Some time ago I wrote an article (Caveat Emptor) with warnings about the various unscrupulous methods that some people use to part you from your money. With the Holiday season approaching (actually I think it's already here!) the scammers are moving into high gear so I though a reminder might be useful.
For some reason, and it's not 100% clear what that reason is, the mail order/website Camera and Photo market attracts way more than its fair share of scammers. Those of us who have been around for a while can spot them in an instant, but for the first time buyer they may appear to be genuine.
The questions then are how do you tell the difference between a good deal and a scam, and how to the scams work?
Well, the most popular scam goes like this. You see a really good price for a popular item. Let's say it's an EOS 20D at a price of $1000 when quite a few stores are asking $1300. That's known as the "bait". It suckers you in. You visit the website and it all looks legitimate so you get out your credit card, fill in an order form, click the "Submit" button and off it goes.
The next thing that happens is you get an email from the company you've ordered from which asks you to call them to "confirm your order". So you call them and that's where the "fun" starts. First you discover that the price is indeed for an EOS 20D. However the battery, battery charger, USB cable, A/V cable, strap and software aren't included. They'll run these things by you one by one - "Did you want a battery? You'll need one and it's only an extra $50". So maybe you say yes - after all it's only $50, so you're still getting a good price...Then you go through the process again for each additional item. In the end you end up paying $1350 plus they'll tag on $56 for shipping. If you decline any of the accessories, they may tell you that the camera is out of stock (if you're lucky), or they'll ship you stuff you didn't ask for. If you'd bought it from a reputable store, it would have been $100 cheaper!
"OK", you say as soon as they do this "I'll just cancel my order". Good luck. They have your credit card number remember. If you try to cancel there's a very good chance they'll just charge your card, send you all the stuff and remind you that they have a 15% restocking fee if you want to send it back. If you call to complain they either won't answer their "customer service" line or they will and they will threaten and insult you. Don't believe me? It's hard to believe, I know, but it happens. If you don't believe me, read this.
If you ever do get the camera, it's likely to be a gray market import which isn't eligible for any manufacturer's rebates and which some manufacturers will refuse to repair under warranty.
If you wonder how such places can stay in business, well, there are several reasons. First most people don't complain or even know who to complain to (the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs is a good start). Second, there are an endless supply of new camera buyers shopping only on the basis of advertised price. Third, if they get shut down, they just open again a few days later with a different "owner" and a different store name.
So how do you spot such stores?
1. Well the first clue is very low prices. By that I mean that their advertised prices are significantly lower than the reputable discount stores like Adorama and Amazon. Maybe 25-45% less. If you see an EOS 5D for $2400 or an EOS 20D for $1000 or and EOS Digital Rebel for $500, it's a scam. Much as you may WANT to believe those prices (and that's exactly what the scammers count on), they are bogus.
2. A second clue is that they have vastly overpriced accessories on their website. For example a 512MB memory card worth maybe $80 on "sale" for $200
3. A third clue is that they have no street address listed. In fact no clue as to where they are located. The "contact" page usually contains an email address and a phone number.
4. A fourth clue is that, when you do finally track them down, very often they are located in Brooklyn, New York. They will have a 718 area code phone number and if you do a WHOIS search on the domain name, you'll find a Brooklyn address. Sometimes you'll find the registration info is cloaked, i.e. the registrar info (e.g. Network Solutions) is given, not the true owner of the website. Legitimate companies don't normally cloak their registration information.
5. A fifth clue is they tend to push lens and camera "packages". Not the standard Canon body + lens kits, but packages they make up themselves with names like "starter package", "premium package", "expert package" etc. which they claim also contain stuff like filters, cases, lens cloths and tripods - all of which turn out to be useless junk when you get them.
6. A sixth clue is they tend to push extended warranties on cameras, especially really expensive extended warranties with dire warnings on how much it can cost to fix a digital camera.
Note also that some of the smaller "comparison shopping" sites may be associated in some way with some of these scammers and that some of these scammers operate businesses under several different names. So if you see a site with comparison prices from 10 stores and 8 of them seem to meet conditions 1-6 above, it's time to run!
BTW I'm sure that not 100% of all scammers are located in Brooklyn and not 100% of all Brooklyn Photo and Camera stores are scammers, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that 90% are. Also a nice looking website is absolutely no reflection on the quality of the company. A nice looking website can be assembled in a day for a few hundred dollars by a competent web designer. Remember too that just because it's on a web site doesn't mean it isn't a lie. Anyone can say anything on a website. While honest folks tend to believe what they read, they probably should be more skeptical. There are people out there who will simply lie. Store in your neighborhood may not, but you're not buying from a store in your neighborhood. I'm pretty sure most of them just make up their "customer reviews"!
For what lies behind the website see, Don Wiss - Brooklyn Stores. Note that d.b.a. stands for "doing business as" for stores which operate under more than one name (a possible clue that something may be fishy). For example he shows a picture of C&A Marketing, which operates as both PriceRitePhoto.com and TheCameraMall.com. Here's a shot of J&K which operates as InfinityCameras.com, InfinitiCameras.com, InfinitiPhoto.com, BestPriceCameras.com, eastcoastdistributor.com and MrAccessory.com. Finally here's a shot of Radio Active Electronics which also operates as USAphotonation.com and radioactivedeals.com. Decide for yourself if you'd want to deal with any of these stores.
Sursa :
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/photo_scammers.html
