Amazon Has A Counterfeit Problem - Here’s How It’s Fighting Back 

My thoughts exactly! Clearly Amazon is not doing enough when the site is filled with fake reviews. What is with that ending saying because of the sheer volume, it's impossible to stop counterfeits from getting through? Did we ask for the news to make excuses for Amazon or report the facts?

I always look to see where the seller is. Just click on their name and you can see the location their in. If it's China you will see it. I typically don't buy items from China if I see it in their profile. If it's a U.S. address, I can easily google map it to see if it's a legit business. But....I always buy from amazon as a seller. I trust that the most.

​@@texchu8331they actually pay for fake news stories Honeywell and Santee Cooper does this with their smart rewards program🎉 a completely fake news story that looks real🎉 go to the house and then the homeowner AKA a lady that actually works for Santee Cooper and Honeywell🎉 does an entire fake add

Interesting it opens with migrants, where are the feds to crack down on this potential sweatshop

yep. The 'fakes' include 1. Outright counterfeits 2. Surplus/damaged/reject goods sold as new (Honeywell is notorious for unloading their junk this way) 3. Faked companies. (I bought a power block from 'Apple' on Amazon, it started smoking, nearly caught fire. When I took it apart it clearly wasn't Apple. I bought a sewing machine from 'Janome.' When it didn't work I contacted Janome for their lifetime warranty. "We do not sell on Amazon. See ya.... " When I complained all Amazon eventually did was make this seller change their name to "Brand:Janome." Is the fake Apple products seller the same bunch of crooks who were 'Apple" but are now "Brand:Apple"? Who knows. Isn't 'Brand:(Company) a form of lying? What would Amazon do if anyone set up a web business: Brand:Amazon? 4. Quality dropping. Initially they sell a quality product, get good reviews, then they replace it with junk. 5. Faked reviews of course. But also blocked reviews. If an item or seller is particularly egregious Amazon blocks a lot of red flag level warnings. It's like you can write 'this product is not good,' but if you write, 'look out this is horrible...' that's too much. 6. Multiple layers of anonymity. Ever buy a product and then try to return it, but Amazon wants you to first contact them? Sometimes by the time you can finally send it back, you've contacted three completely different businesses none of which are the Selling Name on Amazon. If they kick anyone off their platform, there is absolutely nothing stopping them from just changing their name, getting someone else to front it, and going right back on. Because of chronically bad expensive tech products, computer, camera, binoculars, etc.. Years ago I stopped buying anything expensive on Amazon. Too high a chance the item will have a serious problem. One would think Amazon would care. I guess not. The bottom line is that Amazon doesn't have much quality control, makes it really difficult to report on, or file a complaint, seems resistant to taking action. I once invested in Amazon but then sold. It seemed to me that they were just like so many other retailers in the past Sears, several discount chains (including one that was on their way to becoming the first WalMart/Costco), etc... they initially have a great business model, but then they never fix any of the problems. Inevitably they atrophy and go out of business. Amazon has made some improvement, but they haven't done enough to protect their customers.

The Chinese game the system

They send a card in the mail a few weeks or days after you order something and offer you a gift card for a good 5 star review

@@RrR-xv4ij Amazon incentivizes gaming their very game-able system* fixed that for you

@@Mymelodykayla you can report that to Amazon and provide proof of the letter, they will get the seller's account suspend.

@talon310calif, I always look to see where the seller is. I suggest YOU do the same. Just click on their name and you can see the location their in. If it's China you will see it. I typically don't buy items from China if I see it in their profile. If it's a U.S. address, I can easily google map it to see if it's a legit business. But....I always buy from amazon as a seller. I trust that the most.

Thats wrong, Amazon cares greatly & massively restricts sellers & requires brand approvals. Why? Amazon's customer based is mostly fixed. So if Amazon can limit free market competition (aka be monopolistic) then that means higher prices for consumers & more fees for them. This is all just PR content to make people believe Amazon should be "cracking down" & its working extremely effectively. But this is exactly how we end up in a dystopian future with mega-corporations & zero way for the the little guy to get ahead. You think Amazon actually wants a million small sellers & the headache that brings when they could instead only have a few thousand approved sellers, limited competition, higher prices, more fees & far lower expenses? This is all a cleverly crafted PR campaign so they can engage in monopolistic practices without being labelled as a monopoly because its in the name of "consumer protection" which is an age old lie told time & time again without losing effectiveness. Now they turned us into the ones demanding they restrict their platform, funny how that happened.

