The Best Tips for Spotting Fake Beauty Products and Avoiding Scams on Amazon

Lauren Pardee
·3 min read

Feel confident in purchasing beauty products on Amazon and find the best deals.

<p>Kristina Strasunske / Getty Images</p>

Kristina Strasunske / Getty Images

Between Amazon’s incredibly vast offerings and its unbeatable shipping methods, you can have just about anything at your doorstep within days at the click of a button. The downside? The mega-retailer has become a place for fraudulent sellers looking to make a buck on counterfeit products and accounts.

This issue doesn’t call for avoiding Amazon altogether (can you imagine that...), it’s just important to be a savvy shopper. To help catch scammers in the act, we’ve pulled together tips for identifying crooked sellers and counterfeit products. This way, you can be sure you’re getting exactly what you intended after checkout at a reasonable price.

Signs an Amazon Retailer or Product is Fake

  • Odd Pricing: Be on the lookout for unrealistic pricing while shopping. If a product you love seems off, compare it to other retailers selling the same or a similar product—anything incredibly low (or high) is best avoided if you can’t confirm any of the details below.

  • Sketchy Account Names: Check who is selling and shipping your future purchase under the “Buy Item” button. You’ve probably spotted a scammer if the name is a collection of random numbers and letters or is very abnormal/unrecognizable. And if the shipper isn’t Googleable with positive reviews and a legitimate website, skip it. You should also check out the seller page, too. If you see an eerily blank site or a recent creation date on the page, you’ve spotted the fraud. It’s all the proof you need that this seller isn’t legitimate. Typically, sold by Amazon or the name brand of the item you are buying are safer bets.

  • Bad or Unrealistic Reviews: A product’s reviews can be your North Star. Notice lots of spelling errors or multiple reviews submitted on the same date? Those could signal fake comments. Look for responses that seem genuine to the actual product you are buying. If your gut is telling you you can’t trust what people are saying, don’t press “Buy Now.”

  • Abnormal Shopping Experiences: Amazon is known for getting products to buyers in record time—so if you come across a product that won’t ship for an oddly long time, avoid, avoid, avoid. Established Amazon partners most often offer Prime or next-day shipping. Another callout: We promise that legitimate brands want their products to look as good as they are. You won’t find poor/grainy imagery on a legitimate retailer site.

How to Shop on Amazon

  • Shop Directly: The easiest way to avoid scammers is to buy your products directly from the brand or manufacturer’s Amazon page.

  • Look for the Badge: Have you ever seen an “Amazon’s Choice” badge pop up while scrolling through products? This means the product is highly rated, well-priced, and available to ship immediately.

  • Amazon’s Storefronts: Amazon curates collections, such as Luxury Fashion or Premium Beauty, and you can trust that the retailer has vetted the sellers on these pages. 

  • Amazon Exclusives: The retailer has branched into having exclusive access to some product lines, such as fashion label, The Drop. These products will always ship under Amazon standards.

Where to Shop

Now that you’re equipped to shop sans any trouble allow us to help with the product curation. Here are our favorite Amazon buys from sellers we know and love.

Up Next: I’m a Shopping Editor and I Use These 15 Amazon Finds Under $45 Every Day

Read the original article on Byrdie.