Beware of this Amazon phishing e-mail

Here's a phishing e-mail making the rounds that I've received twice in the past week.

Here's the full text:

Hello, I wanna ask you if you still have this item for sale,sorry for bothering you ,but i think is a error in this link ,send me an reply after you able to sell the product. ! Please let me know soon.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/172282412312

Thank you.

Brian Petesburg.

The e-mail address displayed was BrianPetesburg@bellsouth.net. If you reply to the message, it goes to commmgr-autoreply@amazon.comt.

Of course this is a scammer hoping you'll go to his Web site and enter your Amazon ID and password. Then all hell breaks loose with your account.

There are several things about this e-mail that tip you off that it's a fraud. For one thing, the URL embedded in the e-mail wasn't the one that appears in the text. The URL actually went to a rogue site:
http://210.233.10.229/wiz/www.amazon.com/gp/SignIn.html

(You can see the actual URL by moving your mouse over the URL displayed in the e-mail while looking at the bottom of your browser. This rogue site has been shut down, but this phisher probably is using a different one by now.)

Do you see any more telltale signs that this e-mail is from a phisher? Have you received one of these lately?

Here's more information about Amazon phishing scams. At the bottom is a link for reporting these "spoof" e-mails.

Q&A: Will Amazon increase our shipping credits when Postal rates rise?

QUESTION: How can we get Amazon to do right by us third-party sellers when the postage rates go up May 14? Will they increase shipping credits? I've seen nothing posted on their site. While I haven't had the time to call them, I know from past experience that while the Seller Support people are very nice, they're usually not told anything.

This time the Postal Service rate hike is really steep, and it hasn't been too long since they raised them last time.

I don't make that much per book. I have to really watch my pricing and how much postage is going to be, so this rate increase really concerns me.

ANSWER: I'm also surprised at how steep the Postal Rate hikes are this year. It seems to be totally out of whack with the rate of inflation, rising fuel costs, etc. Nearly 18 percent more for Media Mail?? Where on earth did they come up with that number? It's so much I don't think Amazon can ignore it this go-around.

Amazon stiffed us after the last two Postal rate hikes. They didn't give us a cent the last time rates went up, and only a nominal amount the time before that. This time, at the very minimum, they need to raise Marketplace shipping from $3.49 to $3.99 or $4 and change and give us all of the increase.

Sure, we can raise prices. But it would be helpful to know whether we'll need to do it.

I'm not sure how to extract this kind of information from Amazon. Although I think Amazon is a great company, it management is afflicted with a common syndrome -- the idea that because it operates on the Internet, it can ignore input from its customers and business partners.

Of course we can e-mail or call the seller support folks, but I doubt it would make a difference. One way to break through the bubble is to send an e-mail to jeff@amazon.com. E-mails sent there are read by the executive staff and legitimate complaints are taken seriously. Perhaps if enough of us write in, we'll at least get some clarification on what to expect about shipping credits this time.

Serious collectors want more than books

Have you ever found something interesting in an old book? Photographs, or perhaps a note from the author?

It never hurts to diversify your business. Here's an example of a rare book dealer who's gotten filthy rich by trading literary archives -- like notebooks or letters from famous writers.

Like the art and real estate markets, the archive market has gone through the roof, and Horowitz, with his wealthy clients and a belief that books will gain increasingly fetishistic status in the digital age, has helped bolster it.

His clients include university libraries, publisher Steve Forbes, and Martha Stuart, who collects inscribed first editions of cookbooks.

A lot of rich people are collecting all sorts of things these days. The supply of high-point collectible books is finite, but there's probably a ton of archives sitting around in attics and basements, just waiting to be discovered.

Today someone listed an obscure author's letter archive on eBay with a Buy-it-Now price of $3,000. I'll be interested to see if it sells.

eBay workshop on Half.com - Express program

Last week eBay announced that your Half.com listings will begin appearing on eBay Express at no additional charge in April (if you opt into the program).

If you have any questions about this, eBay is hosting a workshop Monday afternoon. Members of the Half and Express teams will answer questions here.

Half.com will revive its pre-order feature

Half.com announced it will bring back its pre-order feature. Buyers will be able to offer a fixed price for currently unavailable books:

For example, you could use Pre-Orders to state that you want to buy a new copy of the latest James Patterson book at $15 or less from a seller with 98% or greater positive feedback. Sellers can then look through these pre-orders during the Half.com listing process, as well as elsewhere, to see which ones they may be able to fill.

