OT Amazon scams

Well my Tue call stops all these time wasters, as they can find other fish to fry than talking to my call screener. The only down side is that officialdom seem to have an issue with them, and simply put the phone down rather than saying Department of left handed Wellies to speak to Mr xxxx, which is all they need to do to get the phone to ring in the house. They with hold their numbers so you see all these missed calls with no number and need to guess who wants to talk to you. WE do live in the 21st century and these same drones expect you to key this or say that to their automated systems but won't use yours. Bah Humbug. Brian

In my day, Prime was in fact a Winnalot Dog food brand.

It started off as Prime Cuts, but as it was mostly gelly and cereal and some meat mixed up, I guess the word Cuts was a little misleading, anyway the dogs liked it. I'm not so sure that Prime is as easy to accidentally sign up to as it was. You get a summery if you accidentally click it when you look at the shopping basket and can easily change it via delivery options so to speak to not be free delivery with a trial of Prime. Actually if you do use Amazon a lot, then Prime makes more sense, but for me, who may order four or five items a year, no. Its the same as Amazon music. I don't care how many millions of tracks I can stream, I'd rather buy a CD. Brian

I don't find that problem. Maybe its clearer for screenreader users? Also they do keep flagging up a months free trial, and I'm fine with that. They must lose a lot by that as I tell my echo dot to alert me on a date a few days before the free period expires and go in and cancel it, despite all the hand wringing that they present you with. Something approaching poetic justice, using their own device to let you cancel the product before its charged, don't you think?

Brian

Actually whenever you do use a different browser or device, Amazon address me by my registered name and tell me that if it was not me, to click a link. I always double check by peeking at the message source to make sure the addresses inside are need Amazon ones. If its fine then I click, the yes not the no box and am greeted with your device name here, has been added to our list of accepted devices, though you may be asked to request a pin be sent to your mobile form time to time to make sure log in is secure.

Brian

Yes, I've knowingly taken the 30 day trial once or twice then cancelled, used to not really believe computer savvy friends who claimed they'd been tricked into a paid prime membership ... until they got me too when I was sure I'd declined, ok they did cancel it without question, but they're sneaky.

Given that we all see all the fake bank messages and sundry other ones from pretend government departments or on line stores, I'm surprised anyone takes an email or a phone call at face value any more.

It must work on some though since if it was a waste of time, they would not bother doing it. Brian

Indeed they are. There is a box to check which supposedly remembers your delivery choices, but it still keeps trying to get you to use Prime instead.

One accidental click and you are in, whereas cancelling requires a series of confirmations that you _really_ want to leave, with regular reminders of what you will be missing.

Chris

Which is a good thing. Modern version of "there be dragons" for the less well informed.

I can usually navigate my way around all the elephant traps that end up with a subscription to Prime, find the "Continue without Prime" button written in grey on a grey background and complete my order but I was completely stumped last Friday.

I was trying to order a spare part for a washing machine (ob uk.d-i-y) from an Amazon Marketplace distributor and ended up on the final page where it announced - no ifs, no buts - that I was going to get a free trial of Prime.

This time I couldn't find anything that I could be confident would let me bypass Prime so I backed out, abandoned the purchase and bought the part somewhere else.

Nick

I had one of these when I was clearing out my daed parents' house recently. When I asked the woman why she was hassling about a dead person she told me to f*** off.

Very charming

Jonathan

Sadly enough do get suckered to make it a lucrative business for the scammers.

Its quite enlightening to listen to Jim Browning on youtube - a scam investigator who quite often seems to get access to the scammers systems. Here is the home page. Most of the videos are still quite accessible just via audio since much of it is transcripts or voiceover.

Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) presented the following explanation :

I still get a few blocked by my system, but they always present a number - the number presented is always a spoofed number.

Lovely, just what you needed.

Yup. If they actually stay on the line long enough, I've found they range from just hanging up to hoping my family dies of cancer.

One just called me 'stupid' for not being interested in taking up his solar panel installation offer. I suggested it wouldn't do it [1] as I didn't think it was fair to burden other electricity users with the FIT and potentially earning money from them. He didn't seem to get 'morals', suggesting if he had the money himself, he would go for it.

Well he would wouldn't he, he was a cold calling telephone salesman!

Cheers, T i m

Actually that is probably true. Quite often they use what is called "dark pattern" design cues to encourage you to click on the item that they would prefer - i.e. make it large and green and the obvious button. The other option is then in smaller text and a "warning" colour to make it feel like you are selecting the "wrong" option.

If all you see/hear is the text, you miss all that.

ISTR there are some items that are only available for sale to prime members, hence if you buy one, then you are forced through that route.

I didn't think they played that kind of game with Amazon Marketplace products but then, nothing would really surprise me.

Nick

oh, but they do...

Yes caught me out recently. Box: 'Yes I want Prime' Adjacent box:'I want free delivery' In greyed out text at bottom left 'continue without prime' Free delivery box immediately signed me up to prime even before I had confirmed the details of my order. I did not continue with order. But Amazon still attempted to charge the debit card whose details they had for prime. Which fortunately did not have enough money in it so payment was refused. No option to cancel prime just message saying my prime was suspended until payment made. So had to email them to get it cancelled. I havn't used Amazon since, got what I was about to order elsewhere.

In article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Chris Hogg snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net writes

They just target everybody, bit like a mail shot. 3% successful make sit worthwhile.