Amazon discovered more than 7 million counterfeit products, 700,000 fraudulent accounts in 2023

According to the latest data published by Amazon, in 2023, the company seized 7 million counterfeit products, 1 million more products than in 2022 on the Amazon.com e-commerce platform.

In its Brand Protection Report, the e-commerce company said that since the formation of its Fraud and Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU), Amazon has pursued and punished more than 21,000 fraud schemes nationwide. request through lawsuits and reports to law enforcement agencies.

'In 2023, Amazon strengthens cross-border anti-counterfeiting cooperation with multinational brands and law enforcement agencies. In China alone, the company has cooperated with market management units to raid 50 counterfeit production locations; identified and arrested 100 individuals involved in the production, supply, and distribution of counterfeit and counterfeit products,' Mr. Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon, stated in the document.

According to the company's share, Amazon's CCU unit currently has up to 15,000 employees, including software developers, scientists, machine learning researchers and investigation experts. In addition, The company also continuously poured an additional 1.2 billion USD in investment into the project by 2023.

The company believes these efforts are working. Last year, Amazon also discovered 700,000 attempts to create accounts to sell fake goods. This number has dropped sharply from 800,000 times in 2022, 2.5 million times in 2021 and 6 million times in 2020.

The rise of counterfeit goods on online shopping platforms not only undermines consumer trust, but also puts technology companies at risk of being held responsible for crimes that may occur on the site. their. In the case of Amazon, this issue is especially risky when the platform is open to third-party sellers, which currently account for 58% of the platform's products sold.

Amazon has chosen to increase cooperation with brands and claims that in 2023, the number of infringement complaints has plummeted by more than 30%.

Seeding and fake reviews are also another problem and Amazon is using technological tools to prevent them from spreading.

In recent years, an illegal industry has emerged on the Internet, taking advantage of the value that reviews bring to consumers. These criminals target customers directly through websites, social media channels, and messaging services outside of Amazon, asking them to write fake reviews in exchange for money, free products or other incentives.

Last March, Amazon filed a lawsuit against the administrator of a group operating on Telegram under the name 'Free Products', specializing in soliciting and making fake reviews from Spain. The group uses Telegram's encrypted messaging service, promising that if buyers rate certain products 5 stars, they will be refunded the product's price.

The Spanish consumer watchdog (OCU) has also sent a request to Telegram to close down scam groups of this type.

Jessica Tanner

Update 02 April 2024