There are several ways Amazon could have prevented this. I wrote this post to bring attention to ways in which buyers can scam legitimate sellers using Amazon's "A-to-Z Guarantee."
1) Amazon can (and should!) require sellers to post the IMEI (unique identifier) of each cell phone to Amazon as part of the sale process.
2) Amazon can then easily verify whether an IMEI has been listed as stolen before allowing the item to be posted.
3) If the buyer claims a cell phone as stolen after purchase, Amazon will have the IMEI and can verify this with the carrier. In my case, it was definitely not stolen.
This still leaves a gap where the buyer could purchase the phone, tell the carrier it has been stolen, and then get a refund--but the buyer in this case would not be able to use the phone, since that Galaxy Nexus model only works on Verizon. Carriers are working on a database (that should be live this month according to news sources) that will enable carriers to report stolen phones to each other, so in that case the buyer would not end up with a workable phone.
Currently, Amazon doesn't do any of this, and their policies enable buyers to scam legitimate sellers. I'm asking Amazon to put tighter policies in place to prevent fraud.
I see that you not only didn't make my note on Medium public, but you actually fucking deleted it and I was no more or less critical of you there, than here.
So, since you seem to be in the business of speaking to other entrepreneurs, I can only surmise that by "speaking" you mean, in one direction and you aren't at all interested in "listening" if it's critical of your position...
1) Amazon can (and should!) require sellers to post the IMEI (unique identifier) of each cell phone to Amazon as part of the sale process.
2) Amazon can then easily verify whether an IMEI has been listed as stolen before allowing the item to be posted.
3) If the buyer claims a cell phone as stolen after purchase, Amazon will have the IMEI and can verify this with the carrier. In my case, it was definitely not stolen.
This still leaves a gap where the buyer could purchase the phone, tell the carrier it has been stolen, and then get a refund--but the buyer in this case would not be able to use the phone, since that Galaxy Nexus model only works on Verizon. Carriers are working on a database (that should be live this month according to news sources) that will enable carriers to report stolen phones to each other, so in that case the buyer would not end up with a workable phone.
Currently, Amazon doesn't do any of this, and their policies enable buyers to scam legitimate sellers. I'm asking Amazon to put tighter policies in place to prevent fraud.