Simpsons House marked down by 3rd party seller

[brickchick]

I just ordered the Simpson's House through Amazon, sold by a third-party seller, for $159.99 + 8.59 shipping. I sure hope its legit!!

Looks like the seller has more than one, so if you feel like changing it like I did, it's a great way to save $$. I even weighed out the savings by waiting for double points through the Lego store, but this here is a better deal!

[vynsane]

I sure hope its legit!!

Any time you find yourself saying this, it's a sign that it probably isn't. Sounds like a drop-shipping scam, which is when they take your money, pay for it with a stolen credit card and have it shipped directly to your address, leaving you to look like the one who perpetrated credit fraud.

[stevebuscemi]

No, you won't look like you committed fraud. Don't try to scare people. They'll just see the drop shipper as possibly fraudulent (if they are).

No worries, if you get it fine, if you don't do a chargeback. Companies shouldn't offer drop shipping and if they do, this is the risk of doing so. No company should drop ship in today's credit card environment.

[SpaceViking]

Drop shipping scams are real, and they do have bad consequences for the buyer.

As Vynsane said, the scam is a way to milk cash from a stolen credit card. The crook lists an expensive item for sale at a price that's hard to resist, and then ships the item to the buyer direct from Lego using a stolen credit card. The crook then has the cash, the buyer has the item, and Lego is left holding the bag with a fraudulent charge.

Lego's typical response in this regard is to ban the buyer from all future lego.com orders.

For the OP, this does sound a bit too good to be true. If it turns out to be legit, congrats on the good deal. If you receive the set direct from Lego, however, call them right away and prepare to send the set back. That's the best way to avoid being banned from future lego.com orders.

[vhn2dmd]

^^ SpaceViking and Vynasane are correct because it happened to me. I ordered a bigger lego set on Ebay at a price too good to be true. I got the item but was told by Ebay that seller used a stolen credit card. I was refunded my money. Not too long after, i was banned from ordering anything from Lego.com. I had to fight to get it lifted and it included in returning the lego set. So if you dont care about being banned from Lego.com then go for it. But for the exclusives, I look for legit deals from legit sellers.

[vynsane]

No, you won't look like you committed fraud. Don't try to scare people. They'll just see the drop shipper as possibly fraudulent (if they are).

And how would they know who the drop-shipper is? If it's a stolen credit card, the 'payment info' is that of the owner of the card, not the drop-shipper. Then the 'shipping info' is that of the buyer. The drop-shipper's information is nowhere to be seen. The owner of the stolen card is not liable for the payment, as it's stolen. Therefore the only physical evidence they have is the buyer, who looks like they perpetrated credit fraud. That's the entire point of the scam - the actual perpetrator is a ghost.