#Scams

While we were working on our annual Black Friday deal guide, we started to run across a startlingly large number of a specific kind of Amazon scam. Rather than the phishing, credit card, or text scams that usually make the news, these come from fly-by-night sellers with amazing deals, popping up right now during the first rush of holiday shopping. They have listings for legitimate products, but their prices undercut all the real sellers. What’s worse, Amazon’s algorithms that recommend products and sellers sometimes bring these scams to the front, scooping up enough sales to make a profit and disappear before the retailer catches on and bans them. But by then, it’s too late: They’ve got the payments, and are busy coming up with their next grift.