Canon 5D + 24 - 105mm L LensI love buying equipment at Amazon. Its convenient and I trust them. They have excellent buyer protection and are very responsive to claims.
I also buy at their Marketplace where people and small businesses sell their stuff. Amazon's protection covers this too, but that doesn't mean you should be completely careless, as they only cover you up to 5 times for life.
Unfortunately scammers have found out ways to use Amazon Marketplace steal your hard earned dollars.
Especially high priced electronic items (and that's what I usually buy there) are being used for this kind of fraud.
Obviously people lose all reasoning skills when something is being sold at incredibly low prices, although above all that should be the first indicator that something is wrong.
When I was looking at some items, I ran across the Canon 5D + 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens package offered at just $1400 (the next cheapest package price was around $3400).
The lens alone is easily worth almost $1100 at Amazon.
I was pretty sure this was just another scam, but I decided to send the seller an email and poke around a little to see what he would tell me.
I sent him an email asking about some more details. 

Me: I noticed that you are selling this camera with lens far below the normal price range. Is there anything wrong with the camera, is this a mistake ?

He promptly replied within the hour:

Fraudster: Thank you for your express interest in my Canon EOS 5D Camera. First of all i want to tell you that my products are brand new in box,with 12 mounths manufacturer warranty from Canon, with all the cables, accessories etc. The price for immediate purchase of 1 Camera is only 1400 USD and the shipping, handling and inssurance are included.i sell so cheapp because i have a stock liquidation. tell me if you are intrested to buy it so we can make the next step.

So lets see. He could easily sell this package for $1000 more within one hour. He made up some reason (clearance) to make the deal sound legitimate.  A bunch of spelling mistakes don't look very professional either. Lets poke a little more:

Me: Is that the US Version and US Warranty?

Fraudster: yes is US warranty 12 mounths.. i make the transaction under Amazon Service and if you  want to buy send me your full name and shipp adress to forward them to Amazon and start the transaction. Then you will be contacted by them with the rest of the order(payment and shipping detailles).

Huh? Now here is something quite funny. Since when can a seller of a product request Amazon to bill me for something? 

Me: Why not go through Amazon right away?

Fraudster: yes we make the transaction throught Amazon..sure.. so i will need your full name and shipp adress to start the order..

I was hoping to get him to send me a fake Amazon email, so I made up some fake address that sounded legit.
I think I might have gone a little overboard by making minor changes to my name (after all my email reveals my real name, which I made sound like a nickname).
He sent me a confirmation and promised to send the request from Amazon, which I never got.
The bottom line: He probably got suspicious of the fake mailing address or he actually punched it into yahoo maps. I didn't want to use a real one, so I wouldn't get another unsuspecting person involved.

I also searched for this username on Ebay. It turned up with a username who had tons of good reviews and all of a sudden a whole lot of bad reviews of people who hadn't received their expensive stuff.
The 100% positive reviews on Amazon were all created from small items like books (sometimes reviewers include what they received in the review), not a single high priced electronic item.

So what would have happened if I had simply bought it right on Amazon?

Now just $1000 Most likely he would have cancelled the order and send me an email, faking Amazon as the sender, replicating their email style. He would probably have asked for a Western Union Money transfer.

I wish Amazon would be a little bit more proactive in preventing this kind of fraud. These guys are really easy to spot for their unbelievable deals. I also would like for Amazon to inform their customers of common fraud tactics.

Shortly after, I saw an even "better" deal (see picture to the left).
I do believe that it was the same person (both claimed to Ship from GA) and that he found a way to hijack someone's seller account, using their good reputation for his/her shady tactics.

I still will continue buying electronics on Ebay and Amazon. Following a few simple rules, I have never lost any money. Follow these rules and use common sense when you buy electronics:

• Always check the feedback of a person, but don't just check the percentage. Rather go in and read the actual feedback. On Ebay you can review recent items that this seller sold. Were those items of a similar price or did he sell a ton of very cheap items? Some people sell lots of cheap items to build up a lot of positive feedback before all of a sudden switching to higher priced items. Don't buy from those people.
• Can you find a profile on Amazon and Ebay of the same seller? By comparing the two, you might find that one already got burned out and he now moved to the next.
• When you buy on Amazon, make sure the payment is handled through Amazon. If the seller demands ANYTHING else, deny the request and inform Amazon. Amazon allows payment only to be made through Amazon.
• Always stay away from Western Union
• On Ebay, make sure the seller is qualified for extended protection (higher amount). It simply means the seller needs a certain amount of positive feedback.
• If a deal looks too good to be true, believe me in 99% of all cases it is. Why should someone sell this camera and lens for less then 1/3 of its retail value?
• Make sure you are buying the US model with US warranty.

A little paranoia goes a long way when buying on Ebay and Amazon Marketplace. But I still buy a lot of my stuff there, and I have saved a boatload of money this way. Just be careful and aware that the Scammers and Fraudsters are on Amazon too.

And please protect your password if you have an account on Ebay or a seller account on Amazon. Make sure nobody can guess your password and that it is hard to crack. I believe seller's being careless causes many of these problems.