Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#21

Post by gregmac » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 5:58 PM UTC

rckoepke wrote: post #11

The categories of things that I've received counterfeit versions of on Amazon have been truly mind-blowing. It's been replacement HEPA filters, cat toys, even breakfast cereal. It's not just earphones/mics, batteries, usb cables, flash drives, extension cords, and other electronics. Who counterfeits breakfast cereal??? I've had this issue with both Quaker Oats and Raisin Bran. The scale of fraud is magnificent. And i…

I don't order food from Amazon at all because I don't trust them not to send something counterfeit or expired. It's just not worth the risk/hassle, and a lot of the time they're not the best price anyway.

I'm also extremely cautious about electronics, but there are still certain categories (such as memory cards) that I won't even consider. Usually the only benefit from Amazon vs anywhere else is shipping, and saving $shipping is simply not worth the risk of using a fake card.

This is a step in the right direction to fixing the problem, but I'm not sure I'd trust anything -- even stuff sold by Amazon itself -- so long as they co-mingle inventory.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#22

Post by arkades » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #20

jbay808 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company got a counterfeit textbook. On the cover was the book we had ordered, about control theory. The printed pages were a veterinary textbook by a different publisher.

I'm curious about the incentive that leads to this. If you're going to print and sell counterfeit textbooks, why not use the actual content? Surely nearly every copy with a random other book will be returned. Is it possible that they meant to include the right content, but they counterfeit lots of books and have low quality control? My best guess is that they can easily grab a copy of a book's cover online, but actua…

I got a counterfeit book of knots. And I kept it.

As far as I can tell, someone printed and hardbound a PDF of the actual book, which is otherwise I guess out of print. It's about the best I could hope to get under the circumstances. So ... there we are.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#23

Post by arkades » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

Zaheer wrote: post #9

ComputerGuru wrote: post #4

They do this every six to twelve months: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19091852 It’s just platitudes so long as their interests are served by pretending the problem doesn’t exist.

This goes beyond just words. Establishing a dedicated team to investigate / prosecute Counterfeiters is a solid step forward.

Until they start prosecuting people and putting up barriers to counterfeit sales, it is just words. They're slightly different words, but still.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#24

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #20

jbay808 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company got a counterfeit textbook. On the cover was the book we had ordered, about control theory. The printed pages were a veterinary textbook by a different publisher.

I'm curious about the incentive that leads to this. If you're going to print and sell counterfeit textbooks, why not use the actual content? Surely nearly every copy with a random other book will be returned. Is it possible that they meant to include the right content, but they counterfeit lots of books and have low quality control? My best guess is that they can easily grab a copy of a book's cover online, but actua…

I can't imagine there's a lot of margin in counterfeit textbooks. The publishers themselves already offer lower quality copies with the same content. They just restrict it to the Indian subcontinent, and "used, excellent condition" copies start showing up quickly on Amazon. I have one right in front of me. Paper quality is definitely lower, printing quality much lower, but the content is identical and it cost me 25% of what the same book runs when produced for the US.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#25

Post by numpad0 » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

rckoepke wrote: post #11

The categories of things that I've received counterfeit versions of on Amazon have been truly mind-blowing. It's been replacement HEPA filters, cat toys, even breakfast cereal. It's not just earphones/mics, batteries, usb cables, flash drives, extension cords, and other electronics. Who counterfeits breakfast cereal??? I've had this issue with both Quaker Oats and Raisin Bran. The scale of fraud is magnificent. And i…

They pretend to “fight counterfeit” occasionally but the “rampant” counterfeits on Amazon is structural and strategic. Marketplace seller competition is a race to the bottom against all of global online shopping so genuine examples can’t possibly survive.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#26

Post by anonymousDan » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #16

Having a chain of ownership list would be a great help with this. Track and report which company owned the item back to it's manufacture and who 'owned' the IP of the run. Even more ideally also the production time, etc.

Good shout. If only there were a technology to support this kind of usecase....

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#27

Post by gwittel » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

Are fake listings a problem? Absolutely. But is it the primary issue? I'm not so sure. It seems like Amazon is doing all sorts of things but not actually addressing the root -- inventory co-mingling + sketchy 3rd party sellers that can come back overnight.

Simply ending inventory co-mingling would likely handle a substantial portion of counterfeits since Amazon is sourcing their stock through standard channels.

Amazon knows this. There's probably cost models somewhere in HQ. But ending this would mean: slower delivery times, and Amazon would have to carry the inventory on their books. I'd gladly wait an extra day or two if I know the item I get is legit (just like pre FBA/3rd party days). Instead, Amazon is burning goodwill and cash on efforts like this one.

If anything, Covid-19 has forced other retailers to up their online game. Its accelerated my spending shift away from Amazon as I'm tired of fraud. Fraudulent items can injure, poison, or even kill people. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll wait another day for that delivery.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#28

Post by r00fus » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

jbay808 wrote: post #14

rckoepke wrote: post #11

The categories of things that I've received counterfeit versions of on Amazon have been truly mind-blowing. It's been replacement HEPA filters, cat toys, even breakfast cereal. It's not just earphones/mics, batteries, usb cables, flash drives, extension cords, and other electronics. Who counterfeits breakfast cereal??? I've had this issue with both Quaker Oats and Raisin Bran. The scale of fraud is magnificent. And i…

My company got a counterfeit textbook. On the cover was the book we had ordered, about control theory. The printed pages were a veterinary textbook by a different publisher.

Was that order fulfilled by Amazon? I have a suspicion that some of the "counterfeiting" is done by substitution of inventory by a bad actor, and FBA silently ignoring that.

VendorA sells a good product with decent margin using FBA as their fulfillment mechanism.

VendorFakeA claims to sell same product with discount and sends seemingly valid inventory to FBA - which co-mingles the inventory and throws away the receipts.

Customer buys something from VendorA but gets VendorFakeA product instead.

It's like a supply-chain joe-job but VendorFakeA profits.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#29

Post by throwawayiionqz » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

I ordered a well-known baby-bottom cream. The product gave her never-expanding rashes for a few days. Then I realized the color slightly differs from the same cream bought at the local pharmacy, and that many 1 star reviews also report knockoffs version of the cream. In some cases review pictures show that the packaging itself is clearly fake.

I write a 1-star review explaining the above, and saying that the anxious parents are now in an unbearable situation after applied a fake, potentially harmful and untraceable product to their newborn bottom.

The review does not respect community guidelines and won't be published.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#30

Post by jacobwilliamroy » Wed, Jun 24, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

rckoepke wrote: post #11

The categories of things that I've received counterfeit versions of on Amazon have been truly mind-blowing. It's been replacement HEPA filters, cat toys, even breakfast cereal. It's not just earphones/mics, batteries, usb cables, flash drives, extension cords, and other electronics. Who counterfeits breakfast cereal??? I've had this issue with both Quaker Oats and Raisin Bran. The scale of fraud is magnificent. And i…

Oh my god you ordered food in the mail. Did you put it inside your body? Are you okay?