Fake Discounts Exposed: How Inflated Prices Trick Shoppers

That Crossed-Out Price Is Probably Lying to You

You see it everywhere on Amazon: a gray strikethrough price next to a bold red sale price. "Was $89.99, now $42.99." Your brain does instant math, you feel the rush of a 52% discount, and your thumb moves toward "Add to Cart."

Here is the problem. That $89.99 might be completely made up.

We verify hundreds of deals every week at ErrorEmpire, and the single biggest issue we encounter is inflated reference pricing. Sellers jack up the "original" price so the discount percentage looks impressive. The product never actually sold at the higher number for any meaningful stretch of time.

How Reference Pricing Works (and How It Gets Abused)

Reference pricing is the industry term for showing a "was" price next to a "now" price. It is a legitimate marketing tool when done honestly. If a coffee maker genuinely sold at $79.99 for six months and drops to $49.99, that strikethrough is fair and useful.

The abuse happens when sellers set an artificially high "List Price" that nobody ever paid. Amazon's system does not independently verify these numbers. The seller inputs whatever they want, and Amazon displays it as the reference point for your discount calculation.

Multiple consumer research reports from 2024 and 2025 have documented that inflated reference prices are widespread across major marketplaces, not a fringe issue. Price tracking services like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa make the pattern easy to verify on any individual listing.

Real Examples That Show the Scale

During Prime Day 2025, a class-action lawsuit documented specific cases of fake discounts. One pair of Bluetooth headphones was promoted as "44% off" a list price of $179.95. According to price tracking data, those headphones had never sold above $160 on Amazon. The "discount" was calculated from a number that existed only on paper.

Another example from the same lawsuit: a brand of headphones listed at "39% off" with a sale price of $109.95, down from a supposed $179.95 List Price. Price history showed the product had not been listed at $179.95 for the required 90-day reference window before the sale.

This is not limited to Amazon. Research tracking prices at 25 major US retail chains over 24 weeks (published in 2025, expanding on earlier studies from 2015 and 2018) found a dramatic increase in fake sale pricing. In 2018, six retailers offered fake discounts more than half the time. By 2025, that number jumped to 21 out of 25 retailers.

What the FTC Actually Says About Fake Discounts

The Federal Trade Commission has clear rules about this. Section 233.1 of the FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing states that any former price used in comparison advertising must meet two conditions:

1. It must be the "actual, bona fide price" (not an artificial, inflated number)
2. It must have been offered to the public "on a regular basis" for a "reasonably substantial period of time"

In plain English: if a seller shows "Was $100, Now $50," that $100 needs to be a real price that real customers actually paid over a meaningful window. Setting a fake high price for three days and then "discounting" to the normal selling price violates these guidelines.

FTC enforcement has been rising across sectors. The September 2024 Invitation Homes settlement (which included $48 million over deceptive pricing claims in rental listings) set a precedent that consumer protection lawyers have pointed to when arguing similar cases in retail.

Private class-action litigation has also picked up. Several lawsuits filed in 2024 and 2025 targeted major retailers over inflated "list price" claims on apparel and electronics, with plaintiffs using price tracking data as evidence. The Prime Day 2025 class action is the most widely reported example.

The "Was/Now" Pricing Strategy Sellers Use

Here is the typical pattern we see when reviewing deal alerts:

The pre-sale price pump. A seller lists a product at $149.99 for two to three weeks, knowing almost nobody will buy at that price. Then they "drop" it to $79.99 and advertise a 47% discount. The product's real market price was always around $80.

The phantom List Price. Amazon shows a "List Price" that the manufacturer suggested but no retailer actually charges. A kitchen gadget might have a $59.99 List Price, but every major retailer sells it at $34.99. Amazon shows the strikethrough at $59.99, making the $34.99 look like a deal when it is just the standard price.

The seasonal inflation. Prices creep up in the weeks before Black Friday, Prime Day, or holiday shopping season. The "discount" on the event day brings the price back down to where it was two months earlier. You are paying the same amount but feeling like you saved.

The rotating "sale." Some products are perpetually "on sale." They show a strikethrough price 365 days a year. If a discount never ends, it is not a discount. It is the regular price with a marketing gimmick attached.

How to Verify Any Discount in 30 Seconds

You do not need to be a pricing expert. Two free tools expose inflated discounts instantly.

CamelCamelCamel (camelcamelcamel.com): Paste any Amazon product URL and get a complete price history chart. You can see every price change going back months or years. If the "was" price only appeared for a few days before the current "sale," you are looking at an inflated discount.

Keepa (keepa.com): This browser extension adds a price history chart directly to every Amazon product page. No extra clicks required. It tracks prices from Amazon, third-party sellers, used listings, and even warehouse deals. With 4 million Chrome users and a 4.7/5 rating, it is the most popular price tracker for Amazon shoppers.

For a deeper walkthrough of reading these charts, check our guide on how to read price history charts.

Five Red Flags That Scream "Fake Discount"

After years of daily deal verification, these are the patterns that immediately make us skeptical:

1. Discount over 70% on a name-brand product. Genuine closeouts happen, but 75% off a popular item outside of a major sale event is almost always inflated reference pricing.

2. The "List Price" is wildly above every other retailer. If Walmart, Target, and Best Buy all sell it for $39.99 but Amazon shows a $79.99 List Price with a "50% off" badge, that List Price is meaningless.

3. No price history exists before the "sale." New listings that launch directly into a "discount" without any history of selling at the higher price are a classic signal.

4. The seller has very few reviews but huge discounts. Established brands with thousands of reviews rarely need to inflate pricing. Unknown sellers with 12 reviews offering "65% off" are far more likely to be gaming the system.

5. The product is always on sale. Track it for a week. If the strikethrough price and "discount" never change, the sale is permanent, which means it is not a sale at all.

For a quick step-by-step checklist, see our 60-second deal validation method.

Why This Matters for Your Wallet

Fake discounts do not just waste your time scrolling. They actively cost you money. When you believe you are getting 50% off, you are more likely to buy impulsively without comparing prices across retailers. You skip the research phase because the "deal" creates urgency.

Research on pricing psychology shows that consumers anchor to the first price they see. A $179.99 strikethrough makes $109.95 feel like a steal, even if the product is available elsewhere for $89.99. The fake high price distorts your sense of value.

This is exactly why we built ErrorEmpire. Every deal we share to our Telegram channel goes through price history verification first. We check the actual selling history, compare across retailers, and only alert you when the discount is genuine. No inflated reference prices. No phantom List Prices.

How to Protect Yourself Going Forward

The good news is that once you know the tricks, they stop working on you. Make these three habits automatic:

Install a price tracker. Keepa or CamelCamelCamel takes 30 seconds to set up and runs silently in the background. You will never look at a strikethrough price the same way again.

Cross-check one other retailer. Before buying anything over $30, search the product name on Google Shopping or check one competing retailer. If the "sale" price matches the regular price everywhere else, it is not a sale.

Wait 24 hours on anything over $50. Fake urgency is a core part of the inflated pricing scheme. Real deals come back. If a price drop is genuine, tools like Keepa will show you it is at a historical low, which gives you confidence to buy without the manufactured pressure.

For more on spotting manipulation tactics, read our guide on spotting fake product reviews, which covers another layer of deception that often pairs with fake discounts.