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Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

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Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#211

Post by lotsofpulp »

vayr wrote: post #198
gwittel wrote: post #27

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. Amazo…

This is a hard problem to fix. The last statistic I read was that 52% of all items sold on Amazon were 3rd party sellers. Imagine even if 1% of the items by 3rd sellers were counterfeit, that's still millions of items. I don't envy Amazon's position right now. They should have thought about this issue before opening 3rd party sellers but now they're dealing with the consequence in a huge scale

All Amazon had to do was make it possible for people to filter for only items shipped and sold by Amazon.com and publicly announce they don't commingle inventory. If they did that, they would be a viable competitor to Costco, Best Buy, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.

It's not a hard problem to fix. It's an unprofitable problem to fix. See the tiny profit margins at the above listed actual retail companies. The juicy profit margins lie in being a platform and taking a cut of all sales.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#212

Post by lotsofpulp »

jacques_chester wrote: post #102
bcassedy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart's online store is a mess of 3rd party options now too. I went looking for hair clippers at the start of the pandemic and all I could find were no-name brands offered by third party vendors on their website.

Well then. From my comfortable seat outside the arena, this seems like a squandered opportunity for Wal-Mart. (Also: is it Walmart or Wal-Mart?)

Yes, unfortunately even Target is getting into the 3rd party seller game. Which I wouldn't care about as long as I have an option to filter for only items sold by Target (or Walmart or whoever) and them stating they don't commingle on their website.

I just go to the brand's official website nowadays and pay whatever they ask so I don't have to research what channel it's coming from.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#213

Post by hrktb »

ckastner wrote: post #52

I've said this before: they should look at how the finance industry deals / has been dealing with bad actors for decades before they engage in a business relationship with a client. Assign every vendor some risk category based on their profile, for example: projected annual revenue, country of incorporation, products sold. A mom-and-pop store located somewhere in Iowa selling pillow cases would probably be low-risk,…

> A mom-and-pop store located somewhere in Iowa

> A vendor selling USB cables out of China

Funny thing is, these two stereotypes tend to be less and less representative in my opinion.

Mom and pop store perhaps care less about what they sell on the internet ? Amazon was blocked in France during shelter in place and we had to go through other vendors. We got a surprising amount of mislabelled, slightly unfit (ex: wrong size, wrong color) or completely different stuff sent from small european vendors.

In comparison AliExpress is relatively accurate on descriptions, if color is random you know it at purchase, packaging was piss poor but we always got exactly what we ordered, and we had one issue for 40+ orders.

I would have better faith in a chinese vendor to send me the right USB cable than a Mom and Pop store to send the right size and color of pillow cases.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#215

Post by tracer4201 »

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’ve received counterfeit preworkout, counterfeit razor blades, and more recently counterfeit Optimum Nutrition Whey protein.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#216

Post by twothamendment »

chihuahua wrote: post #103
rckoepke wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, great question. Basically wrong flavor and texture. Visually looked quite similar but just had a cardboard consistency. Repeatedly compared vs. grocery store bought over a few months span of alternating purchases to confirm. It was somehow both immediately obvious and also subtle. My girlfriend eventually confirmed that something didn't seem right with it, so we started buying back-to-back orders alternating fr…

Malt-o-meal makes excellent imitations of name-brand cereals. For example, Golden Puffs = Kellogg's Honey Smacks -- completely indistinguishable, but much cheaper. They make about 30 different kinds of cereal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOM_Brands

I wouldn't say Malt-o-meal is indistinguishable from the name brand because in many cases I like it better. The same? No, but they are for sure worth a try.

Anyone in my family can tell the difference between Kellogg's raisin bran and M-o-m, so I think it is safe say some people would notice a counterfeit cereal.

Now I'm hungry...

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#217

Post by opencl »

alexpetralia wrote: post #156
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…

Can anyone clarify how they found out their purchases were counterfeit (e.g. if I buy a Bose product "Sold By" Bose, it could be a counterfeit?)? As someone who purchases things from Amazon and only care about if they work or not, I haven't had much an issue. If I've been loading up on counterfeits, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.

A few years ago I bought a $15 audio amplifier on Amazon. It failed a little while later and after a bit of googling I found a page from the manufacturer about identifying counterfeits which were apparently rampant. Different PCB layout etc.

Amazon does have a brand registry which manufacturers can opt into and then actual proactive counterfeit enforcement will happen specifically for that brand. Some but not all items in the program have unique per-unit barcodes that Amazon verifies and customers can too through an app called Transparency. But as a customer you have no way to tell which brands are enrolled in the program unless you receive the item and see the Transparency barcode on it.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#218

Post by Wingman4l7 »

olafure wrote: post #60

I'd really like them to establish a "counterfeit reviews" unit too. Many years ago their review system was one of their businesses advantages. Many users and fairly honest reviews. Now it's rife with fake and bought reviews, rendering it useless.

I recently took a look at the top 20 reviewers, and based on some personal knowledge of what the items that buy 5-star reviews are in the current market, at least 3 of the top 20 people are doing it. These are people with thousands of reviews. It's rotten all the way to the top.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#219

Post by debbiedowner »

dublinben wrote: post #104
ckastner wrote: post #52

I've said this before: they should look at how the finance industry deals / has been dealing with bad actors for decades before they engage in a business relationship with a client. Assign every vendor some risk category based on their profile, for example: projected annual revenue, country of incorporation, products sold. A mom-and-pop store located somewhere in Iowa selling pillow cases would probably be low-risk,…

Speaking of incentives, why would Amazon want to place such onerous restrictions on their suppliers? Are consumers supposed to demand this? Would regulation require it? Amazon's success at being "the everything store" is fundamentally opposed to vetting their suppliers like this.

I agree. Because of Amazon's scale selling counterfeit items is good for business. Only a minority of customers will notice the fake and return it, which they've streamlined so that it's no big deal.

Counterfeit items likely get Amazon more customers than it loses. The cheapness of counterfeit is attractive to new customers, and the ease of returns retains customers. Besides, everybody can't be a conesieur in everything they buy, so it's feasible to still be successful at high rates of counterfeit goods on the site. Some econ student could probably share some good studies on this kind of economy for us.

Maybe Amazon can try the pirate Bay argument that they just host the content they're not responsible for it respecting copyright?

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