Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#221

Post by numpad0 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 7:34 AM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #191

jtbayly wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, whi…

I guess that latter situation is my point. Even if they are not the primary beneficiary they are a large beneficiary of all these illicit products. I'd imagine that they are probably not a minor beneficiary either since they probably get a huge chunk of the sale off these mostly commodity products. For each cheap plastic widget they sell probably the majority goes to advertising + Amazon Prime + warehousing + shippin…

Doing profitable activities illegal if done by ____, by saying “we do not consider ourselves to be ____” is the core of the business model for companies like Amazon or Uber

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#222

Post by zyl1n » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 7:43 AM 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…

Reading these comments, it feels a bit strange that I have never gotten a counterfeit product from Amazon, and I bought a dozen items from Amazon within last two months: RAM, electric kettle, wall clock, books, phone case, humidifier, ramen and fresh groceries (like fruits and cheese). The only problem I had was a few books were dented in corner of spines a bit. Is this phenomenon country specific? Or is it because I order only amazon prime items? Perhaps my luck will run out one day :)

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#223

Post by moksly » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:06 AM UTC

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…

Aren’t they just going to use the same defence that google, Facebook and others do, that they are just a platform and not responsible for the content users put on there?

I realise this may sound critical, but I’m not American and I’m genuinely interested to know if this defence wouldn’t work for Amazon.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#224

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:06 AM UTC

markdown wrote: post #123

mike_d wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with strong consumer protections, the bad actors are often based overseas. There is little to no incentive for the Chinese government to inhibit fraud taking place in the US or Europe.

> Even with strong consumer protections, the bad actors are often based overseas. Nope. There aren't many countries that allow foreigners who've never set foot in their country to sell product there without local representation.

Alibaba etc work just fine through the postal system without a local presence.

(Mind you, using them is pretty much explicitly waiving your protection in exchange for much lower prices)

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#225

Post by realusername » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:11 AM UTC

moksly wrote: post #223

throwaway_jobs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Aren’t they just going to use the same defence that google, Facebook and others do, that they are just a platform and not responsible for the content users put on there? I realise this may sound critical, but I’m not American and I’m genuinely interested to know if this defence wouldn’t work for Amazon.

> Aren’t they just going to use the same defence that google, Facebook and others do, that they are just a platform and not responsible for the content users put on there?

That defense could have worked if counterfeit products were a minority and they tried to fight them off, however as time is passing by, I see more and more Amazon as a marketplace almost primarily dedicated to counterfeit products due to their very high share on the platform... Search for basically everything and there's guaranteed counterfeit on the top (and that's only what you can see, I wonder what's the real share of counterfeit there...)

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#226

Post by taylorlunt » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:23 AM UTC

vayr wrote: post #199

ciarannolan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. Right, and for the reasons you listed, they simple do not care. They care only about appearing to care. As someone else linked in this thread, they announce some bullshit "investigative team" like this every 6 months or so.

I don't think they don't care -- this is a huge source of negative press & goes against company culture of putting the Customer above ALL else (including employees & their well being lol) The problem is just that even a tiny percentage of bad-actors still make up millions of sales at Amazon's scale.

Of course they don't put their customer above all else. They are a business: They put money above all else. "We put customers above all else" is just another way to put money above all else.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#227

Post by Cthulhu_ » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:27 AM 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…

Honestly reading all this, I'd treat Amazon like AliExpress - use it to buy cheap low quality shit you don't really need, go to the shops for everything else. Shops have actual quality control in place, and shops can be held liable if their products are defective or counterfeit.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#228

Post by randycupertino » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:51 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #227

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…

Honestly reading all this, I'd treat Amazon like AliExpress - use it to buy cheap low quality shit you don't really need, go to the shops for everything else. Shops have actual quality control in place, and shops can be held liable if their products are defective or counterfeit.

Our family's rule of thumb has been "nothing that goes on your body or in your body" can come from amazon, but after hearing about the counterfit bolts and ladder, think I'm gonna just not buy anything from there anymore. Have moved to ebay, Sephora, getting things direct from the hardware store and Target in person, and purchasing from other merchant shops that have their own websites.

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#229

Post by randycupertino » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

rckoepke wrote: post #48

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I thought this was hilarious personally but in general, this kind of comment doesn't really add to the discussion and feels not very appropriate for HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Comments should be more thoughtful and substantive, not less. However, I will absolutely take the opportunity to plug a food-by-mail company t…

Thanks for the link and suggestion- just stocked up on fun stuff for our upcoming July Yosemite trip. Road snacks and sunset violet mustard, white asparagus, cured ham and comte cheese, with a coffee cake for pre-hike and mid-hike noms.

Anything on there you particularly enjoy/suggest?

Re: Amazon establishes new Counterfeit Crimes Unit

#230

Post by randycupertino » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #74

rckoepke wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was hilarious personally but in general, this kind of comment doesn't really add to the discussion and feels not very appropriate for HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Comments should be more thoughtful and substantive, not less. However, I will absolutely take the opportunity to plug a food-by-mail company t…

I know you’re getting downvoted because of product placement not adding to a discussion, but I have to say that having food items that are all represented by a drawing doesn’t inspire confidence in me. I’m looking at bread and all I see is a cartoon — I have no way of evaluating it from that page. A photo of bread can tell me a ton about the quality of the bake, and if this is more generic grocery store or is somethi…

It's an old timey classic catalog aesthetic. A lot of NYC food vendors had this design theme as well as the infamous (Seinfeld) J Peterman catalog. http://www.designscouting.com/2010/06/01/memory-lane-j-peter...