randompersonrandom said:
ZippityDooDah said:
If "grey" means overseas suppliers to you, then keep in mind that having a website is usually seen as a flaw rather than a plus. A few might run websites, but most don't, which means a website being a scam (frequently an impersonation scam) is much closer to certain than merely possible.
This isn't Amazon. In this space, everyone has to rethink the whole B2C relationship and what buying feels like.
Nopenada said:
I believe I’ve got a legitimate supplier for grey. I went to the specific site that was listed to locate the vendor, and that’s how I got the WhatsApp number. After I messaged that number, they passed me along to a different number so someone else could take care of my order. So far I’ve made 2 orders. Both arrived just as they should, and nothing seems off.
Then, more or less by chance, I came across another site that says it’s the same vendor, except the WhatsApp number is not the same. That site seems to offer many of the same products, though clearly not every single one.
So I’m wondering: if all of this has gone well and the kits from CN have arrived as promised, can I feel confident that I’m actually working with the person I think I am? A scammer would just take the money and vanish, wouldn’t they?
Scammers are relying on exactly that. Quit fumbling around.
On top of that, a few of the slicker scammers will even make sure a small order or 2 gets delivered, just to prime you for the large order where all you end up with is a thinner wallet.
Heh. So now I'm picturing a tale where a scammer launches things that way and is about to vanish — except his crew of fellow scammers is wildly inept, and every single one of them independently puts in an order for bait products, unaware that the rest of the team did the same thing. The result: a gigantic pile of merchandise that the scammers are stuck continuously selling off, though they keep the prices fairly cheap since the whole point is to unload the bait stock fast.
Then they bring on a NEW member of the scammer crew, and he spots that the inventory is running thin. Wanting to look like a go-getter, he puts in a big order at a favorable price to replenish — which means they're now locked in for even LONGER.
After that, one of the team quits in a fury, because this has morphed into a genuine full-time job and that's not what he agreed to, so they bring in a replacement. But the guy who stormed out was the one responsible for getting the OTHER guys trained up, so no one bothers to tell the newcomer that the plan is to sell out of the product and then take a handful of big orders and disappear. Nor does anyone tell the newest guy anything ELSE, since they aren't businessmen — they're scammers — so it never occurs to them that "bringing the new guy up to speed" is even a thing that needs to happen.
And the new guy is baffled and annoyed that he doesn't appear to have any clear instructions about what he's supposed to do, so he ALSO puts in a big order, because the bait product is starting to run low once more.
And at this point a year has passed, and they've built a solid reputation for cheap prices and quick shipping, when all they ever really set out to do was scam — so they're all deeply miserable and also kind of perplexed overall, because they've got administrative staff since they HAD to hire them, and that means they have to sort out taxes and unemployment insurance and all of that stuff.
