Stopped 700,000 attempts to sell counterfeits: Amazon

Muscat: The e-commerce giant, Amazon, has reported that in 2023, it stopped more than 700,000 bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts, stopping them before they were able to list a single product for sale in our store.

This is down from six million attempts by bad actors to create new Amazon selling accounts in 2020.

"Our robust seller verification uses document forgery detection, advanced image and video verification, and other technologies to quickly confirm the authenticity of government-issued identity documents and whether they match the individual applying to sell in our store. These technologies, coupled with continued innovation in our machine learning-based detection, are deterring bad actors from attempting to create new Amazon selling accounts," the company said.

In 2023, Amazon invested more than $1.2 billion and employed more than 15,000 people, including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators—who were dedicated to protecting customers, brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse.

The company said its brand protection strategy focuses on powerful and highly effective proactive efforts to protect our store, industry-leading tools enabling rights owners to partner with us to better protect their brands, advances in holding bad actors accountable, and improved customer protection and education.

Since its launch in 2020, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement. In 2023, we identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of more than seven million counterfeit products worldwide, preventing them from harming customers or being resold elsewhere in the retail supply chain. In addition to the disposal of counterfeit products, in 2023, Amazon strengthened its cross-border anticounterfeiting collaboration with brands and Chinese law enforcement, which led to more than 50 successful raid actions with more than 100 bad actors identified and detained for questioning, many of whom are manufacturers, suppliers, or upstream distributors of counterfeit products. This collaboration resulted in numerous criminal convictions, including fines and prison sentences.