New York Times Article - Amazon’s Curious Case of the $2,630.52 Used Paperback

I will try and dig up the article I read recently for more interesting reading, but in the meantime:

a) I don't think Amazon has a policy for what third party sellers can price merchandise at, so someone asking $2630.52 probably does not violate anything. If they don't actually have a copy to sell, well then that is a violation. (Some resellers price like this, then just buy a cheap copy when someone orders their overpriced listing).

b) Most of these overpriced copies are actually part of a money laundering network. Bad guy steals a credit card number or buys one from a darknet site dealing in stolen numbers. Bad guy lists a vastly overpriced copy of some random paperback on Amazon. Bad guy creates a throwaway Amazon account using stolen credit card. Bad guy buys the book he listed using the stolen card, transfers the funds out of Amazon, and now has legitimate laundered funds for 70% of the transaction. If you read the article carefully linked by Trotter above, you will note the following...

She noted that her blog had gotten an explosion in traffic from Russia. “Maybe Russian hackers do this in their spare time, making money on the side,” she said.