If steam can't connect it will ask if you want to start in offline mode.
They should have standards for what they sell or allow to be sold through them though. At least I would hope the most reputable company in the US did.
Selling those books depends on naive people not realising what they are buying. There are about 300000 of them so far and not that many have reviews. Cons usually depend on someone's greed or naivete but that doesn't mean they deserve to get conned or that scammers should be allowed to get away with it.
I never got burned by any of this, but others did. The stuff that costs 1p is never eligible for prime or free shipping, although often there are alternative sellers who can provide free or cheaper shipping.
To be fair, Amazon's customer service has been excellent any time I've needed it.
I've seen all sorts of scams running on Amazon and they don't give a fuck. A few examples that I've seen so far:
Counterfeit items.
Products advertised as £0.01 with the actual cost in a fake shipping charge.
There are hundreds of thousands of "books" which are actually auto generated pamphlets consisting of a main Wikipedia article and some linked articles, selling for £30+ and almost all rated 1 star by anyone who bought one. (Search for Betascript on amazon)
Crap watches selling for £10, supposedly reduced from £50 or whatever. I know someone who bought one of these thinking she was getting a bargain but the watch was barely worth £5 let alone £50.
I'd also include Amazon themselves automatically charging £50 for prime after the free trial. It was stated in the terms but they must have made millions from people who didn't notice.
Remember to say hello to your bank teller.