Yum! So I've been poking around online recently for a digital SLR camera, going through the usual suspects, Amazon, Craigslist, eBay, and the like. I was interested in the Canon EOS 20D but felt it was rather cost-prohibitive especially considering that this was my initial foray into manual photography. But I figured if I could find it for a ridiculously cheap price, I might as well go for it since that way, I won't have to upgrade it for a good many years. Of course, being the savvy Internet shopper that I am, I should've known already that when it comes to cameras and camcorders, there's no way in hell you're going to get a ridiculously cheap price on any of it.
Amazon Marketplace however had a bunch of sellers offering the 20D for about 30% off. But they all looked suspicious because every single one of them were new sellers. But I figured I might as well email them to see what the deal was. The first "person" I contacted, reinaldsr@yahoo.com, was a blatant scam. The Amazon listing said that he/she was located in South Carolina. I emailed this person asking for more info and received back a long, obviously well thought out message that was unfortunately full of grammatical and spelling mistakes, stating what I should do to get the camera. That was the first sign right there. Then there was the "we only accept payment in the form of cash transfers" which pretty much confirmed the scam.
So I notified Amazon and sent them the contents of the email I had received. A few days later, I noticed that those listings were gone. Not a day had gone by before reinaldsr@yahoo.com was back again, posting for the same product! Except this time he used his email address as the Amazon ID instead of some alias. Weird.
But anyway, there was another listing for the 20D that cost $94 more that I also emailed. This one, gary_theniceguy@yahoo.com, was a bit cannier. At least his written English was a lot better. He sent back a bunch of pictures of the "actual" item (below) and to my question of why he was selling it, he stated that he was 54 years old and already had a camera.
Looking good right? I was this close to pulling the trigger on the purchase but when I went to the Amazon site, his listing was no longer there. So I emailed him again to confirm that someone had already bought the camera and he replied that yes but that person had backed out so the camera was still available if I wanted it. I said fine, but I requested that he put the camera back on Amazon so we could do it through their payment system. He replied that he hated having to be charged again by Amazon but if that's what I wanted (doing the transaction through Amazon) I should wait for an email from Amazon with info about confirming the purchase. *Warning sirens flashing, strike #1* So I sent back a reply saying more or less, "Uhhh... ok...."
So this morning I got up and, no reply back. Checked my junk email box and there it was, not one, but THREE emails from "Amazon" titled "Regarding the deal with Gary Davis". Strike #2. You can view the email in its entirety here. Notice the "amzon.com" To and Reply-To field. And of course, the email actually came through AOL. And of course, the request for payment by Western Union transfer. To an address in Great Britain. When the original listing had stated that he was in Oregon. Strikes #3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. C'mon now, I know you Europeans have a low estimation of the intelligence of Americans these days but seriously, this is too much. ;-p
Anyhoo, I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that all I can afford is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (Digital Kiss as it's known in Japan). Not that that's bad but it would've been nice to get the 20D for slightly more than the Rebel. ;-)
So, lesson re-learned. TANSTAAFL right?
