Music is something everybody likes and everybody wants, so it’s little wonder it’s rife with scam artists looking to make a buck off unfortunate music fans. Case in point is the tale of the Amazon Bandcamp page.

What is Amazon, which has its own streaming service, digital store, and does a fine job of selling music on its own, doing with a Bandcamp page? Good question and one that a few unlucky heavy metal fans failed to ask.

As Noisey reports, despite quite a few skeptical appraisals of Amazon’s odd new Bandcamp page quickly appearing on Twitter after it launched, a few fans still fell for it, handing their money over to what was quite clearly a con.

The page was adorned with off-brand Amazon logos and the music selections were decidedly un-Amazonesque. The channel featured selections from the likes of Korpiklaani and black metal outfit Burzum and described Disturbed as a “unique and valuable” band.

When one outraged metalhead contacted Amazon directly, the online retail giant confirmed what he already knew but didn’t indicate that the company would be taking the matter further. Also no indication of how Iron Maiden felt about having their latest album up there.

Image via Noisey

So just what was going on with the unofficial Amazon Bandcamp page? In an attempt to get to the bottom of things, Noisey went ahead and contacted the owner of the page and actually received a (somewhat confounding) response.

“We produce vinyl discs, we Russian fan site, and our prices are cheaper,” a statement read. Meanwhile, Bandcamp have issued their own response to the page, letting Noisey know that the Amazon Bandcamp is being taken down.

While it’s likely the page only managed to scam a few dozen metal fans, it does raise an intriguing issue with Bandcamp’s infrastructure. Since just about anybody can create an account and upload whatever they like, how many scam pages are out there fooling people right now?

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