A call for help to the 1hive community: How Amazon is ripping off Venezuelan customers. The goal was reached! thanks to everyone who donated, don't send more money!

Hi guys, my name is Jose Borges some of you know me by my name, some of you know me as Escanore. I’m doing this post to ask for donations.

On November 9 I bought two gift cards from bitpay using XRP (one for 15$ and another one for 1285$ total =1300$) and I redeemed them on Amazon. Then I proceeded to pay for a laptop that I need so I can keep working for 1hive.

The next day I got an email saying that my account was closed and that my order was cancelled.

Here is the email I got:

So I proceeded to amazon.com and followed the instructions (the page asked me to share my address and information about the giftcard) I shared the invoice that I got from Bitpay.

A day later I got another email:

I also got in touch with bitpay support, they told me that they can’t refund the giftcards.

And I talked with John Harrison, Amazon’s Account Manager for BitPay, and he told me that Bitpay is a client of amazon incentives and is an authorized issuer of Amazon Giftcards.

Again, I bought both gift cards from an authorized seller using crypto currencies (in this case XRP) so I can’t provide any VISA information. Also the guys from bitpay told me that their invoice should be enough for you to help me.

So for the last few days, I have been calling Amazon, and trying to get my case going, but I don’t think that they are going to give me the money back since they closed my account and close the case as soon as I call and try to open it again.

Also, I searched for some info on twitter, and apparently this is a common MO for Amazon with accounts from Venezuelans.

Here is a thread about it https://twitter.com/marcyavilatw/status/1323765916740554752?s=21

Some news about it

I’m not the only one going through this… So yeah, congrats Amazon for stealing from people from a poor country. (If you want to know more about my country’s situation I could talk for a long time about this, but probably a simple Google search will give you a general idea).

I can’t afford to try to get a new laptop again, and after draining my chances to solve this horrible situation I humbly come to the community to ask you guys for donations as a last resource measure. I’d be very blessed if I can raise 1K USD.

I bought this laptop so that I could keep working with and for 1hive. I need this laptop to:

  • Keep doing translation work for 1hive
  • Keep learning javascript to help 1hive in other ways
  • Also, I need the computer to render, since I’m a mechanical engineering student (Maybe I could so some cool designs for 3D printing 1hive logos)
  • To Game, I love gaming, I need to beat @D0SH playing CS

Why did I chose a laptop:

I’m planning to leave Venezuela, so it’s easier for me to take it with me, than trying to get a desktop out of this country. I want to keep involved in 1hive after this life-changing decision.

I’m very sorry for asking this to you guys, but at the same time I can’t think of any other solutions against this corporate bullshit. I appreciate whatever you can help with, and I really, really thank you deeply for taking the time to read about this. I would also like to add that if for some reason my situation with Amazon is solved, I give you my word I won’t have any issues with giving donations back to those who kindly helped me.

Thank you everyone that donated! You don’t know how happy I am to belong in such a wonderful community!

Thank you @chuygarcia92 @pab and all the fauna team for helping me emotionally

Sincerely,
José Borges “Escanore”

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Jose! Man this is brutal what they are putting you through. You can count me in for donations. Also u better get one soon cause you will need about 1k hours before u can take me on :wink:

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Thanks for listening to me, these days have been difficult

Fuerza @Escanor! Count me in as well! Also, you may be able to find help with yours and other venezuelans’ cases in this page - https://www.econsumer.gov/#crnt

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Yea! @chuygarcia92 gave me that link ass well. I already reported my case there , thank you pab :heart:

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I’m so ooo furious right now. What the f*k is wrong with these guys!!
That twitter thread made me lose it completely, what the fuck!!!. How can these people be so inhumane. I can’t believe that so many people have fallen victim to this. Shame on Amazon!

I’m sorry you had to go through this man. I don’t have much, but i sent some xdai to your address. You’ll be fine.
Just curious thou why does your order total read $0.00 on the amazon order confirmation?

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Hey man! Thanks for reading everything, I think that’s the shipping price (since it was my first order they didn’t charge me for the shipping)

I took those pics the day I did the purchase because I was happy

Oh just found another pick I took

Right now I can’t access my account so I’m glad I took those pics

So it sounds like Amazon had no problems taking bitpays money?

Is this how the transaction works for bitpay? When you buy a gift card from bit pay. You used xrp which bitpay sells on the open market to then us usd to buy the gift card from amazon. I don’t know why Amazon would have a problem with this.

However, there maybe US sanction laws on Venezuela preventing Amazon from having any transactions connected to Venezuela.

No, Bitpay is an Amazon Incentives client. The giftcards are issued almost instantly. It has nothing to do with the giftcards tho. The problem is that they are closing accounts from Venezuela… This has been going on since last month.

Ive personally seen how much you have been struggling with this man… It really is a crappy situation, just because you are from Venezuela… i will try to help out in any way I can :slight_smile: thanks for all your hard work escanore

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I’ve seen this before. Amazon has automatic gift card fraud flags for things such as lack of on file credit card, changing IP addresses, and purchases greater than a hundred dollars worth. They wait until you have a significant $ amount worth of gift cards before closing your account to maximize your losses and discourage this behavior even if it doesn’t technically violate their TOS. Since this is done automatically they might return the balance if you can talk to an actual human on the phone and provide ID info and an on file credit card. Best of luck leaving Venezuela.

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