The Case of the Fraudulent “Free Gift”-
Amazon.Com and Luminary Skin Care
Volume 1 - Issue 2
Cam Caldwell*
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- Business Administration, Specialization in Organization Behavior and Human Resource Management at Washington State University,
Pullman, Western Australia
*Corresponding author:
Cam Caldwell, Business Administration, Specialization in Organization Behavior and Human Resource Management at Washington
State University, Pullman, Western Australia
Received: February 16, 2018; Published: February 22, 2018
DOI: 10.32474/PRJFGS.2018.01.000106
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Abstract
One of the realities of human psychology is that people want
“something for nothing” [1]. Franklin P. Jones, the long-time
humorist whose column in the Saturday Evening Post was its
longest continually posted feature, once wisely observed, “If you
get something for nothing, you just haven’t been billed yet [2].
”Jones was only partially right in today’s credit card age when some
fraudulent advertisers access your credit card balance without
even the courtesy of a bill before the fact! Unfortunately, one of
the more disappointing realities of business life is that the name
of the highly regarded Amazon.com corporation-one of America’s
most highly respected companies [3] has been used to perpetuate a
fraud by Luminary Skin Care, yet Amazon.com is allowing this fraud
to go on unchecked. Luminary Skin Care uses the Amazon.com
name on a simple online survey which, when answered, informs
the customer that (s) he has won a “free gift.” Among those gifts
is Luminary Skin Care products advertised as “a free trial [3].”The
ruse is perpetuated by having the respondents provide their credit
card number “to cover shipping and handling.” Unfortunately for
hundreds of recipients, Luminary Skin Care bills them for the “free
gift” to the tune of $187.58, ten days after the product is received
and sends these recipients more of the unordered products.
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