Amazon Turns A Blind Eye To Fakes, Fraud, And Scams

Is Amazon America's biggest consumer fraud?

July 24, 2019, Los Angeles, CA – Amazon commands about 50% of online sales, however examination reveals a hyper-competitive environment laced with scams, fakes, and fraud.

Amazon is a direct retailer of counterfeit goods, e.g., "ships from and sold by Amazon.com" while also enabling and facilitating global criminals, counterfeiters, and scammers to flood the consumer marketplace with an inexhaustible supply of counterfeit, fraudulent, and replica merchandise, OTC drugs, and books. Many items are shipped from China and a focus of the current U.S. trade negotiations and tariffs. The consequences are destroyed U.S companies and retailers, lost U.S. jobs, and deceived consumers spending good money for bad products. Shockingly, Amazon paid no federal income taxes on $11.2 billion in profit in 2018 and $5.6 billion in 2017.

Amazon has exhausted its illusory public policy response: "Products offered for sale on Amazon must be authentic. The sale of counterfeit products is strictly prohibited" -- and it's patently false. Amazon's practices illuminate an entirely different business operation that more closely parallels China's notorious counterfeit marketplace, Alibaba -- appropriately named after the fable Alibaba and the forty thieves.

Consumers just don't have a chance of identifying dangerous, deadly, and often visually indistinguishable counterfeit goods, and Amazon's commitment to fighting counterfeits is an exercise in lip service. Counterfeiters exploit legitimate brands, while counterfeit complaints are often ignored for months.

Amazon introduced its artificial intelligence “Project Zero” system in March claiming the new self-service program “empowers brands to help drive counterfeits to zero.” Looking past Amazon’s self-congratulatory chest-pounding and The Washington Post’s P/R press pump revealed the program was “currently an invite only program” with a waiting list, and only about 15 small brands participating out of 100,000+ brands fighting fakes on Amazon. Amazon cannot hide the fact that brand enforcers know that Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting practices are nothing more than lipstick on a pig; ineffective, cumbersome, and dysfunctional. The reality is that counterfeit notifications to Amazon can languish for weeks, or be flat out denied.

The Counterfeit Report, an award-winning consumer advocate and counterfeit watchdog, found over 140,800 fake, fraudulent, and replica items on Amazon and removed 61,820 fakes on behalf of infringed brand owners. A recent audit by The Counterfeit Report revealed that 1,393 complaints were submitted to remove just 173 counterfeit listings and that counterfeit products removed from one Amazon website may be allowed to remain on any of Amazon’s 13 other websites. Two Global Brand Relations Managers assigned to support The Counterfeit Report haven't responded to the reported problems for over nine months, yet Amazon's dysfunctional automated systems generated over 14,000 meaningless or unrelated email responses.

Amazon's Corporate Counsel, Annasara Purcell, confirmed the deceptive practice in her response to The Counterfeit Report, writing "We remove suspected counterfeit items as soon as we become aware of them, and we remove bad actors from selling on Amazon," but only some, adds Ms. Purcell; "trademark rights are jurisdiction specific and the fact that a brand has rights in one country is not indicative of comparable rights worldwide." The comments were echoed and endorsed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

To memorialize the practice, The Counterfeit Report purchased dangerous counterfeits from three different Amazon sellers, registered in Pennsylvania or Texas and selling on Amazon's U.K. website. The fakes were delivered in the U.S. -- Amazon says that's OK. The Counterfeit Report also made counterfeit purchases from other worldwide Amazon sellers registered in China and delivering in the U.S. -- Amazon says that's also OK. The counterfeits remain.

Inexplicably, some of the most apparent and reprehensible examples of Amazon inaction are for obvious and identifiable fake items. For example;

Shown (Images ©The Counterfeit Report);

1. An Amazon seller offered counterfeit prescription pill dies to make fake Oxycodone, Alprazolam, Xanax®, Viagra®, and other prescription drugs, along with tablet binding powder and filler. The Counterfeit Report purchased counterfeit Oxycodone and XANAX pill dies and reported the seller. The seller remained and relisted the Oxycodone months later. The obvious question; for what possible legitimate reason are counterfeit prescription pill dies offered for sale on Amazon?
2. Composite Resources Combat Application Tourniquet® (C-A-T®) has been supplied to the U.S. Military, police, first responders and the public worldwide for the past decade. The authentic life-saving device is approved by the U.S. FDA. Counterfeit and replica versions of the patented C-A-T tourniquet have catastrophically failed during actual life-saving applications but are offered on Amazon. The Counterfeit Report found of 11,587 counterfeit, fake and replica products on Amazon and removed over 7,800. The fakes continue to be listed.
3. Authentic Drew Technologies Mongoose® Pro vehicle diagnostic interconnect cables and software is used by experienced auto dealer technicians, service centers, and independent mechanics. The cables have the processor and all of the electronics integrated inside to re-program critical vehicle functions including braking, air bags, safety features, emissions, and performance. Counterfeits may contain malware, damage or destroy expensive vehicle computers and components, and alter safety features. This counterfeit was purchased on Amazon, but the authentic product is not manufactured in purple - an obvious fake.
4. Fraudulent 18650 Lithium-ion ("Li-ion") batteries are proving to be a very real hazard -- a dangerous and deadly risk for consumers. Thousands of reported fire and explosion incidents resulting in emergency-room visits in the U.S., including acute injuries that required hospitalization, and victims that suffered the loss of a body part. The FAA reported 241 air/airport incidents (fires and smoke) involving a lithium battery carried as cargo or baggage have been recorded and 3 major aircraft accidents were reported where lithium battery cargo shipments were implicated. The batteries are prohibited on Amazon, yet an online search of Amazon will show thousands of fraudulent 18650 Li-ion batteries. Amazon received legal notice to stop selling the batteries in March, but the batteries remain including Amazon as a direct seller.
5. Tiny microSD® computer memory cards are used in cell phones, cameras, and laptops.  Authentic microSD cards bear the microSD trademark which owned by SD-3C, LLC, who licenses its use to authentic, conforming products. Memory on counterfeit cards is usually not the capacity of what is published on the card, and the fake items may fail or install malware on your device. When that happens, you are likely to lose your data, images, and damage your equipment. None of the items shown above from Amazon are authentic or exist in any legitimate product line. There is no such product as a 64GB microSDHC® card - an obvious fake, yet many infringing variations of the fake product remain listed.
6. Are you talking to the real police, how would you know? The counterfeit current FBI, NYPD, Secret Service, and other law enforcement badges and ID shown were purchased on Amazon and available to terrorists, child predators, and other criminals. Repeated notifications to Amazon executive staff are ignored.

Consumers relying on Amazons search results, ratings, or endorsements including "Prime," "Fulfilled by Amazon" and "Amazons Choice" would be shocked to learn they include counterfeit, fraudulent, and replica products. Some are dangerous or potentially deadly. The mantra for purchases on Amazon, "buyer beware."

Amazon's shady counterfeit practices have not escaped the attention of federal investigators. The U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") conducted an undercover investigation of e-commerce counterfeit goods sales and reported that about 50% of the items it purchased from e-commerce websites, including Amazon, were counterfeit. The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") sent a letter to Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, telling him to knock off the counterfeit electronics. The White House warned Amazon to clean up the counterfeits or the government will, and The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) which represents more than 1,000 brands has recommended that Amazon be added to the U.S. Notorious Markets List - a government list reserved for the worst online markets that enable and facilitate the world's largest criminal enterprise; copyright piracy, trademark infringement, and counterfeit product sales.

It's time for action, not talk.