Most people buy lots of junk off Amazon, and if there’s an issue Amazon just eats the loss.

But these scams abuse it two ways:

1. But off a legit seller, return the fake. Next person gets the fake.

2. “Third party seller” where they sell cheap (but solid) junk for months to build reputation, then flip to high price items that are flat out scams.

At some point Amazon switched from a “Walmart model” to more like a swap meet where you have no idea who you’re buying from. Not everyone noticed.