Most Amazon.com shoppers are familiar with the “#1 Best Seller” badge that pops up for many products. Along with reviews and ratings, it’s a way to gauge whether an item is worth buying.
But sometimes the product isn’t actually a best-seller.
Unscrupulous merchants are putting some popular items in slow-selling product categories to trick Amazon algorithms into thinking it’s a hotter seller than it really is. The scam Bloomberg uncovered mostly focuses on smartphone mounts for car dashboards, phone cases and USB drives. For example, one mount recently showed up in the “replacement axle shafts” category. The item rocketed to best-seller status because many more people are shopping for phone mounts than car axles.
It’s not clear how many other kinds of product are being targeted, but affected merchants say they’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases and that Amazon needs to crack down before the scheme becomes more widespread. With U.S. shoppers expected to spend $120 billion online this holiday season, scammers have plenty of incentive to game the system.
The product categories, created by Amazon but selected by merchants, appear right next to the best-seller badge. But people often don’t notice the trickery because they’re shopping quickly-an estimated 28% of Amazon purchases are completed within three minutes-and because most customers use mobile devices, where the fine print is easily overlooked.
“Customers are…
