Post by Nalkarj on Feb 9, 2018 20:14:33 GMT
This is not quite paranormal (I think… ), but it is a mystery-of-sorts and an intriguing one at that.
In Wednesday’s Globe, there was a front-page story about a couple, the Gallivans of Acton, Mass., who have been receiving unordered packages from Amazon since October. It’s a wild story, made even crazier by the utter worthlessness of the items—e.g., electronic hand warmers, a charger case, a cell-phone light, etc. At this point, they’ve received twenty packages of useless junk, and Amazon has been completely unable/unwilling to help, stating only that the packages were purchased by a gift card.
The original story (and the Globe’s complete investigation) is here, but it goes behind a paywall if you read more than 2 stories; the Chicago Tribune has a good summary free here. Googling it shows me that ABC, CBS, The New York Post, and The Independent have also picked up the story.
Anyway, at the end of the Globe piece, columnist Sean Murphy explains that the Gallivans may be “...unwitting accomplices in a ruse to manipulate the all-important buyer reviews posted by Amazon,” possibly by Chinese companies. According to Murphy:
By this point, unsurprisingly, the Gallivans are infuriated, and Amazon just keeps saying it can’t do anything. Still, some mysteries remain:
Weird, huh?
In Wednesday’s Globe, there was a front-page story about a couple, the Gallivans of Acton, Mass., who have been receiving unordered packages from Amazon since October. It’s a wild story, made even crazier by the utter worthlessness of the items—e.g., electronic hand warmers, a charger case, a cell-phone light, etc. At this point, they’ve received twenty packages of useless junk, and Amazon has been completely unable/unwilling to help, stating only that the packages were purchased by a gift card.
The original story (and the Globe’s complete investigation) is here, but it goes behind a paywall if you read more than 2 stories; the Chicago Tribune has a good summary free here. Googling it shows me that ABC, CBS, The New York Post, and The Independent have also picked up the story.
Anyway, at the end of the Globe piece, columnist Sean Murphy explains that the Gallivans may be “...unwitting accomplices in a ruse to manipulate the all-important buyer reviews posted by Amazon,” possibly by Chinese companies. According to Murphy:
A seller trying to prop up a product would set up a phony e-mail account that would be used to establish an Amazon account. Then the seller would purchase merchandise with a gift card — no identifying information there — and send it to a random person, in this case the Gallivans. Then, the phantom seller, who controls the “buyer’s” e-mail account, writes glowing reviews of the product, thus boosting the Amazon ranking of the product.
How did Mike, to whom the packages are addressed, get drawn into this? On occasion he’s ordered stuff on Amazon and received it directly from a manufacturer, once from China. That manufacturer or some affiliate may have scooped Mike’s name and address.
I asked Amazon if it could identify the Amazon account used to send all that junk to Mike and Kelly by reading the label. Amazon didn’t reply, but Thomson [an expert quoted who used to work for Amazon] said it can.
If so, why didn’t Amazon shut down that account as soon as Mike first contacted Amazon months ago?
I asked Amazon if it could identify the Amazon account used to send all that junk to Mike and Kelly by reading the label. Amazon didn’t reply, but Thomson [an expert quoted who used to work for Amazon] said it can.
If so, why didn’t Amazon shut down that account as soon as Mike first contacted Amazon months ago?