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Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

blog.aboutamazon.com

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Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#181

Post by jtbayly »

chrischen wrote: post #178
jtbayly wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One day Amazon is going to get smacked with such a lawsuit resulting in billions in punitive damages, then and only then will you see real effort on their part to curb this behavior. Amazon has been sued many times over similar things. The precedent is very strong. They win every case because they are not the seller. Unless the law changes, there is little hope of this happening like you expect.

Amazon is a direct beneficiary though. I’m not sure why they are not the seller. In that case can’t they just setup shell companies to sell shoddy, fake, or illegal items, take 99% of the profit, and claim they are not the seller?

No. The primary beneficiary is the seller. If you want to sue somebody you have to sue the seller. That’s what precedent says, anyway.

Yes, Amazon could setup shell corporations, but if they got tracked back to Amazon, that would be the end of the company. Why not just setup a bunch of side businesses producing and selling legal things (like their batteries, clothes, etc. brands) and collect all the profit there, while allowing others to setup shell corporations and sell the illegal things? That way they collect some profit from the latter, but without any risk to the company. And, in fact, that’s what they do.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#182

Post by ilkan »

amelius wrote: post #55
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…

Someone should counterfeit the Amazon website.

Rocket Internet

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#183

Post by somethingwitty1 »

Vendan wrote: post #38
anonymousDan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good news, there is! It's called a database. When an item comes in, tag it with a unique barcode and add a row to the database saying "Item X came from company Y in shipment Z" and then sue/penalize/whatever company Y when it's counterfeit.

This assumes it is really that simple. You are adding a manual, human process. Humans make mistakes. Humans can intentionally make mistakes. Barcodes fall off, get defaced, etc. Those barcodes, hardware and software require money and up-keep. The humans receiving the products also can make mistakes and return the "wrong" item that happens to look the same (this is a source of counterfeits, even at Walmart/Target). And then we get into the shipment chain. Counterfeit swaps happen during the transit of packages to the warehouse and to the receiver's home. This is a really, really hard problem. And to be able to do it in a way that doesn't substantially raise the prices of the products only complicates that more.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#184

Post by ilkan »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #177
mabbo wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can suggest another likely culprit for your wrong calculator: its barcode got broken/lost. Everything is tracked by barcode. If it doesn't have a barcode matching what's expected, it doesn't exist anymore. Scratch a barcode the wrong way or mark it wrong, it loses it's ability to be scanned. It gets found, but what is it, inventory-wise? The folks solving these problems, they're trained but some are better than oth…

That doesn't explain the cheap calculator in the packaging of the expensive one. I mean the branded plastic blister pack that the calculators are directly packaged inside, not some box that is used during the shipment to/from Amazon.

Buy real calculator online, buy cheap knockoff in shady store, get a refund from Amz. Tracing is hard with commingled inventory. Something i heard about on the internet...

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#185

Post by xphilter »

throwaway_jobs wrote: post #34
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…

Here is one (plus the story of a defective product lawsuit behind it). A water slide. The type that bolts down into concrete for use with pools. If the first thing in your mind is...isn’t that something from the 70’s/80’s...yes it is. So the counterfeiter must have molded the entire slide (complete with the company logo that was embossed into the slide itself) thing is that company was dissolved back in the 80’s. So…

Impossible. Congress has given amazon a get-out-of-jail-free-card in rye form of an arbitration clause with no stare decisis and no public access to the harm or outcome.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#186

Post by [deleted] »

ericd wrote: post #171
heavyset_go wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess I don't understand why someone would try to counterfeit something like cereal. Seems like it would be hard to get enough scale to make it worth the effort, given the low per-unit profit. Cereal is cheap, like really cheap, and name brand cereals like Raisin Bran go for nearly $9 a box. If you've ever been in a discount store, or a liquidator with a consumer facing outlet, tons of counterfeit food, toiletrie…

In what area do they go for $9/box? I've never seen them for more than $5, and you can frequently get them on sale for $2...

[deleted]

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#187

Post by opportune »

throwawayiionqz wrote: post #29

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…

Same thing happened to me with a FBA product which I was not happy with. It didn't ship for two weeks until I left a bad review and reported the seller, and it arrived in not-great condition. Originally got offered $20 ($100 product) to take down a one star review, then they got it taken down anyway.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#188

Post by boulos »

jacques_chester wrote: post #39
boulos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Target of all places seems more curated than Amazon. Isn’t this going to be true of any “pure” retailer? The nature of FBA and third-party sellers just means there will always be at least some percentage of fraud and so on that’s higher than “trick various people in the retailer to sell fake goods”. Particularly as it’s much easier for insiders at a retailer to steal from their employer (and then resell via whateve…

> Isn’t this going to be true of any “pure” retailer? No. First-party retailers don't generally commingle stock with other third-party retailers. They typically have few suppliers, often one supplier, for each good. That's for many reasons, but it also makes it easy for them to identify who sent them counterfeits. Amazon is discovering what old-fashioned retailers learned long ago: customers do not give a fuck who, u…

Oh, that comment wasn’t clear: I mean, any pure retailer is going to be better at this than Amazon (and so why single out Target) because unlike Amazon they know their vendors.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#189

Post by bluGill »

soulofmischief wrote: post #149
throwaway_jobs wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall stories of counterfeit child car seats that failed safety standards (don’t think there was a lawsuit) just “undercover purchases” and actual safety testing of the fakes. As I understand it Amazon isn’t liable which to me makes no sense as it relates to defective products (everyone in the supply chain of a defective product should be jointly and severely liable). I don’t care if it’s a 3rd party seller, Amazo…

The alternative is an online marketplace with no accountability. That doesn't sound safe.

The online marketplace have more accountability. You know who you are buying from. Buy from name brand and you get name brand. Buy from nane brand (did you notice the n not M?) and you get from nane brand. This gives name brands lawyers someone to send their lawyers after and traceability if there is fraud. With Amazon cominguled good you don't know where the counterfeit came from so you can't play wack-a-mole with fraud. It just keeps happening.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#190

Post by Wingman4l7 »

bllguo wrote: post #163

I have never had counterfeit issues on amazon and always find these threads bewildering. I buy almost everything I can't get from my local grocery store from them. I can't tell whether I'm improbably lucky or if I'm part of a silent majority. Claims of things like counterfeit cereal (come on, really want to see some actual proof here) tilt me towards the latter, though.

China counterfeited infant formula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal); why are you surprised about cereal?
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