Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
I wish I could say I stopped buying things off Amazon for ethical reasons, but the truth is, I stopped buying because if you look closely at the reviews, you realize that almost everything for sale there is now a scam or a knock-off. This was a slow creep for awhile, but now the problem has grown exponentially. Amazon is what Canal Street was in the 90s - somewhere to buy fakes, stolen goods, and electronics that might catch fire.<p>Amazon has no interest in fixing this problem, because they know that well over half their &quot;inventory&quot; is now from knockoffs, IP theft and&#x2F;or bait-and-switch scams. it&#x27;s almost impossible to find items there anymore that are <i>not</i> fake, whether it&#x27;s re-packaged hard drives or &quot;pyrex&quot; bowls that explode in the microwave.<p>One way to look at this, and the way I think Amazon must look at it, is that it&#x27;s not any <i>worse</i> than a third world night market. The attitude of vendors in, e.g. Phnom Penh or Mexico City markets is that the very <i>fact</i> that stupid Americans think they&#x27;re going to get &quot;real&quot; goods just proves how much they deserve to be scammed. Amazon is actually helping baffled Americans to finally understand what the third world has always known - unboxing is going to be disappointing. Everything you think is affordable is probably fake, and you can&#x27;t trust the packaging. Only the rich get actual brand products. As America degrades, people will start to get more savvy and more cynical about this, but right now it&#x27;s still a newish phenomenon and people are shocked, shocked! to find out the kids toys they bought are full of toxic chemicals that we ourselves shipped overseas for burial or &quot;recycling&quot;.