Originally Posted by
phltraveler
How can Amazon, eBay, etc. reliably tell who is a legitimate vendor and who isn't, barring some verification process that would be cumbersome, expensive, and drive a lot of sellers away? It's easy to issue refunds reactively and ban the seller from the site, it's a lot harder to proactively verify that they are shipping real stock (especially since a third party could enroll by shipping the genuine article, pass inspection, and then switch out to fakes once they've been approved).
Amazon didn't seem to have much trouble bouncing a lot of vendors that were selling phone/inadequate "eclipse glasses" in the run-up to the solar eclipse last year, once the health authorities began complaining (loudly and publicized). A couple of legit vendors got bounced in the process, which makes me wonder how careful the company is about actively screening vendors. Sorry if decent surveillance would increase the cost of their business model, but you get what you pay for.