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I have not created a business, physically or online. I don't know how to and don't have a plan right now.

My preacher referred a person in a different congregation of my church to me. They both asked if I could allow them to use my personal id and bank account or passport to create a seller account on Amazon for them. They said a business account can be created either by my passport and address, or by a company in turn created by my personal id and bank account. They will manage the business themselves including the tax, without me doing anything. They will give me a one-time bonus for appreciation, but I said I don't accept any bonus if I help them. All the profits of the business go to the church, paying for its running and growth.

  1. What's the risk that I may face, if I let others use my identity to sell things on Amazon? Suppose if they are not honest, or if honest but not 100% skillful at handling the business.

  2. They said they have opened multiple seller accounts in the names of other people in the church. I was wondering what likely reasons that an organization would create multiple sellers' accounts on Amazon either at the same time or one after the closing of the previous? (This is in China. Is this a pattern of sellers from China? Does Amazon have a specific policy which leads to the pattern in the reactions of the sellers to the policy?)

Tim
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4 Answers4

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If I wanted to scam people, then joining a church where people trust me would be an excellent way to start.

Your risk is complete. If that person orders things without paying, you are on the hook. If they take money for goods without delivering, you are on the hook for delivery. If they don’t pay taxes, the tax office will come for you.

So your risk is being completely wiped out financially without any chance to ever recover.

gnasher729
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4

You are completely exposed here. If it is your bank account you are responsible for the activity on that account. If they accidentally or deliberately overdraft the account, you will be responsible for making up the overdraft. If you try to claim that yes, it was your account but you weren't really involved ,the bank is going to show you the service agreement you signed where you agreed not to share the bank account information with others.

Similarly, if they accidentally or deliberately screw up the necessary tax payments, the tax authorities will be coming after you to fix it. If you tell them you just created the accounts for other people to use, that won't make it better. You will have just admitted to participating in tax fraud.

If they accidentally or deliberately end up cheating their customers, Amazon and law enforcement will be coming after you, because there is your name and account information on the transactions.

This is not the request of an honest person. It violates the Amazon terms of service, and the terms of service for your bank, and probably violates your local tax law. By themselves those are trivial violations, but once money starts to change hands, people will take them very seriously, and come after you.

3

Lets say they are honest. They have great reviews from their customers. Everything goes right from the view of Amazon and their customers.

allow them to use my personal id and bank account or passport to create a seller account on Amazon for them. They said a business account can be created either by my passport and address, or by a company in turn created by my personal id and bank account.

What risks are there:

  • Taxes. You are giving them your documents and Amazon will be submitting tax forms linked to your tax ID. That means that you will have to account for this in your annual tax returns.

  • Bank account. Money will be flowing into that account, and also expenses. That better be a new account unconnected to your other accounts because they will have to have the login information for that account.

All the proceeds of the business go to the denomination of the church, paying for its running and growth.

You mean all the profits. You will have to trust them that it is true.

They said they have opened multiple seller accounts in the names of other people in the denomination. I was wondering what likely reasons that an organization would create multiple sellers' accounts on Amazon either at the same time or one after the closing of the previous?

Go back to the beginning of the question:

A person in my church approached me

You didn't say they were the pastor. You didn't say they were the head of the finance committee. So talk to the pastor. Talk to the people running the church. If this was a sanctioned thing they would know about it.

Of course there are risks that they will run the venture so poorly your reputation will be trashed. Remember Amazon thinks you are running it.

mhoran_psprep
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3

Have you checked with the preacher to make sure they really referred this stranger to you? Can they explain why they need you in particular, why they aren't using their own account or opening a new one for the business?

This has "scam" and "identity theft" written all over it. I'd run screaming in the other direction.

Remember too that even if they think they've found a good church fundraiser, they may be getting scammed and drawing you into a scam unintentionally. Look up multi-level marketing schemes, for example... and that's one of the more benign examples.

If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't true. Claimed co-religionists or not.

keshlam
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