There are in fact 3 bad guys in this transaction: the manufacturer, the merchant, and amazon. All of them knew or should have known that this is a scam. It isn't the buyers fault that amazon has no humans in the loop. Infinite, perfect scale isn't a right. It's an ideal that amazon is welcome to strive towards within the bounds of the law. Amazon shouldn't kill people with fake safety equipment, nor should they sell fraudulent merchandise.
Years ago I pointed out that Amazon wouldn't sell you a Google Chromecast (because Google was competing with an Amazon product at the time), but they would sell a fake one.
But this scam has been going around for a while. I remember hearing about a scammer pawning 8-track tapes as hard drives back in the day.
