ASIN hijacked and merged into new listing

Tanner_Tailor 2018-09-24 15:29:39 UTC #1

We ran out of stock of an FBA product we have been selling for about two years and it looks like some Chinese seller had the ASIN merged with his much cheaper product to take advantage of the ranking and the reviews.

I have read some other postings, e.g. I am watching a product be hijacked in real time and it seems like this is very common now.

What is the best way to have Amazon revert our old listing?

1000 plus Hijacked 5 star verified purchase reviews on a single product

Someone hijacked successful listing, how to fix?

Oneida_Books 2018-09-24 15:56:57 UTC #2

Provide an image of your product with the UPC … OR the Manufactures website … is what Amazon requires.

Tanner_Tailor 2018-09-24 17:31:53 UTC #3

I have contacted all the sellers that have that ASIN listed, strangely two of them only listed it in Canada and as Merchant fulfilled. I guess that’s how they changed the listing in the first place for the actual account which sells it in USA via FBA.

I ran a google search for the Canadian seller “DC Trade” and there are a couple of Google results saying “beware of DC Trade” https://www.amazon.ca/shops/A3CSH382AQAXNC?ref_=v_sp_storefront

Anyway, all three of them apologized and said it was just a mistake and they mixed up the listings… Still no reply from Amazon though. Wonder how long it will take until I get control over the listing.

Uncle_Leroy 2018-09-24 17:34:14 UTC #4

Open a merge/split case with seller support. I have done that before and it worked both ways for me: merging multiple listings together as well as splitting listings apart that were improperly merged.

keyslife 2018-09-24 17:43:52 UTC #5

Have the same issue
I am a manufactutrer
took me 3 weeks to convince Seller Support
so it is super important to use the proper terminology and provide all evidence
( I’ve learned my lesson! )

provide link to MFG website
take a photo of the product where it shows UPC label and that product name/brand name
CLEARLY tell them you need catalog team to REVERT the listing because the listing has been
co-opted by another seller, hijacked listing as asin-adoption

also check if they have made it variation of their other unrelated product, then you need to also tell them to unmerge the variation because yours is stand alone product and not part of any variation thus seller is also doing
variation-abuse

finally tell the catalog team you need the item REVERTED BACK

Best of luck
you will need it

Tanner_Tailor 2018-09-28 16:53:07 UTC #6

You were right. It took Amazon until today to get back to me and they requested just what you said:

Greetings from Amazon Seller Support,

Before we can process your request, we need you to provide one of these valid forms of documentation:

Manufacturer’s or Publisher’s (for books) website URL clearly showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.

Manufacturer’s catalog (Product User Manual), either scanned image of the physical catalog or PDF version showing the suggested changes, along with visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.), if available.

High-resolution product pictures, clearly showing the suggested changes, along with a visible product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.).

A high-resolution photo of the item in its original packaging showing the product identifier (UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.) code and the attribute or attributes that you need to change

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for selling with Amazon,

Amazon.com Seller Support

Tanner_Tailor 2018-09-28 19:38:27 UTC #7

Opening a merge/split case finally helped. Discovered that before the merge the brand was changed to yet another seller’s brand named “Crioxen”. That brand is sold by two sellers: PRO Seller Inc (which has a Crioxen logo in his profile) and CRIOXEN

Really makes me wonder how these ASIN hijackers operate!? Do they have some kind of group in which they use each other’s account to make those changes or do they use random brands or how to make sense of this? How come so many sellers had this particular ASIN listed but only one is selling it?

keyslife 2018-10-02 11:37:53 UTC #8

If you scroll down in this thread

Their Modus Operandi is described there, it’s an eye opener

Funky 2018-10-03 16:11:41 UTC #9

I have details on multiple accounts which are all related - all selling the same brands across Co-Opt/hijacked listings. Who’s the appropriate group to forward detail to? I’ve seen other threads on this forum, but cannot find any which are were actually addressed.

keyslife 2018-10-03 18:21:12 UTC #10

See post from daubh

and Rushdie

daubh 2018-10-07 19:08:20 UTC #11

You can report to seller-performance@amazon.com

You can also file a listing abuse report in the contact us section.

You can also send an email to jeff@amazon.com although I’m not sure about this one in terms of achieving results. I’m actually not sure about any of them in terms of achieving results. If we don’t see results within a week of reporting, we could send a tip to the press.

If you want, you can also send me the list, so I can compare with the list I am compiling - I could perhaps find links between these sellers by combining all the information from your end and from my end. You can direct message me on forums - I’m not sure if mods will allow posting these seller names here.

Funky 2018-10-16 04:00:53 UTC #12

I’ve reported to Seller Performance, and hit the contact us button so many times I’m about to go blind. I’ve got different tickets opened for different hijacked items, and one has been open since October 9th. I slowly watched as the last item morphed - first the pictures, then the description/bullets and then the Brand changed. Funny thing is, I recorded one of the tickets 2-3 weeks ago when the brand first changed. Then, while my ticket was open, they changed the brand again - now to their Brand Registered brand, which will make this even more difficult.

