BEWARE: Photography SCAMS

Stolen gear, unpaid gigs, shipping scams, and more. Tony and Chelsea tell their stories of being scammed out of camera gear, common scams used on photographers, and how to protect yourself from losing your gear, money, and time.

[rickfarber]

Speaking of not buying camera gear from Amazon, that is the company that cares so little about the photography community that they shut down DPReview without flinching.

[rastersplatter]

As a cybersecurity professional, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this post. You asked - In the early 90's as an IT consultant, had an agreement with a company to setup and provide 6 office systems (286 hardware, DOS OS, and software licenses - Lotus 123 + other stuff). Purchased it all and set it up in their office on a Thursday/Friday. On Monday, showed up to provide training and receive payment; and the offices were vacated. Empty. They burned me for $6K. That is $14K+ in 2023 dollars. And I was one year into my new business. It was brutal.

[fepatton]

This happens in the guitar world. A buyer will swap out the expensive pickups and electronics, then demand a refund because the guitar “wasn’t as advertised” or something. eBay always sides with the buyer, so the seller is just out of luck. I’ve given up selling there.

Most of my used photo gear comes from KEH or from eBay sellers with tons of sales and 100% feedback. New I get from my KEH, B&H, and Adorama. No Amazon anymore though. 😤

[rmclark]

I will never sell anything expensive on Ebay. I got scammed out of a Sony 24-105 a couple of years ago. The scammer said the lens was defective and demanded a refund and the lens they sent back was an old film lens with zero value. Ebay would not back me up and I even received a negative comment from the scammer. I will only sell my camera equipment to MPB or KEH. Both are good, I like MPB better.

[szinski]

I've had no issues ordering from Amazon, but you need to make sure that the item is listed as "Sold by Amazon" and "Ships from Amazon" ... BOTH must say Amazon... that way you're not dealing with a marketplace seller. All of the gear that I've purchased that way came with valid USA warranty cards and I had no issues registering the serial numbers with Canon Professional Services.

[thespian]

Tony, the same "shipped to someone in my town" happened to me with an eBay purchase last month. Thankfully the local UPS hub shared with me the address it was sent to. This camera was also marked as "51lbs" 😂

Turns out scammers don't ship anything. They somehow get a tracking label of another (legit) shipment and tell eBay that that's it. Because I had the real address (from UPS) that wasn't my address and the weight was so off, ebay helped me out and gave a refund.

I owe it to my local UPS center workers!

[BillTheTechnoGypsy]

I used to do IT consulting. The worst contracts I had were law firms! Their attitude was “go ahead and sue us, we will have no legal fees”. So after that….they had to pay projected costs up front.

[lonnieclemens]

I am sorry to hear about Tony and Chelsea getting scammed. I hate to see hardworking people taken advantage of. You guys always give good advice with such a positive attitude. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[geofflongford]

When I advertise gear I often get
" I'm buying this for my son etc and because I'm at sea at the moment I will organise a courier etc etc"
I'm amazed how many oceanographers want to buy my gear.

[photosky]

Thank you for protecting us Tony and Chelsea by doing these videos.

[RobKristjansson]

As a voice over artist, the sunk cost fallacy is the one I have the toughest time with. It is so hard to shut everything down after you've auditioned multiple times, negotiated a deal, waited, etc. But when they want to make just one more change to the deal (always a sketchy one lol) you've gotta pull the plug.

[PhotoReddy]

Twice I bought a Nikon D810 from Amazon that turned out to be a fake sale. Amazon refunded my purchase, but did not take down the seller.

[CtrlSaltDelete]

I've only ever had good experiences so far buying used gear, but I have a few rules that I think worked well for me -

1. I'll only ever meet in person to check the gear before buying - if they won't allow that I'm not buying from them.

2. I need to know why they are selling it. If I can't see any explanation or signs why they're selling it I'm not going near it. On the flipside if you see they're selling a bunch of photography gear at once that looks like it all worked as part of a kit that's a major green flag. This also ends up being a thing where the price is too good for no clear reason or the gear they're selling is from a big range of interests and/or unused I get suspicious of buying stolen goods.

3. Cash. Not always possible, and I will pay someone through paypal or other means depending on the reasons, gear or my impression of them, but if people aren't cool with cash at all it's a red flag.

4. If the item allows it meeting in a public space. I like train stations, or places where there will be cameras around - not because they can't scam you in public, but because the fishy people I have looked at buying from reveal how nervous they are when you bring up being in public or near cameras, at which point you don't go near them.

[ygpsghx]

Those are sobering experiences. Thank you for having the courage to share them.

[ModernVintageFilm]

My first gig was ALMOST getting scammed out of photos I had shot for a couple. They didn't receive the photos but I lost 8 hours of my time.

What a waste.

[zih]

Thank you for this video. It's very informative. I'm so tired of trying to stay ahead of all these scamming scumbags.

[RolandGonzales]

Thank you for this video. It’s sad that there are scammers everywhere. For many starting photographers the used markets are where they shop. As a buyer, I have had some negative experiences even with local marketplaces like OfferUp and Craigslist. I have stuck with only local sellers on the pretense that I at lease look at the item before buying it. There have been a number of times the seller shows up with broken gear (I always take a camera body or lens/battery to test the gear in the field) – I even had one seller try to tell me my camera broke his lens. I also have had situations in which when I explain my intent to test in the field the seller ghosts me. One particular red flag is when you see the same items (based on the items pictured) from different sellers or at different prices on different ads. I have had sellers move meeting places around (I think to ware me down and get me to agree to buy items that are in poor or broken condition). And as always, “deals too good to be good” usually are bad deals.

[lukeoftheskythatsometimesw]

Thanks you guys, I learned a few things today.

I’ve been “had” before but not with photography equipment … the money was gone in a flash

Now I’m older and the bad guys are even smarter. I can kinda see them coming now mostly but every once in a while they almost get me.

I hate thieves !

😡🤬

[katerinegiannikos]

Thanks for sharing this! It's so shocking to see so many scammers out there and they actually get away with it 🤬 another notorious scam that I've seen a few times is when they're selling something, you reach out, it seems legit and then they say something along the lines of "I'm in the hospital going for surgery and won't be able to meet up" and then try get you to send them money🙄

[video-carl]

Great to make more people aware of this. I've stopped using eBay because they deliver such an opaque experience