This is great news, if you ask me. Half.com didn't have a pulse a few months ago, but now it looks like eBay is fully committed to it. I've also heard that Half is approving sellers for inventory bulk uploading again -- another sign that things may improve at Half/eBay.

Here's more information on how pre-orders work at Half.com. It's not too different from the pre-ordering process at Amazon, something sellers call Buyers Waiting or "pending orders."

Q&A: How much do we have to undercut Amazon to get a sale?

QUESTION: Amazon now shows their book listings at the top of the list, above our Marketplace listings, unless we undercut Amazon by more than $3.49 -- the amount the buyer pays for standard shipping. This is somewhat misleading to the buyer, implying that every purchase from Amazon qualifies for free shipping.

My question: Do you think this is forcing prices even further downward? Are there any statistics showing how many people actually buy more books to get the free shipping deal? Are we effectively now having to give free shipping to compete with Amazon?

ANSWER: I'm not sure if it's driving prices downward -- my guess is yes. But there is no doubt that this policy has made our Marketplace listings less competitive against Amazon's.

There are no statistics on this, all we can do is guess. My guess is that about one-third of customers don't consider our Marketplace listings, even when we've got the best deal. Some people just believe it's "safer" buying from Amazon. And I suppose there's another big chunk of buyers who just buy the first listing they see, regardless of the feedback or the price.

But I would not arbitrarily discount by $3.50 below Amazon's price unless the average price is well below there. If there is any demand for the book, a smart buyer who doesn't qualify for free shipping is going to buy from you. So, if possible, wait for the smart buyer.

It's tough to compete with a landlord that gives themselves top billing and a sign that says "Fulfilled by Amazon." Here's a good example of how tough it is to compete: Currently I'm conducting an experiment by selling some slightly shopworn copies of my book Plug Your Book on Marketplace for $11.99. It's a new title so there's no used copies listed except for my listing. So here's the way it looks:

Now, you'd think I'd be getting most of the sales, right? The buyer saves $7.50 if they buy from me and pick standard shipping, versus buying from Amazon and paying for standard shipping. Even if they qualify for Amazon's free shipping, they still save $3.51 if they buy from me.

But I'm only getting about 30 percent of the sales -- the rest are going to Amazon and the Marketplace sellers who are selling new copies.

Here's a list of the bestselling books 20 years from now

Ready for a chuckle?

Here's a list of The Top 10 Bestsellers of 2027, according to Time Magazine.

Get double exposure by adding your Half.com listings to eBay Express

eBay announced sellers can add their Half.com listings to eBay Express, the new fixed-price portion of the auction site -- with no added fees.

The change is effective April 1, but you have to opt in to the program.

I think this is a great idea, Half.com and eBay Express have both been a disappointment lately. This will juice both sites through increased exposure, and help sellers too. I might be tempted to close my eBay Store, and just manage my eBay business from my Half account.

Here's how it works:

You don't have to change your Half.com procedures

• Continue listing on Half.com as usual.

• Sales on Half.com will be processed as usual. You'll be notified through Half.com and paid by direct deposit twice monthly as usual.

You'll manage your listings on eBay Express through Half.com

• When you opt-in to sell on eBay Express, your Half.com listings will show up on eBay automatically.

• If you make any changes to your Half.com listings, the changes show up on eBay. Any price changes, new listings, deletions, etc., show up on both sites.

Your eBay Express sales will be recorded in My eBay

• When a shopper buys your Half item on eBay, the transaction shows up in My eBay. It won't show up in your Half account.

• Payments for your eBay Express sales are deposited immediately into your PayPal account.

• To help you manage your inventory, your My eBay selling record, including the File Exchange tool, now has two additional fields to show where your inventory was listed and sold so you can clearly identify Half.com inventory sold on eBay Express.

Your seller fees won't increase because you list on both Half.com and eBay Express

• For Half.com listings that sell on eBay Express, you are charged a PayPal fee and an eBay Express Final Value Fee.

• These fees total the same amount as fees charged for Half.com listings that sell on Half.com. For example, if you sell a book for $25, you'll net the same profit, whether the sale happens on Half or eBay. See the math at the bottom of this page.
  