Even a counterfeit sale is a profit for them, why would they crack down on fakes? I think we've seen the peak of trust in Amazon and they are now on the decline.

Those aren't counterfeits. That is just rebranding.

It's all PR

That’s 0,002% of their 1.500.000 people…

Pretty sure Amazon bought and paid for this puff piece. Either that or this reporter is an idiot not to question how ridiculously understaffed the fraud unit is while being seemingly convinced “the problem is too big to tackle”.

A staff of 35 sounds like they can probably knock out 10 bad actors a year. I was shocked that the anti counterfeit staff is so tiny. No wonder fraudulent products are rampant on Amazon. I don’t buy from Amazon unless there is no brick and mortar alternative where I can see before I buy. I recently bought a Black & Decker saw and it was $20 less at Menards than it was on Amazon. Even though the Amazon listing said “sold by Amazon” I still felt more sure I was getting a real product from Menards. I had to drive to Menards and pick up my purchase, but I had what I needed in 30 minutes. I can see that Amazon is a great time saver if you live in a rural area without big box retailers nearby or you don’t have easy access to transportation to shop. Otherwise, Amazon is not worth it by the time you pay for a Prime membership on top of Amazon’s prices being about the same as big box stores.

They make money off every sale so they are incentivized to not do anything dummy

Amazon literally gives replica Chinese sellers the buy box on products I make in house. Contacting seller services does nothing. Even trademarks and parents don't work. Unless you have the money to take Amazon to court its useless. They do nothing to protect sellers.

It's actually because amazon is the biggest counterfeit seller on their platform by the name of Amazon basics... Amazon didn't just figure it out themselves every product they sell, they forced merchants to give up their suppliers and then they make a bigger offer than any merchant could match because they have bank and reach. Every merchant will gladly tell you about it, it's not a conspiracy, there are very public records about it.

​@nomaam9288 not necessarily, if they get a bad reputation for a lot of fakes, people will not pay as much or use amazon less or stop altogether

@@nomaam9288 but they did and still do ? lmao bro welcome to "white collar crime".

Dam, that's misusing people

I had a related thought. What is Amazon's incentive to remove counterfeit products?

This

YEP.

>chrisguevara : Amazon has two incentives to fight counterfeits: 1. Legitimate sellers (such as Birkenstock) stop selling on Amazon and tell customers their products are only available elsewhere. 2. Buyers stop buying legitimate products due to fear they may be counterfeit.

Amazon closing the wrong account sounds like a failure to communicate.

@@brothermine2292 There is no way you're blaming this guy. He is the one who complained about the counterfeit. What kind of miscommunication would lead to Amazon closing the complainer's account?

@@brothermine2292 Obviously, you have not sold on Amazon. I did, until Amazon started ripping me off, by copying my products.

If you are the true owner of the trademark and under their brand registry, they would not close/suspend your account instead of the other sellers that's selling counterfeits. No test buy is required from their current Terms of Service.

@@jaylee6890 yeah, i agree sounds like bs to me

Same here. I buy much less on Amazon today than I used to. I've had too many "good deals" turn bad, usually lasting just past the return period on what I suspect are counterfeit items like Sylvania/Osram and Fruit of the Loom.

Same here. Even other not critical items are very cheaply made, I return a lot because of the low quality products.

I buy directly from amazon the seller.

I stopped buying original products long time ago as the difference in quality between fake and original is so marginal that paying premium for original is not warranted.

100% agreed, also these "counterfeits" aren't actually counterfeit at all. Their just generic brands selling a similar product but don't claim to be Crye. Crye is claiming they own the rights to the pattern & is weaponizing government enforcement to restrict the free market & keep prices high for consumers. That is anti-monopolistic, Crye is just one of many many companies doing this & this is why many people believe capitalism doesn't work. What we have isn't even capitalism anymore, the free market died long ago. All patent & copyright laws should be repealed & consumers would benefit massively.

They should at least buy like 5 first just to see if they are legit in person.

Came here to say that too. Anyone buying camo gear on Amazon, doesn’t care if it’s “authentic” or not. It’s for their LARPing and airsoft/paintball

I AGREE

@@swaggery They're not that smart.

Military does not officially buy, but veterans and personnel sometimes buy with their own money.

This is not entirely on Amazon because under US contracts and Berry amendment, there's a requirement of US ORIGIN for clothing.

