Fraudsters are tricking bargain hunters who use the online shop Amazon into handing over money for non-existent goods.
Shoppers are lured away from the secure area of the site, best known as a bookstore but also a virtual meeting place for buyers and sellers, and persuaded to wire money for items which they do not receive.
The scam is similar to one operated by con artists who target users of the eBay site, as revealed earlier this month.
Both eBay and Amazon have been criticized for not doing enough to warn users about the cons. One scam on the "Marketplace" area of Amazon's site -- a cyberspace trading area -- involves an organization calling itself Bargain Ltd.
Dave, a health professional from the north of England, was one of many who spotted that it was offering a ?500 (US$918) digital camera for ?200. He sent an e-mail to the organization registering his interest.
The supposed sellers said they were "Japanese wholesalers on a three-day contract approved by Amazon" who as part of a "strategy towards unleashing our Web site next month are offering Amazon customers the chance to purchase products at wholesale prices."
The e-mail came with a message falsely claiming to come from Amazon which said the seller had been authorized to collect payment "via bank transfer only" rather than through the site's secure payment system.
Also in the e-mail were details of Bargain Ltd, including a company registration number and date of incorporation.
The details are accurate. There is such a company registered -- Bargain Ltd is in a name owned by a firm called Poundland, which specializes in cut-price goods. However it has not offered goods on Amazon. The fraudsters adopted the name to give their operation respectability.
Poundland has put a warning about the scam on its Web site. Its operations controller, Mike Gray, said around six victims of the con had contacted it. One had given the fraudsters ?500.
Gray said he believed Amazon ought to put more prominent warnings on its site.
"There is a huge amount of legal information on the site. The information is there but it is not easy to find," Gray said.
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