Reporting Just Launched and other Scam Sellers (Proper Format)

[Rushdie]

Please ignore comments made by naysayers and other unrelated comments. It’s bad enough sellers have to deal with this problem on a daily basis, let alone responding to trolls and negative comments. Please ignore irrelevant posts.

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For anyone reading this thread, please report the Just Launched (Scam) sellers yourself, using the following format:

Please, be patient. Some are removed within hours, some may take a week, but ultimately, the majority are removed, if you follow the below format.

Make a very simple list of all sellers, you are reporting:

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1. Seller’s name:

Link to their storefront:

2. Seller’s name:

Link to their storefront:

3. Seller’s name:

Link to their storefront:

etc…

Message: We believe above sellers are engaging in fraudulent activity. Please investigate.

Subject of email: Possible fraudulent sellers.

Email the list, directly to: seller-performance@amazon.com

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Do not use the terms, “fake” or “counterfeit”.

Do not add anything to the above message.

Do not repeat names of sellers that you previously reported.
(In other words, if you are sending daily or weekly reports, do not add the same seller’s name to another list.)

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Amazon is well aware of the problem, but you do need to report them, as I posted above.

The main reason for brevity, is to make sure your report is read and understood. Seller performance likely receives thousands of emails a day and anything to make it easier for them, will make it more efficient for you.

[Go_Calendars]

We reported one just this morning using your format, and the seller was removed in about 3 hours. Thanks Rushdie!

[i_buy_blu]

Thank you!

I’ve noticed A LOT of new just launched scam sellers recently. Selling their items for $5 or under with hundreds of listings.

Don’t know how they manage to get through.

[Sometimes_Right]

Rushdie, I personally believe that Amazon should grant you the “Master” icon in the forum for all the effort you’ve put in on this topic.

Thank you.

[Mostly_Games]

Thanks for the guidance on reporting, I reported a dozen just now. This is such a bummer, especially if Amazon gets overwhelmed and starts to lock more item categories from listing (such as they have done with dvds).

[Living_In_a_Van]

Rushdie, I personally believe that Amazon should grant you the “Master” icon in the forum for all the effort you’ve put in on this topic.

Thank you.

Dont worry he will achive this feat shortly.
I’m surprised at the number of people here on the forum who simply criticize his effort.

The same folks who whine about the problem yet never propose any solutions to alleviate the problem.

I appreciate the contributions of any seller who try to make selling life easier oN Amazon.

Thank you Rushdie!

[TVYYBOX]

Thank you very much for this super useful article and hopefully if we all do it weekly, we can get rid of them.

[Rushdie]

We reported one just this morning using your format, and the seller was removed in about 3 hours. Thanks Rushdie!

Good news, but remain vigilant. Once your items are listed in their feeds, the same feeds are used over and over again, being handed over to new accounts.

[Rushdie]

As many as can fit into an email. Do them all at once, just keep track of them and try not to repeat the same seller twice, in different reports. We were reporting hundreds, each day. No limit.

[loco]

How many can you report at a time?

I have 1 listing with 41 sellers…me and 40 Just Launched or 0%positive sellers.

[Keilys]

I can literally find at least 5 fake sellers on half of my products, and new ones pop up every day. I appreciate the intention to report the fraud sellers, but I could spend at least an hour a day doing this as new ones pop up. Amazon needs to get this growing problem under control. I am now having my listing kicked out for pricing errors because I have scammers selling $60 shirts for $1.00.

[Rushdie]

Last year, I was spending 6 to 8 hours a day, reporting them, for others. The above format should lessen time spent.

As mentioned before, once your listings are made part of their feeds, they will be fed into other storeferonts. Frustrating? Incredibly so, but if you do not keep up with it, on a daily basis, they will overrun your listings.

[Makingithappen]

Rushdie - In your opinion, do you recommend sending a cease and desist, before a test buy, to sellers that are not “just launched” but newer sellers that are selling items not exactly as described? Is the letter allowable within Amazon parameters?

I am part of the Amazon Brand registry and have approved US trademarks for our products listed. The seller is infringing as they do not have expressed permission to sell our product. I would like to send this letter before contacting notice@amazon. My intent isn’t to damage a newer seller account but to make them aware of Amazon policies and rights, as well as provide them the opportunity to remove before being reported.

And thank you for the “just launched” seller removal campaign you are posting. i have used this for the daily sellers meeting this criteria and they have been removed.

[Water_Enthusiast]

We’ve been using Rushdie’s email (thanks!) & most of the scam sellers get taken off within 2 days - not soon enough.

