When you see items, seemingly at below cost, on Amazon and Rakuten, what exactly is the scam? Is it usually a fake item, a refurbished item?
For example searching “ミステリーランチ] CATALYST 26 カタリスト 26 リュックサック バックパック バッグ カバン 鞄 26L ブラック 黒 メンズ [並行輸入品]” you will find the name brand Monster Ranch Catalyst 26, and less than cost, on Yahoo, Amazon and Rakuten.
What is the angle here? I feel this is clearly suspicious.
7 comments
Replicas 90% of the time. Same shit with mercari
Bud don’t be stupid.
You just told yourself why it’s a scam.
On cheaper consumables, like deodorant, it will often be like 500yen then + 1500yen for shipping.
Anything that seems cheap you just have to pay a little extra attention. On more expensive items, it’s worth checking the actual manufacturers website. Resellers often try to dupe you on Amazon and Rakuten, when the item is cheaper from the manufacturer. Just bought a mountain hardware sleeping bag, was 60k on Amazon, went to their website and it was 43k.
I’m so curious about the other way around, where some innocuous item that ought to be cheap is listed as so ridiculously expensive that nobody would ever buy it…. What’s the play there?
It must be noted that the Japanese Yen and Renminbi have the same currency symbol: ¥. Especially when it looks cheap.
I remember that the Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan issued a warning. Somewhere on the site it says in Kanji, “Our currency unit is Renminbi,” so it doesn’t seem to be a scam. There was a blur on the TV news, but it looked like Amazon.
**並行輸入品** means the item is not made for the Japanese domestic market, but sold by a third-party distributor/importer.
Usually, the tag is used when there is JDM versions also for sale.
For example, a Nikon camera originally destined to be sold in India, or a Casio watch sold in Indonesia, or SDXC memory cards sold in the US.
Instructions are unlikely to be in Japanese. Any warrenty is most likely void.
It’s not a scam or counterfeit, but anyone selling counterfeits is likelier to sell under this label as it makes comparisons with genuine goods more difficult.
So, slightly cheaper but with a greater risk element.
These are direct imports. Shipped from outside your country. No one to complain to. It is a bit of a coin flip.