Key Points
Data from Fakespot, a service owned by Mozilla that helps consumers spot fake reviews and scams on shopping sites, shows a bizarre rise in the number of listings for bug zappers on Amazon over the past three years..
At the same time, Fakespot has logged an increase in the number of negative or unreliable reviews for this product category...
Saoud Khalifah, founder and director of Fakespot at Mozilla, says bug zappers are just one example of the convergence of recent trends in ecommerce: a growing number of listings from third-party sellers on Amazon.com, more merchants seeking to sell low-cost products with high margins, and generative AI tools making it easier for sellers to churn out questionable marketing copy and reviews...
Khalifah says bug zappers are one of a few categories of hardware products that Fakespot has examined recently on Amazon because it saw a rise both in product listings and unreliable reviews..
The bug zapper listings it examined arent necessarily flat-out scamsbuyers still receive an actual bug zapperbut Fakespots analysis says that negative reviews indicate some of the products dont appear to work as advertised...
