvu9
That's going to be tough one to answer for when the day comes.
Seller_EcWkJa2ukzYqu
Buy stuff from Amazon. Save the boxes. Place another order with scammer. Use said Amazon branded boxes. Report them for dropshipping. Do this multiple times.
Seller_x0Q6SaCVrlDLE
Update: I have reported this seller under the order id I used to place my bait order with this scam company through my personal Walmart account. The scam company like I explained in the previous post altered their Amazon account using my name and address to place an order to my Amazon seller account intending to drop ship to the "Walmart Customer" being me.
I fulfilled my own order putting it through the mail system to get it delivered back to me. That company pretending to be me messaged me asking for a full refund proving their intent of stealing/scamming.
Like I said this seller under this order id has been reported twice now using the report abuse link. Everytime I get a message I report them as well.
What is disturbing to me when I formally report them using the report abuse option. Amazon replies 24 hours later stating they didn't find anything suspicious with the investigation.
Are you joking??
I have handed this multi million dollar scam company over to the investigation team on a silver platter with smoking gun evidence at my disposal. They are using MY name, My address, pretending to be ME to get a full refund for a package not being received. Since this company is using the mail system in addition to this scam. This would be a federal crime.
And yet, here we are today the fake me is still demanding a full refund!!
What is going on Amazon? I have been doing this for 11 years. The evidence does not get any better nor easier than this. This type of experience being received from a senior seller is quite ridiculous and disturbing. You can understand my frustration along with many others when we seem to be shown our businesses are not protected even with obvious situations like this.
Any help from the Amazon warriors to get 1 scam company shut down would be greatly appreciated! We need action to no longer give these companies permission to take advantage of Amazon sellers!
Thank you!
@Tatiana_Amazon
@Micah_Amazon
@Troy_Amazon
@Topher_Amazon
@Emet_Amazon
@Dominic_Amazon
@Danny_Amazon
@SEAmod
@Steve_Amazon
@Quincy_Amazon
@Dougal_Amazon
@Cooper_Amazon
@Danika_Amazon