Q&A: Why does Amazon buyer feedback often critique the book, not the seller?

QUESTION: I've been selling books on eBay and Half.com for five years with 100 percent positive buyer feedback, and have only recently started to sell on Amazon.

Feedback is important to me is because it lets me know I'm grading my books correctly and meeting a buyer's service and quality expectation. But something is driving me nuts on Amazon: Many of the feedbacks I've received are mini book reviews that have absolutely nothing to do with the transaction. For example, two out of the three most recent feedbacks I've received went like this:

5 out of 5: "Clear, concise, practical, funny, personal. I couldn't put it down!"
(RE: Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom)

4 out of 5: "This book was fascinating at first, but was too long and became predictable. It was an interesting read for the most part."
(RE: The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue)

I have received thousands of feedbacks on the eBay sites, and no one has ever assumed I was responsible for a book's content. Why are book buyers on Amazon so confused? Do they think they are buying a book directly from the author or publisher? What should I do when I receive negative feedback based on the buyer's dislike for the book's content?

I have concluded feedback is not as important on Amazon as it is on the eBay sites -- mainly because the average buyer is not as sophisticated as the average eBay buyer, and because if a buyer leaves a poor, mindless, or ridiculous rating on eBay there is no real consequence for doing so.

ANSWER: I agree, Amazon buyers are much less aware of the purpose of feedback. Some of them don't have the foggiest idea that they're buying from a third party instead of Amazon itself.

I read a lot of the customer book reviews on Amazon, where people are supposed to critique the book, and several of them say stuff like, "Thanks for the fast shipping."

Jeez, how did these people ever get a credit card?

No, seriously, I think there's more to this. I'm not sure the eBay buyer is more sophisticated. It's a different culture. Amazon buyers are driven more by convenience, and don't give much thought to feedback. On eBay, lots of buyers (maybe most?) have been on the seller's side of a transaction, so they understand feedback. On Amazon, I'd bet that less than 5 percent of buyers have ever sold something online.

The bad news: We have to deal with some clueless customers. The good news: This shows that our business is growing. People who never thought of buying from an "online seller" are buying our books. Lots of these people have never been on eBay, and perhaps never even bought a used book before.

You're right, feedback is much less important to buyers on Amazon. However, I think it's essential to your business to keep your feedback average as high as possible. Because feedback does matter to buyers of expensive books.

The best we can do is to clean up after the mishaps. Just as on eBay, Amazon allows buyers to delete feedback, and I think it's worth the effort for us to educate them. Hopefully this prevents inappropriate feedback for another poor seller!

Here's a post where I give instructions for feedback removal. On eBay, the equivalent is mutual feedback withdrawal.

I guess the additional challenge in the type of case you mention is to e-mail the buyer and educate them -- within a sentence or two -- that the purpose of feedback is to rate the seller, not the product. I think you need to be very brief when you ask a buyer to delete feedback. If they were careless enough to leave silly feedback, they aren't going to care enough to read an e-mail from a seller that drones on for several paragraphs. As far as they're concerned, the transaction is done.

Does anyone out there have a diplomatic way of saying this?

Q&A: Should cellphone price-checking be banned at book sales?

QUESTION: I just learned that one of the biggest Friends of the Library sales in the country, the Gainesville FOL sale, has banned the use of "scanning devices." Is this a good idea, and is it getting to be common?

ANSWER: I haven't run into this personally, but I'm hearing about it more and more -- price-checking being banned at book sales.

Back when I started selling some six years ago, there was no such thing as ScoutPal. You just had to go with your gut, and learn to pick books by experience. I've always bought a ton of books whenever I'm at a library sale. (I infrequently use cellphone price checking at big sales because it slows down how fast I can grab books. On the other hand, I don't have a scanner, I have to key in the ISBN. Maybe if I had a scanner I'd check prices more often.)

So I have mixed feelings about this. Even before there was such a thing as cellphone price-checking, I remember getting lots of dirty looks from FOL volunteers, simply because I was buying lots of books.

Why would people get mad at you for buying lots of books at a book sale? Three reasons, I guess --

• It creates more work for the FOL volunteer who has to total your bill and box up books.
• Some people resent it when they realize you're buying books to make a profit.
• Aggressive book dealers can make it harder for "regular" book sale attendees to find good books.