Does anyone have a way to identify the compromised listings in bulk?

With thousands of active listings, we can’t go through them manually. There is a subset of our skus that are constantly assaulted & we check those daily & report the parasites, but the “virus” is spreading to previously “clean” listings as well.

Viewing the “lowest price” column in Manage Inventory helps find them, but I can’t find a report that will give us that up-to-date info in bulk. The “suggested lower prices” business report doesn’t catch everything.

Anyone have tips on streamlining the process?

[Rushdie]

Rushdie - In your opinion, do you recommend sending a cease and desist, before a test buy, to sellers that are not “just launched” but newer sellers that are selling items not exactly as described? Is the letter allowable within Amazon parameters?

I am part of the Amazon Brand registry and have approved US trademarks for our products listed. The seller is infringing as they do not have expressed permission to sell our product. I would like to send this letter before contacting notice@amazon. My intent isn’t to damage a newer seller account but to make them aware of Amazon policies and rights, as well as provide them the opportunity to remove before being reported.

And thank you for the “just launched” seller removal campaign you are posting. i have used this for the daily sellers meeting this criteria and they have been removed.

I never recommend test buys, since the majority never ship and upload invalid tracking numbers.

However, as of last night, another seller mentioned the possibility of a more nefarious purpose than making a quick buck, with these fraudulent accounts. Culling private information.

I took that one step further and it hit like a ton of bricks, they may be culling everyone’s name, address and telephone numbers, given with the orders, to continue to perpetrate this and other fraudulent activities, by using the order information as a basis for creating more fraudulent accounts, here +and+ elsewhere. Identity theft…

Now we are wondering, if the recent rash of hacked seller accounts and emails with malware docs attached, may have something to do with the information culling theory.

At this time, I firmly suggest, refraining from test buys, unless you have a PO Box set up, that cannot be traced back to your private information.

Yes, you are permitted to send a C&D and some sellers have had a little success, but 90% of the time it is a waste of time and effort. The above format works quickly. Why let them steal even more of your time?

[TWEAKED_SPORTS]

This deserves a bump

[Rushdie]

Yes, it is a whack-a-mole game, unfortunately, so keep whacking.

The sellers are using Amazon feeds, to upload the information, thus allowing thousands of products to be uploaded simultaneously. The feeds are likely being created by others and for a price, a few clicks and zero aggravation (for the scammers), hundreds of thousands of bogus listings are created.

[Bubsy205]

Hello all. Thanks to Rushdie for this thread. I’ve started following the format and have recently seen one perpetrator removed. Kind of like Whack-A-Mole though, they keep popping up and we’ll keep knocking them down. One question though. These “sellers” are just launched but when I go to their store front they have several HUNDRED THOUSAND items already in their store. How in the world do they do that? Over the course of my work day, along with all the various things I must tend to, if I work actively to upload new listings, I might put up 30 or so. Yet these guys appear overnight with a number of listings it would take me years to create. Any thoughts?

[lost_in_amazo]

Thank you!

I’ve noticed A LOT of new just launched scam sellers recently. Selling their items for $5 or under with hundreds of listings.

Don’t know how they manage to get through.

I’m confused, So you can just have any seller removed at any time, just because they are selling an item cheaper than you can.

All of the Alibaba (Chinese), Suppliers, who can send in FBA Shipments in your name, can just as easily send in an FBA Shipment for themselves. [IF THEY"RE SMART, THEY WOULD DO THAT EVERY TIME THEY SEND SOMETHING TO THE USA. JUST FILL UP THE REMAINDER OF THEIR CONTAINERS FOR THEMSELVES], And they would be able to cut your price by 50%, and still be able to double their profit from selling small quantities to USA Sellers. So, there is a limited product cycle for anything that gets popular on here.

That’s just a no brain’er. It just makes good business sense.

But, what you’re saying is anytime you see someone who is competing with you, you just report them, and have them removed?

WTF?

Of course the Chinese guys will move in eventually and take the money for themselves.

But that doesn’t make it a scam, just because they can beat your pricing.

[Dogtamer]

But that doesn’t make it a scam, just because they can beat your pricing.

Agreed. Still, that’s not what most of us mean when we mention “Just Launched Scam Sellers”; most of us are speaking of those who offer ridiculous pricing, unrealistic shipping times from overseas, etc. Many of the the sellers in the ever-growing set of them that this and multiple other threads are about are plain & simply scamming buyers; it’s undoubtedly the primary reason why consumer confidence in Amazon’s hard-won brand trustability is being so tarnished of late.