Sounds like they should be doing this for the Russian website so they can make sure the Russians have counterfeit clothing, they'll be easier to capture so more troops to add to the exchange fund

@@JLeYang It's sad that army uniforms cannot be of domestic origin unless you get them from Amazon...

@@JLeYangeBay does crap like that. You can sort by “origin.” North America or US specifically. I do this when I want something in a short amount of time. In other words, can’t wait for it to come out of Asia. The seller says they’re in the US, sometimes even in the thumbnail, and then they mark the item as shipped, but the tracking number shows “awaiting.” The seller then ships it using their third party Chinese shipper. When it’s supposed to be at your door at the latest, that’s when the USPS finally gets a hold of it from the 3rd party.

Yeah, it's really silly and overly dramatic. Reminds me of the old Unsolved Mysteries episodes.

Ive been saying that for years!!

I only order car parts from auto zone or any other commercial car parts store

I got NGK plugs on Amazon. They burned in 30k miles. Sent pics to NGK- yep, fake. Never again. NGK said RockAuto or local auto shops. On a H6 Subi plugs are a pain the rear. I get Nike from Nike, home goods from Home Depot, Danners from Danner, Rockports from Rockport, etc. Amazon is street level crime online.

Same here. I quit buying suspension components after a couple of really shady looking parts. Last thing I want it a cheaply made tie rod snapping at 70mph, or a control arm failure at speed. I won't buy spark plugs or emissions components, pretty much nothing but cheap accessories that I can't get anywhere else.

Car Care Nut has a video warning about the rampant counterfeiting of car parts, no matter the price, and how those parts will not last.

Buying cheap camouflage will be fine , it's not far part

Noones forcing people to buy said cheap crap....

i dont want item manufactured in America, and i want to cheap identical items. if you want to pay 10x the price for the same item be my guess. just stop complaining how expensive items get.

@@TomNook.They scam the customers by not showing the correct pictures/specs.

Nice, but why

Why? Amazon is amazing great deals

Aren't "Amazon Basics" items just rebranded items produced by legitimate manufacturers?

It's not counterfeiting if it doesn't claim to be from the nicer brand.

@@brothermine2292 Not necessarily. They are also often made especially to the specs of amazon, after amazon has analyzed which products are bestsellers and can be recreated with a lower price. Other times amazon contacts the manufacturers of the bestsellers directly - whose addresses amazon has because vendors have to disclose this information to amazon (for verification of diverse compliance certificates). So the immoral thing here is that amazon uses the sales data and manufacturer contacts of its vendors to enter into direct competition with and of course undercut them, because amazon doesn't have to pay i.e. a 15% amazon fee.

And they likely closed and confiscated all the money from the original seller who got ripped off the first time when you reported it was fake.

That's just an off brand on Amazon. Do you even know what counterfeit means?

They are just copying every other retail store.

I've always thought that Amazon Basics is terribly screwed up. Having your retailer suddenly compete with you the manufacturer. It is unfair and immoral business practice. It's kind of good for the one company that produces the AB product for them but screws all the competition. Even the chosen company is forced to sell at a substantially lower price to Amazon.

@@jayl878 go into a major grocery store or Staples or Walmart....or Costco....they did it first

@@jayl878Yep, should be illegal.

make sure they listed at Dewalt batteries NOT look alike. if they can list at DeWalt then its legitimate. look alike are not

@@jackli6592it was definitely listed as genuine Dewalt batteries. A few months later Amazon sent me an email that they were fake and gave me a refund.

Not the same thing. The counterfeiters are selling a look alike with lower quality.

Hans you are brain dead.

chinese counterfeit isn’t just cheaper, its bad quality lol

Eitri: Yes. That’s what….counterfeit means

No - Chinese will happily collect your money, then it never comes and they keep your money for 2 months and say "not in stock." I received BS beauty products that were goopy drippy messes and not really product that I could never use. You have not gotten FKD yet. That's why you are so naive

Because they are a significant part of the GDP and the economy and the Treasury depend on it

Because they are a significant part of the GDP and the US Treasury and the economy depends on it. Jeff Bezos can get away with many crimes at this point

By US law they're civilly liable to try and remove crooks. Whether or not they succeed in doing so is another matter.

The thing is… if you buy direct from the manuf, especially in any kind of bulk, then it should 100% be cheaper than on AMZ because there is no cut to pay to the middle man. If someone is shopping AMZ (for the types of products highlighted in this vid) because they noticed the price is cheaper then they’d be stupid to not expect it to be a scam.

