Gadgets

These tips will help you detect scam listings on this Amazon Prime Day

October 8, 2024

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Amazon Prime Day is currently taking place, with plenty of great tech savings on offer.
Amazon is a reputable vendor, but scammers are always lurking in the background.
Be cautious of fishy listings and avoid being scammed by following this guide.

Amazon’s Prime Big Deals Day for fall 2024 is in full swing, and there are plenty of awesome savings to be had on tech products. From Amazon-branded devices, to Apple products, and every accessory in between, there’s probably a listing with your name on it.

Amazon has built a reputation over the years for being a reputable e-commerce vendor, having changed the entire retail landscape in the process. For the most part, you can be safely assured that product listings are reputable, official, and in no way nefarious.

However, bad actors always exist, all with a single aim: to do whatever it takes to scam or otherwise bamboozle unsuspecting customers. Amazon Prime Day is, erm, a prime opportunity for scammers to do their thing, which means it’ll pay to take some basic precautionary measures.

the word sale superimposed on a colored background of a TV

Prime Day TV deals knock hundreds off 4K, QLED and OLED TVs

There is no shortage of smart TVs on sale, from high-end OLED models by LG and Samsung to more budget-friendly offerings from Amazon and TCL.

How to avoid getting scammed this October Amazon Prime Day

Try to remain cognizant of fishy listings

Amazon

There are a few things in particular that serve as red flags when it comes to certain e-listings, Amazon included. These are some basic steps you should take to ensure the validity of a product listing.

Click on the seller’s profile to check in on their status as a vendor. Reputable sellers usually have storefronts with more than a single item on offer, and often have a plethora of purchaser reviews on display.
Cross-examine a listing’s price across storefronts. If a price or discount seems too good to be true — even by Amazon Prime Day standards — then it very well may be a hint of something sneakier under the surface.
Take a moment to read through some of the purchaser reviews. If the reviews appear genuine, with real-world photos and personal anecdotes, then you’re probably fine. Red flags include very few posted reviews, AI-sounding or superlative language, and spammy or overly generic usernames.
Examine the photos accompanying a product’s listing. If the images appear confusingly pixelated, and lack a logo where you know there should be one, then that’s a sign of possible scammery.

Additionally, consider making use of Amazon price-history checkers to supplement your fake Prime Day spotting.

We have a dedicated article that highlights exactly how to leverage such tools — here are a couple of popular options available on the market:

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Check out the best Prime Day deals in October, saving up to $300 on a new smartphone.

Should Amazon be doing more to regulate vendors?

Considering the scale of the company’s operation, there’s no easy answer

Amazon

Whether Amazon is doing enough to keep e-commerce scammers at bay is a tough thing to gauge. The company’s scope and scale is downright massive, and to be fair to the tech giant, its storefront is largely a safe place to purchase products from.

The company’s scope and scale is downright massive.

Large sales events — like the ongoing Amazon Prime Big Deals Day — provide an increased attack vector for those looking to prey on innocent consumers. I don’t want to defend Amazon too much here, as big tech companies should always strive to improve their operations in the name of safety and security.

Large sales events — like the ongoing Amazon Prime Big Deals Day — provide an increased attack vector for those looking to prey on innocent consumers.

However, I’ll give credit where credit is due, as Amazon has played a transformative role in destigmatizing online and computer-based commerce, which is an undoubtedly impressive feat. I do believe the company can and should do more in the name of consumer protection, especially within the context of events as large and topical as this one.