How to Avoid Scams and Shoddy Wares on Amazon

With a few keystrokes you can find almost anything on Amazon … and buy it with as little as a single click. It’s a wonderbox of capitalism. Take, for example, power banks. Search “power bank” on Amazon and you’ll get back more than 40,000 results, ranging from well-known brands like Anker or Belkin to obscure names with zero reviews. There are hundreds of companies and sellers to sift through, with varying capacities, port options, and charging speeds.

Which brands are high quality? Which listings are legitimate? What’s a good price to pay? Are these power banks actually some of the best deals on Amazon Prime Day, or are the discounts fake?

These days, almost anyone can sell items on Amazon in three easy steps. The site hosts millions of sellers, making it more like eBay than Target. But Amazon does not vet everything on its virtual shelves thoroughly, if at all, and that means you have to be careful about what you’re buying. The site has known problems with fake reviews and counterfeit items, and a growing number of sellers have flooded the site with strange new off-brand products. Amazon does have fairly good return policies, including an A-to-Z guarantee for items sold by third parties. But ideally, you’ll avoid having to deal with a return in the first place.

WIRED can help! Below are a few tips to help you better pay attention to what you’re purchasing at The Everything Store, in an effort to choose items that are more likely to arrive as advertised.

Updated June 2025: We’ve refreshed this story with current tips and information.

Buy Directly From Bezos

Whenever possible, you should buy items directly from Amazon. Amazon keeps a far better eye on its own inventory than it does on its third-party sellers. Items it sells directly are more likely to arrive as advertised and qualify for free two-day Prime shipping. Because Amazon manages everything, returns are usually painless. I’ve gotten refunds for defective items without even having to return them at all.

If you’re already checking out a product on Amazon, like our favorite iPad, always make sure the seller info says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.” This information is typically in one of two places. Either it’s under the red price (and green “In Stock”) or it’s under the yellow Add to Cart and orange Buy Now buttons on the right rail. If you’re on the Amazon app, it’s also under those buttons.

If you’re browsing through Amazon listings, filter the site’s search results to only show items sold by Amazon.com. It will likely improve the quality of the items you see, cutting out a lot of less-relevant, lower-quality search results. And again, the items are vetted, so you’ll probably get what you expect and have an easier time returning it, if need be. I’ll use the Google Pixel 9A as an example of a product you might search for. It’s our pick for the best affordable phone.

Step 1: Search for a particular item in Amazon’s search box with category set to “All.” In this case, I searched for “Pixel 9A.”

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.