It’s no secret that Amazon has had issues with third-party sellers for years. According to Sellerapp, an e-commerce consultancy, anywhere from 10% to 60% of products sold on Amazon could be counterfeit. Chances are, you’ve bought at least one. The consequences of buying a counterfeit product can be as trivial as receiving a bad pen or as dire as buying an uncertified e-scooter battery that burns down an apartment. Either way, it’s annoying to get counterfeit products, but there are ways to avoid getting scammed on Amazon. Here are some ways to avoid buying counterfeit products on Amazon.

First of all, you want to avoid buying from third-party sellers as much as possible. No, not all third-party sellers are bad, but enough of them are that it is risky to do business with them. The important thing to know is that you can look at one product page, but just changing the color, size, etc. can lead to a different seller (look at the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones below for example). Always check who is selling you the product before you buy. To minimize the chance of a fake, make sure both the seller and the shipping source is Amazon.

It’s a common mistake for people to lower their guard when they see the blue “Prime” shipping logo on an item and assume that Amazon is selling it. All it means is that it came from an Amazon warehouse. Amazon’s “Fulfillment by Amazon” program allows any third-party seller to ship their products to Amazon, who will then ship them to you. Depending on which location you have set for your shipping, the “ship from” warehouse will change.

You should always read the reviews of the product and the seller (they are two different things). While it is difficult to know if a review is real, there are ways to look for things. Keep in mind that Amazon is known to remove reviews where people are promoting counterfeit products, so always take star ratings with a grain of salt. A great solution is to read product reviews from independent websites (like ours), where we tell you whether a product is worth your money or not. This brings me to my next and final tip.