Warning: Why You Should Read Amazon Reviews

This morning my teenage daughter's headphone adapter for her iPhone broke. So I started looking for more durable options on Amazon and came across this product.

What I found didn't surprise me, but I worry many people aren't aware of this trick Amazon sellers use to make their products seem more legit. This product shows 60 ratings, all 5 star and at a quick glance, the reviews look legitimate; lots of text, even product images - but wait..... The reviews aren't for a "headphone jack adapter."

This review is for some "slime".

This one is for a stress ball.

In fact, none of the reviews or customer images are for the product in the photo.

Having worked with several retailers that sell primarily via e-commerce, I have had the opportunity to work with the Amazon marketplace as both an e-commerce manager and a software developer, so early on I learned some of the things sellers do to "get ahead."

Amazon has come under fire in the past for internal corruption, especially as it relates to their marketplace. However, even without internal Amazon employees providing a leading edge to specific sellers on their marketplace, issues exist within their system that allow all sorts of shady behavior.

Every product on the Amazon marketplace and in their product catalog uses a unique identifier called an "ASIN" - Amazon Standard Identification Number. These numbers are supposed to be unique to products, and by Amazon's own set of rules for sellers, these ASINs cannot be passed from product to product. If you release a new version of a product, you have to create a new product, which in turn gets a new ASIN. Product ratings and reviews, questions, and sales history are all tied to ASINs. Due to some loopholes in the processes and internal communications with support staff, many sellers are able to migrate their products to other ASINs or even just merge them all together. So you end up with a product like this, with an ASIN that his been tied to practically anything; a knife, a phone case, an M.2 Solid State Disk, some craft slime, and now a lightning cable adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Adapter-Earphone-Adaptor-iOS-Silver/dp/B07XF4M1ZQ

So before you buy a product on Amazon solely based on the number of "stars" it has, read the reviews. There is a chance that you are looking at the aggregate rating of multiple products that a seller has scammed Amazon into merging somehow - all to boost the legitimacy of the product (whether it is or not).

Sidenote: Many sellers will use systems and tactics to provide fake customer reviews that seem convincing until you really start reading them - so be on the lookout for these as well.

Tips:

• Use the sort-by feature to read the Top and Most Recent reviews and check out the Customer Q&A.

• Click "See All Customer Reviews" to get access to more sorting/filtering tools so that you can ensure the product you are buying actually has any reviews at all: