I didn't try a CC chargeback. However Amazon gives you the money back. The catch is you can't do that until the unrealistically long delivery time has expired, and that's usually 2 months. So they have your money for that time, and you have no product.

I'm not actually sure what the scam is. Does the seller disappear with Amazon's money? Or earns interest? Or maybe they speculatively list many lines and only manage to source a few?

It might be try and get the small percentage of people that forget about the order or who can’t be bother doing the charge back.

Right up till they close your account for returning things, their customer service is excellent.

Were you using tor or similar when buying stuff?

No, just hit some secret limit on returns.

I'd be curious to find out what the limit is. Anybody know?