How to Avoid Scams and Shoddy Wares on Amazon

Step 2: Amazon’s search should choose the right Department automatically, but if needed, you can navigate to the top of the left rail and click on a Department that fits.

Step 3: Once the page refreshes, scroll to the bottom of the left rail and choose “Amazon.com” as your Seller.

Step 4: Now you will only see “Pixel 8A” products sold directly by Amazon.com.

If you still don’t see “Amazon.com” as a seller, try hitting the “See More” button. It will bring up a dense but readable alphabetical page of sellers. If Amazon is one of those sellers, it will show up in the list. You can use CTRL+F (Command+F on Mac) to search for the word “Amazon.com.” Sometimes you’ll see “Amazon Warehouse,” but that only sells used and refurbished items.

Avoid Fake Discounts

When people see that a product they like is on sale, a little wave of excitement washes over them. Instead of thinking about how much we’re spending, we start to think about how much we’re saving. Coupons and discounts exist because they create a sense of urgency that causes many people to buy things they normally wouldn’t. Some sellers abuse that pricing power. There are a lot of products on Amazon that are endlessly on “sale” and that makes it hard to know if you’re getting an actual bargain.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to check. Just copy the URL and paste it into CamelCamelCamel. You’ll get a page with a graph on it showing every price fluctuation in the past year. A lot of products have deceptive sale prices like this, to varying degrees. Knowing what the actual going rate is for a product puts you in charge.

Alternatively, the Keepa extension for Chrome will add a similar box right into Amazon.com pages for you, though it does try and get you to register for free, and it might slow your browsing down.

Tools like Keepa and CamelCamelCamel may also help you determine the best time to buy an item. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max, for instance, consistently fluctuates between its normal $60 price down to $40, like it is now. And that all-time-low includes special sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, meaning you (probably) don’t need to wait to score a good deal. The tools can help you spot similar trends in other products, like televisions, which tend to get a lot cheaper when Christmas draws near.

Don’t Trust Every Review

Amazon’s 5-star review system is supposed to make choosing products simpler, but it’s easily gamed. If you’re looking at an expensive product from a company you’ve never heard of, or if there are hundreds or thousands of very positive reviews, do a little sleuthing. Many sellers try to manipulate reviews to get their products listed more prominently on Amazon.

Fakespot is an excellent tool to help you spot deceptive reviews. Just plug in an Amazon URL and it’ll give you a report. It isn’t a flawless tool, but it will give you a hint at whether a lot of reviews are fake or suspicious, and it spits out an AI-generated summary to try and help you parse the information further. We’ve got more advice on detecting fake Amazon reviews here.