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Comment by emu | Hacker News Reader

It's trivially easy to run into counterfeit products on Amazon. Here's an example I pulled up in 2 minutes of searching:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-A1385-Adapter-Charger-iPhone/dp...

I see two sellers offering an iPhone charger, ostensibly genuine and new, as low as USD 3.19.

Compare with the Apple listing for the same item for USD 19: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD810LL/A/apple-5w-usb-pow...

There is no way you can be selling the genuine product at that price and be making a profit. I don't know what Apple's wholesale price for chargers is, but it is presumably more than USD 3.19.

Amazon has lost at least two orders from me recently because I had no confidence that I would receive a genuine product.

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This is actually a different scam that's been going on recently. These "just launched" sellers show up for about 1/10th the actual price and when you buy from them they just won't ever send anything. Their strategy is to delay as long as possible and hope Amazon gives them their first payment before they finally get shut down.

I sell on Amazon via FBA and the counterfeiting and scamming is unbelievable. I'm glad to see these stories come out to raise some awareness because Amazon has done nothing to fix the problem.

Even better than that, some of them offer products at the normal price and then don't send anything, while dragging out the complaints process as long as possible.

Had two of them in the past 3 months ...

Yeah, this is practically an epidemic with Amazon's hotter items. For instance, check out this seller page for Nintendo Switch, which is comprised almost entirely of "just launched" sellers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01LTHP2ZK/ref=dp_ol...

If you look, the same listing has 5 fulfilled-by-amazon shippers as well :-)

Apple doesn't have a wholesale cost since Apple does not sell parts wholesale. What you are getting is a Chinese knockoff.

For phone accessories, I'd recommend sticking with a reputable 3rd-party brand. Anker, Puregear, IXCC, and several others make good-quality chargers and cables.

And buy them direct from the vendor, not via Amazon. If scammers are counterfeiting Apple gear, they can just as easily do the other vendors.

Solid review from the link: "The item came in a Ziploc bag and more importantly, it's a fake."

>There is no way you can be selling the genuine product at that price and be making a profit.

Am I missing where the ad says it's a genuine Apple product? I see that it says "compatible", but that's clearly a fake to me. Not that it wouldn't trick some people, but I can't really blame Amazon for that. It's a knockoff.

I think if someone goes onto Amazon and buys a phone charger for half the price of a genuine charger, that's a different problem than paying for and receiving a "genuine" charger that turns out to be fake.

The name of the product says "Apple" and includes an Apple model number. I see nothing, other than the shady price, to indicate it's not genuine.

The listing says, and I quote: "Apple A1385 USB Cube Adapter ..." (in the title) and "Includes 1 Apple certified charger cube". I'd bet that neither is true.

If the only place I ever bought something was Amazon how do I know if the charger was "half price?" Especially if you didn't know counterfeit chargers were a thing? These chargers are some of the best selling products on Amazon's charger category. In most cases they outsell the genuine versions.

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