So, how are they doing this? Surely we can do the exact same thing, but in reverse, to resolve the listing issues - since support tickets are not working. Thoughts?

Obsession_Products 2018-10-18 14:47:28 UTC #13

I’ve had someone hijack my listing 2-3 times a day (which means I’ve called in 2-3 times a day to have it reverted each time) for the past 10 days.

Amazon seems to have NO permanent solution to prevent them from doing this over and over and over again.

The hijacker creates a new ASIN, merges mine into his, and then mine appears out of stock and with no reviews.

I call in, re-explain my situation to at least 3 different people (while they transfer me around), then I wait on hold for about an hour while they fix it. (If I don’t wait on hold, they don’t fix it).

I’m going crazy here… Does anybody know of a better solution???

Manhattan_James 2018-10-18 14:51:45 UTC #14

As of right now, Amazon does not have ANY protections for this. This is happening over on the vendor side as well. We recently had a top-selling item (we are brand registered/manufacturer) merged with some fake items w/ 300+ reviews and 30+ questions/answers. We opened up a case - they banned the vendor and fixed it… Then, the vendor opened up a seller account and did it again. Now our case is on hold… What a mess!

Funky 2018-10-18 15:46:27 UTC #15

How do you get them reverted so quickly? WOW, What’s the secret - please share!!

We have had a ticket open since August 9th, and it’s still not resolved. I’ve invested hours upon hours responding to tickets and still cannot get it reverted, even as I’ve provided extensive documentation on the listing dating back to 2016 with our Brand, when the ASIN was created, along with clear proof of majority of listings for this brand are hijacked.

leda_of_kirkland 2018-11-09 18:17:57 UTC #16

Yes, this happed to us also. Our best selling product after being out of stock for a month. We talked to violations at Amazon support and all they can say is that they are diligently working on the case after 2 weeks.

From the forums we learn that the attack is a co-op and merging attack, at least for us. They took over our ASIN, then add it to another product to harvest our reviews to boost ranking.

Funny thing is we control the listing for pricing and everything, but it is controlled by “SportsMonster” which can’t spell common English words.

It is horrible customer service because customers see a product but the reviews are for something else.

Our attorney sent Amazon a letter about our copy right violations.

Unfortunately our Trademark won’t be active until Dec. 7.

Another Amazon manager we talked to said that without a trademark and brand registry Amazon won’t do anything because it is too easy to fake ownership documents.

We are losing money like crazy, as well as losing trust of our fans.

leda_of_kirkland 2018-11-09 18:19:42 UTC #17

We had our attorney write them a letter about copy right violations. Not sure if it will mean anything.

Obsession_Products 2018-11-09 18:47:03 UTC #18

write Amazon? Or the hijacker? (Amazon won’t tell me who the hijacker is)

OLDBOY 2018-11-09 20:06:46 UTC #19

Reply to Amazon support.
If you have brand registry go there and “report a violation.”

The ASIN/ISBN of the item’s detail page and the product title
The store or business name of the seller you are reporting
Your order ID [include this if appropriate]
A concise explanation of the violation

I couldn’t find a link to the bad actor either, but searched Alibaba and found a web site with the same name and posted this that I found on the internet.

Dear Lambow SportMonster:
It has come to our attention that your Company is using the Oldboy Longboards, LLC brand to sell products on the Amazon.com marketplace, in violation of multiple international and national criminal laws, as well as civil laws regarding trademark infringement and unfair competition.
Our company, Oldboy Longboards, LLC is the exclusive distributor and the owner of the brand. We have never granted permission to your company to sell our brand nor have we sold you inventory for resale.
This will serve as your legal notice to cease and desist all further actions described above, including any mention of our products/company on your listings on any marketplace, websites or marketing efforts.
You are hereby instructed to comply with this letter immediately or face legal sanctions under applicable International, Federal and/or State law.

We have also reported your copyright and Amazon Terms of Service violation to Amazon Seller Performance. We have fully documented with Amazon that we own the ASIN you have taken. Amazon will soon remove your selling privileges. We ask that you remove the ASIN B075QLMQW6 for our Oldboy Ceramic Bearings from your listing immediately. You have 24 hours to comply or we will take further legal and social media action.

Sincerely,

GJ Gillespie CEO Oldboy Longboards

Also we received a black mail threat on Amazon email saying “We are third party provider and can remove unwanted sellers from your listing.” I did not reply, but sent the information to support and to our attorney.

hello_ 2018-11-16 12:02:17 UTC #20

Hey @Tanner_Tailor was this issue resolved?

I have the same issue as someone changed discription brand name and everything !!

What should i do?