4 ms·

Has Amazon been hacked (wrong author attributions)

30 points by gshubert17 10y ago

gshubert17 10y ago
Yesterday, when I looked up the newest book by Juval Noah Harari, "Homo Deus" on Amazon, I noticed authorship was attributed to a "Booby Brown". This author's list had 4,335 titles on it today. I let Amazon know about it yesterday, and a robot sent this reply: http://imgur.com/a/UyvAe http://imgur.com/a/UyvAe
- ktta 10y ago
  Yep, 4,335. https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Booby+Brown https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Bo... archive in case amazon fixes it: http://web.archive.org/web/20170415003429/https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Booby+Brown http://web.archive.org/web/20170415003429/https://www.amazon...
  - gshubert17 10y ago
    As of April 17, the authorship for "Homo Deus" was fixed, and the list was down to 4,334. I just had a brief chat with Amazon about the whole list, asking "I would be grateful if you would contact them, and have the Amazon team begin to fix this." Amazon replied, "Yes, definitely, I'll contact them right away and sent all the details to fix this, you will able to see the changes within next week starting as fast as possible." I don't know how this happened, but as long as it gets fixed, I'm good.
Exuma 10y ago
Lololol. That is funny but not funny.
buildbot 10y ago
If someone had access to change the amazon.com database entries for books, wouldn't they have access to much more sensitive information? Why would they make an obvious change like this? Perhaps this is some internal joke default author name for testing that somehow slipped out into production.
thirtyseven 10y ago
Amazon 3rd party book sellers can list whatever information they want for the metadata. This is probably one seller's script gone wrong.
- throwaway2016a 10y ago
  This. Or someone intentionally abusing the feature. Although I was under the impression Amazon manages the metadata of products they sell first-party. Also, interestingly, all these books have different sellers that own the "buy box". Makes me wonder how Amazon chooses which seller's description and metadata to use.
emeraldd 10y ago
This is interest: https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Harry-Hill/dp/0571245641/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492216475&sr=1-36&refinements=p_27%3ABooby+Brown https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Harry-Hill/dp/0571245641/ref... https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Modern-Classics/dp/0060837020/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0060837020&pd_rd_r=MXK7XKHT11V9VTEQZV5H&pd_rd_w=ZCWpu&pd_rd_wg=qkdYZ&psc=1&refRID=MXK7XKHT11V9VTEQZV5H https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Modern-Classics/dp/006083702... Two versions of the same book with different authors and covers. Makes me wonder if someone screwed up putting inventory online for a book store, or is attempting to pirate books....
andrewguenther 10y ago
A hack is probably the least likely explanation for this.
peternicky 10y ago
Very weird...I wonder if this is some new scam?
- nefitty 10y ago
  It could just be simple trolling, basically funnelling money away from authors to some bureaucratic Amazon abyss. If it gets addressed I can only imagine the trouble that lies ahead for anyone that attempts to claim royalties due.
murtnowski 10y ago
No
amusedonion 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_booby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_booby
RijilV 10y ago
I feel like I just fell for click bait.

30 points by gshubert17 10y ago

Yesterday, when I looked up the newest book by Juval Noah Harari, "Homo Deus" on Amazon, I noticed authorship was attributed to a "Booby Brown". This author's list had 4,335 titles on it today. I let Amazon know about it yesterday, and a robot sent this reply: http://imgur.com/a/UyvAe http://imgur.com/a/UyvAe

ktta 10y ago
Yep, 4,335. https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Booby+Brown https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Bo... archive in case amazon fixes it: http://web.archive.org/web/20170415003429/https://www.amazon.com/s/&search-alias=books&field-author=Booby+Brown http://web.archive.org/web/20170415003429/https://www.amazon...
- gshubert17 10y ago
  As of April 17, the authorship for "Homo Deus" was fixed, and the list was down to 4,334. I just had a brief chat with Amazon about the whole list, asking "I would be grateful if you would contact them, and have the Amazon team begin to fix this." Amazon replied, "Yes, definitely, I'll contact them right away and sent all the details to fix this, you will able to see the changes within next week starting as fast as possible." I don't know how this happened, but as long as it gets fixed, I'm good.

Exuma 10y ago

Lololol. That is funny but not funny.

buildbot 10y ago

If someone had access to change the amazon.com database entries for books, wouldn't they have access to much more sensitive information? Why would they make an obvious change like this? Perhaps this is some internal joke default author name for testing that somehow slipped out into production.

thirtyseven 10y ago

Amazon 3rd party book sellers can list whatever information they want for the metadata. This is probably one seller's script gone wrong.

throwaway2016a 10y ago
This. Or someone intentionally abusing the feature. Although I was under the impression Amazon manages the metadata of products they sell first-party. Also, interestingly, all these books have different sellers that own the "buy box". Makes me wonder how Amazon chooses which seller's description and metadata to use.

emeraldd 10y ago

This is interest: https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Harry-Hill/dp/0571245641/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492216475&sr=1-36&refinements=p_27%3ABooby+Brown https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Harry-Hill/dp/0571245641/ref... https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Modern-Classics/dp/0060837020/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0060837020&pd_rd_r=MXK7XKHT11V9VTEQZV5H&pd_rd_w=ZCWpu&pd_rd_wg=qkdYZ&psc=1&refRID=MXK7XKHT11V9VTEQZV5H https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Jar-Modern-Classics/dp/006083702... Two versions of the same book with different authors and covers. Makes me wonder if someone screwed up putting inventory online for a book store, or is attempting to pirate books....

andrewguenther 10y ago

A hack is probably the least likely explanation for this.

peternicky 10y ago

Very weird...I wonder if this is some new scam?

nefitty 10y ago
It could just be simple trolling, basically funnelling money away from authors to some bureaucratic Amazon abyss. If it gets addressed I can only imagine the trouble that lies ahead for anyone that attempts to claim royalties due.

murtnowski 10y ago

amusedonion 10y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_booby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_booby

RijilV 10y ago

I feel like I just fell for click bait.