My reaction has always been, "Hey, it's a book sale! Sorry to be such a pain, but isn't this the whole point -- you want people to buy books?"

I guess from the point of view of the FOL volunteers, "dealers" can keep the rest of the public from finding good books at sales -- and that scanners have made that problem much worse. And that cellphone and PDA price-checking have made it so much easier to identify "dealers."

I'm sure we've all seen example of the rudest behavior on the part of book dealers who knock people over grabbing books, block off big stacks of books, scan them, then leave piles of books unsorted. Those few bad apples are the reason scanners are getting banned from more and more sales. That's too bad.

I'm curious if other people have run into this also.

Amazon launches order-notification software

Amazon announced the launch of its order-notification software, Amazon Services Order Notifier.

When Amazon announced plans for this software last summer, it threatened to eliminate customer information from the "Sold, ship now" e-mails. But as of this evening, I'm still receiving customer shipping addresses and e-mail addresses in my "Sold, ship now" e-mails.

I've been using the beta version of ASON for a few weeks, and it's been working fine, except for two weekends ago when I couldn't get a connection for a few hours. Amazon's Web site was down at the same time.

Two features recently added to ASON that I think are very helpful:

• The ability to export order data to a comma-separated file.
• Copy-to-clipboard functionality, allowing you to copy order information into other applications like Endicia, for postage printing.

One bug that still irritates me about ASON -- the "ship to" name often includes only the buyer's first name. I'm not sure if this has been fixed or not.

If you're currently depending on the "Sold, ship now" e-mails for your Amazon orders, it probably wouldn't hurt to download ASON and get familiar with it. It does provide better security. But if you're using a Mac, you're stuck with cutting and pasting from your Seller Account page.

Here's more information about ASON.

Hanging out with The Book Guys

I recently got an MP3 player and have been using it to listen to podcasts, mostly of radio shows. Here's how it works: Instead of turning on your radio when the show airs, you download the show from the Internet and listen to it whenever you want.

One of the shows I've rediscovered through podcasting is The Book Guys, which plays on NPR sometime during the weekend, but I can never remember when. Usually I had to settle for a catching a few minutes of it while driving in the car, but now I can hear previous shows in their entirety, thanks to podcasting.

The Book Guys are licensed book appraisers, and much of the show revolves around audience members calling in, asking for an expert opinion on the worth of a certain book. It unfolds much like Antiques Roadshow, the PBS TV show where people tote in their attic treasures (or junk) -- half the people are pleasantly surprised, and the others are disappointed. There's always some newbie who thinks they bought a priceless First Edition of Huckleberry Finn for 15 cents, only to be told it's a worthless reprint.

Each Book Guys show is packed with information useful to booksellers and collectors. They talk about a variety of book-related topics with novelists, publishers, autograph experts, printers, book conservators, and others. They're not quite as funny as the Car Talk guys, but come pretty close sometimes.

An MP3 player, I guess, is like a generic iPod. It's like having a VCR or a Tivo for your audio. If you don't have one, you can still listen to The Book Guys using software that's already on your PC, like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. Follow the "archives" link to listen to past broadcasts or download them.

Q&A: Is it safe to sell books on Amazon and eBay?

QUESTION: I'm interested in selling used books on Amazon and eBay to supplement my retirement income. But I'm worried about giving my credit card to Amazon and PayPal, even though I buy books from online booksellers through Amazon all the time. I cannot jeopardize my life savings in any way.

ANSWER: I can understand the concern, and I felt exactly the same way when I started bookselling. However, I've earned my living from deposits to a regular checking account from Amazon and PayPal thanks to my bookselling during the past six years. I've never had an unauthorized deduction to my account from PayPal or Amazon, and I've never heard a story of this happening to anyone else. Sure, there is a customer every now and then who might try to cheat you. But looking at the big picture, there are U.S. consumer-protection laws against unauthorized charges to bank accounts and credit cards. So you can report any bad transactions to your bank, if it ever comes to that.

You could probably gain some peace of mind by setting up a separate bank account to collect your deposits from the bookselling, and transfer the funds periodically to your personal account. This is a worthwhile thing to do anyway, so you can keep your business and personal funds separate.