No we just need to limit imports from China. No more junk stores like Temu drop shipping

Why? They make millions or even billions of dollars. It’s all about profits. Thats how capitalism works. Most people barely make enough to get by so cheap products are the only thing they can afford. Cheaply made products from overseas is the only way to provide cheap products while maximizing profits. No one gonna pay an American 18 dollars per hour to make something, when a dirt poor laborer from rural China would make on a few dollars per day.

100% What do businesses expect when they tell the enemy how to make the products.

Temu is dog water 🤣

DHGate is pretty good as well, Temu is way too spammy I've never bought from them.

Multicam is a trademarked camouflage pattern. The US Military doesn't even use Multicam because they didn't want to pay the licensing fees, they use their own pattern called Scorpion W2

Amazon is hell. Bezos is the devil.

What makes you think it was fake? I bought a refurbished surface from Microsoft on Amazon and it was legit.

It would work, but it'd be hard to win that case when they're throwing a lot at the problem. If you ask me a blanket ban of certain countries will solve 90% of the problem

@@samsonsoturian6013 Both the genuine and counterfeits come from the same countries. On top of all of us struggling in the current economy already as it is.

Not a proper analogy. Legal casinos must follow rules of government gaming commission or lose license. This is more like illegal casino rigging games.

@@weirdo1060Well said. And the gambling industry is very transparent about their system - every game is rigged in a way that they win almost every time, and the player rarely wins. Everyone knows this, so those who decide to play anyway are merely hoping to be the exception; they aren’t being deceived. Very different from purchasing merchandise and getting something else.

That would be anti-competitive as hell, you realize you're crazy right? The more restrictions you add the less free market competition exists, the only winner here would be the large corporations who weaponized government enforcement in the name of "consumer protection" to artificially keep prices high. People like you proposing ideas like that is exactly why what we have today is no longer capitalism because the free market died decades ago.

@@Zaptosis Bonds are commonplace in other areas of the economy such as construction and contracting with government entities and they don't limit competition. Your strident response borders on hysteria.

nice

@@samsonsoturian6013yeah but they have an authorized list of resellers. Amazon just blocks everyone else from using their name. It’s different if it’s just camo with a different brand name. So this video is not telling the whole story. It should be easy to block counterfeiters.

@@samsonsoturian6013 They are thousands of camo patterns out there.

@@samsonsoturian6013 There are hundreds of camo patterns out there.

Their camo pattern is protected by copyright

@@adamsgro4378 but the pattern wasn’t even the same.

​@@samsonsoturian6013 Third party sellers, Amazon is being anti-competitive here & it results in higher prices for everyone. Crye is claiming to own the rights to the camo pattern, most these companies aren't advertising their products as Crye products so their stretching the definition of "counterfeit" quite a bit here. If Amazon can engage in monopolistic practices, reduce competition on their platform it'll result in higher prices & thus higher fees they collect. This is all a PR campaign to make consumers demand Amazon to be anti-competitive & look how well its working. Report Amazon to the FTC for this kind of stuff, they should be forced to provide a neutral marketplace & it should require a court order to have a product removed for copyright infringement. Amazon should not be the judge, jury & executioner of the law but increasingly we've shifted to giving them all the control & this only harms consumers.

You're wrong, those listings never claim to be Crye products, they just say "Generic Brand Gen 3 Pants". That should be perfectly legal & in my eyes thats free market competition. If you want Crye then buy the Crye branded products, but Crye should have to earn your business by competing on both price & quality. Right now their just trying to be a skum bag monopolistic company be restricting competition. That is the antithesis of capitalism, Crye us weaponizing government enforcement to keep prices high for consumers, screw them.

There is a third category: Sold by third party but shipped by Amazon. Basically the seller adds products to Amazons stack of the shop product, and then it's a lottery if you get the original or counterfit version when you buy from them.

>Psi-Storm : I doubt it's a lottery. Surely if you buy an item "sold by X and shipped from Amazon," Amazon will ship to you the item supplied by X. That allows Amazon to pay X the appropriate share of what Amazon charged you.

Amazon should be forced to allow third party sellers unrestricted access to sell, if they don't they should be 100% legally liable for everything sold on the platform because then they aren't a third party if their approving stuff. Is Amazon approving sellers for brands & products or are they not, if they are then they should be liable, simple as that. They should only be given legal immunity if they are actually a third party marketplace provider.