I, unwittingly, nearly pulled the same scam with Dell about 10 years ago.
I had a new notebook shipped to my house. It cost about $1600 new. The tracking information said it was delivered, so I hurried home to get it as I didn't want it on my doorstep. I get there, and no box. I checked the deck out back (where the UPS guy would sometimes leave things), and nothing. Crap.
So I call Dell, and after working with them for 20 minutes, I have a new replacement on the way. I basically had to "super pinky promise" that the notebook never really made it to me.
10 minutes later, my neighbor comes by and says "Hey, got a package for you!". Holy moly... I just social engineered the poor Indian lady at Dell. After a quick call back, the replacement is canceled.
To this day, I'm both shocked and very happy that Dell made it so easy. I like that they trusted me (a return customer) and tried to do the right thing. However, that trust is so easy to exploit.
I'm not sure what the answer is here. In this case, I can't blame amzn. I mean, they are trying to be helpful. How do you setup a system that's truly helpful w/o leaving wide gaps for scammers? Things like 2-factor auth, sms codes, etc will annoy most non techies (IMO).
I had a new notebook shipped to my house. It cost about $1600 new. The tracking information said it was delivered, so I hurried home to get it as I didn't want it on my doorstep. I get there, and no box. I checked the deck out back (where the UPS guy would sometimes leave things), and nothing. Crap.
So I call Dell, and after working with them for 20 minutes, I have a new replacement on the way. I basically had to "super pinky promise" that the notebook never really made it to me.
10 minutes later, my neighbor comes by and says "Hey, got a package for you!". Holy moly... I just social engineered the poor Indian lady at Dell. After a quick call back, the replacement is canceled.
To this day, I'm both shocked and very happy that Dell made it so easy. I like that they trusted me (a return customer) and tried to do the right thing. However, that trust is so easy to exploit.
I'm not sure what the answer is here. In this case, I can't blame amzn. I mean, they are trying to be helpful. How do you setup a system that's truly helpful w/o leaving wide gaps for scammers? Things like 2-factor auth, sms codes, etc will annoy most non techies (IMO).