The biggest danger to online sellers, I think, is with hackers and "phishing" e-mails that ask you to "update" your account information, and give a Web link for you to follow. These are always fraudulent, and a scammer can gain access to your accounts if you give your password. The only thing you have to remember is, never follow a link in an e-mail that supposedly takes you to eBay, Amazon, a bank, or anywhere else you need a password. Instead of following links, open your Web browser and type in the address yourself.

Phishing isn't unique to online selling, of course -- everyone with an e-mail account receives this junk. But some of it can appear legitimate, so keep your guard up. Here is more information on fraud prevention from Amazon and eBay.

Powell's wants your books (but only some of them)

Powell's, the bookstore chain, added a book buyback feature to its site. So if you've got some duds from your last library sale, it might pay off to see how much Powell's will give you.

Powells will send you prepaid Media Mail shipping labels if you register and offer an ISBN they want. They won't take just any book, and you won't get cash -- you'll just get some credit toward buying books at Powells.com.

It's hard to tell if systems like this are ready for prime time. Powell's system seems to reject hardbacks that have a paperback edition in print. One bookseller discussing this on BookFinder's Insider discussion list said he typed in the ISBNs of 10 of his most valuable books (worth $7,000 retail) just to see what would happen. Powell's rejected every one.

Still, you might be able to sell some books for a few dollars that are oversupplied on Amazon and selling for a penny. That's one way to get rid of your deadwood!

Why you should boycott AbeBooks

I'm ranting about the sale of Advance Review Copies on my other blog today. Read it here.

Taking the pulse of online auctions

If you're an auction seller -- on eBay, Amazon (remember those?) or any other site -- you may want to take the new survey at AuctionBytes.

No registration is required. I just completed the survey, and it took me about five minutes. When the results are released I'll post an item here.

I'm sure the results will be interesting, considering all the upheaval at eBay and Amazon these days. Specifically, I'm talking about the reduced viability of eBay Stores for booksellers, and Amazon's recent vaporization of zShops. Seriously, it seems eBay's fees are going up faster than college tuition and healthcare put together.

Apparently, our good friends in management at eBay and Amazon believe we are locked into their venues for life, no matter how high their fees, or how badly they cripple our storefronts. Perhaps, then, it's no coincidence that AuctionBytes' last survey found a huge, 253 percent increase in signups at Yahoo Stores -- clearly a sign that sellers are looking for a fair deal -- easy-to-use, branded storefronts that can generate traffic. I don't foresee any reversal of this trend, although I'm sure Google Base will siphon off some of the growth at Yahoo.

Q&A: How can I avoid repricing scams?

QUESTION: I'm concerned that unscrupulous sellers on Amazon Marketplace might scam Marketplace vendors who automatically reprice their inventory to meet the lowest price.

For example, assume the market price for a specific textbook is $80, but student X doesn't want to pay that much. He knows about automatic repricing, so Student X offers to SELL the book on Amazon for $45, even though he doesn't have a copy. He waits for the automatic repricers to match his price, then he buys it cheap. It seems like this could be just the sort of "insider tip" that could spread like wildfire across college campuses.

ANSWER: I think this type of thing is already happening and will only increase as more students buy books online. I wouldn't be surprised if some "real" booksellers are using this technique to see if they can outsmart (or even sabotage) their competition.

There are several ways to avoid this trap. It's smart for sellers to have a "rule" that any price change over a certain percentage or dollar amount won't be automatic. Here's another way to approach it: Set a minimum price for each item, so you're essentially preventing the price from going below your wholesale price or your target price.

Another safeguard is to eyeball the competing sellers. For example, any time I reprice a book over $20, I check the feedback of the sellers with lower prices. If someone without a track record is lowballing, I'll ignore that listing.

As third-party repricing software has gotten more sophisticated, they allow you to specify these types of rules. For example, AMan has a "Price Watch" feature which prevents major upward or downward deviations in price. And it has a graduated decline feature where you can specify that your price will be lowered by only by a certain amount.

Kevin O'Brien, who developed AMan, says there's another perhaps less-common shenanigan some sellers use. The seller will raise their price on a book temporarily, trying to get you to raise your price too. Then they'll come in at a much lower price, trying to get a quick sale while you're at an uncompetitive price.

If anyone has more techniques or tools for avoiding these kinds of scams, please add a comment.