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It is learned that recently, Amazon has filed legal proceedings against six companies that sell fake reviews, including Amazon Feedback, AMZ Trusted Review, and Woorke, because these six companies defrauded third-party sellers by providing false positive reviews. Obviously, the era of wild growth of cross-border e-commerce is a thing of the past. The authorities are further stepping up efforts to crack down on violations, and the future cross-border industry is bound to develop in a compliant environment. Nowadays, most sellers are seeking ways to operate in compliance with regulations, but there are still sellers and bad elements who choose to do the opposite, and even cheat by impersonating Amazon's official name. Amazon solemnly stated: "Kunlong International" is not an official Amazon authorized dealer
It is learned that on March 2, Amazon Global Store issued a solemn statement that "Kunlong International is not an official Amazon authorized dealer" : Recently, a company named "Kunlong International" carried out illegal activities such as recruiting new Amazon sellers and loan fraud in many provinces across the country under the guise of Amazon's global store "official investment authorization dealer." ▲ The picture comes from Amazon Global Store The company’s fraudulent methods include: 1. Claiming that sellers can obtain loans that do not need to be repaid: Sellers can obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in Amazon loans by paying a certain fee and providing personal identity information or business licenses for store registration. The loans will be repaid by Kunlong International through the proceeds of fully managed store operations, and sellers do not need to repay the loans; 2. Impersonating officials to defraud agency fees: The company falsely claims to be Amazon’s “official authorized dealer” to develop offline regional agents in order to defraud agency fees. It is worth noting that the company also uses social networks to spread false information, causing victims to fall into scams. The following fake "Amazon Wallet" APP is the company's software pretending to issue loans and has nothing to do with Amazon. ▲ The picture shows Kunlong International using a fake "Amazon Wallet" APP to commit fraud At present, Amazon has officially reported the case to the Luozhuang Branch of the Public Security Bureau of Linyi City, Shandong Province, where the fraud gang is located. It is learned that this is not the first time that an illegal organization has pretended to be an official Amazon official to commit fraud. In previous articles, it was also reported that fraudsters pretended to be Amazon officials and said they could help sellers register and open stores and provide Amazon loan services. To prevent more sellers from being deceived and causing unnecessary economic losses, Amazon has also issued several reminders:- There is no "official franchisee": Amazon has never authorized any "official franchisee" to onboard new sellers and issue loans.
- Look for official channels: Whether it is to understand settlement information or loan plans, Amazon recommends that sellers use official channels.
- Carefully identify relevant information: If sellers receive contact from someone claiming to be from Amazon via email, WeChat, or phone, they must carefully identify the official identity. For example, pay attention to the email suffix; make sure that the WeChat account is a corporate WeChat account, the name suffix has @Amazon Global Store, and the real-name authentication has been passed.
▲ The picture comes from Amazon Global Store A review of the cross-border scams that sellers have been unable to guard against over the years
As the world's largest cross-border e-commerce platform, Amazon has huge traffic, which has attracted many sellers to flock in, but it has also attracted many cross-border fraud organizations to grow secretly. Not only are new sellers prone to falling into traps due to information asymmetry, but even veteran sellers who have experienced many battles on Amazon cannot avoid being tricked by these unscrupulous scams. Below we will review the various cross-border scams that have occurred over the years, hoping to reduce the probability of cross-border sellers paying the "IQ tax":
For novice sellers entering the cross-border industry, obtaining guidance from predecessors through training seems to be a shortcut to booming sales. However, due to a lack of sufficient understanding of the cross-border industry, these sellers often become the "leeks" of bad training institutions. It is understood that the fraudulent routines of bad training institutions are mainly the following: 1. Using multiple social media platforms to attract traffic and create hype, pretending to be experienced sellers to defraud course fees. Such institutions usually deceive sellers in the name of teaching and training, but the quality of services actually provided is seriously inconsistent with the signed contract. For details, please see the article "More than 200 people were defrauded of nearly 1 million! Amazon service providers cut leeks and ran away!" 2. Promote various "new operating models" on social platforms, using slogans such as "small investment, big returns" and "profitable", to lure sellers. The previously exposed new Jingpu operating model and no-source model are all scams of this type. For details, please refer to the article "Can you make tens of thousands of dollars by doing nothing on Amazon? False advertising and water army, thousands of factories were defrauded of hundreds of millions! " Tips for preventing fraud Novice sellers can first form a basic understanding of Amazon through official channels and various websites, or collect some free information to study on their own to avoid losses due to lack of industry knowledge. In addition, sellers should be extremely cautious about process teaching that claims to be "easy to make money in cross-border e-commerce" and requires high fees. If you still need a training institution, try to find one with official certification or conduct a field trip yourself.
In addition to the scams mentioned above, there are also many scams on other platforms, and emerging platforms such as TikTok and Temu are high-incidence areas for investment fraud. For example, in November 2021, a seller posted a blog post revealing that a bad organization pretended to be the TikTok investment team to hold a training conference, thereby defrauding tens of thousands of yuan in entry fees. At the same time, when opening a store on Amazon, you must also be careful of the pitfalls of agency operation . Some agency operation companies recruit inexperienced operators. Sellers are charged agency operation fees and also have to bear the risk of account problems. In addition, there are also scammers who obtain sellers' information by claiming to help them open stores for free , and then secretly provide loans, causing the sellers to owe huge debts of millions without knowing it. Tips for preventing fraud We would like to remind all sellers to be cautious with organizations that charge high fees in the name of investment promotion, and never provide your identity information, company or family information to others easily.
The importance of reviews to sellers is well known. Even though Amazon is cracking down on fake reviews, there are still sellers who are determined to conduct reviews. However, this process is also a high-risk area for cross-border scams. 1. Evaluation scam: "Real person evaluation" recommends itself to the seller (through WeChat, etc.) or the seller finds "real person evaluation" on overseas social platforms. After the order is placed and the money is refunded, these "real people" will apply for a return and run away with the money. What's worse, they will ask for "hush money" from the seller and threaten to complain to the platform if the seller does not give money. 2. Reviewers without follow-up services: This type of reviewer will promote their high-quality account channels to sellers, and their fees seem to be cheap and cost-effective, but the seller will be immediately blocked as soon as the payment is made. Tips for preventing fraud As Amazon tightens its supervision on false reviews, the era of getting rich quickly by brushing reviews is gone forever. We recommend that sellers reduce reviews and focus on refined and branded operations. If you consider evaluation to be necessary, you can use the website's evaluation blacklist tool to check before deciding to cooperate, so as to avoid service providers with a "bad record" and reduce the risk of being deceived. Website evaluation exposure address: http://www..com/forum-3.htm (copy the link and open it in your browser)
Since 2021, freight forwarding defaults have become common: not only do some freight forwarders take over goods at low prices and run away with the money, but some also deliver goods to nearby warehouses to earn the difference . Some freight forwarders even ask sellers for high redemption fees for goods that were detained due to their own mistakes (illegal declaration, etc.) Frequent freight forwarding problems have become a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of cross-border sellers. Tips for preventing fraud Sellers should be cautious when choosing logistics channels, and put the logistics company's business capabilities and business qualifications first. Do not pursue low prices too much, as this will cause you to lose more than you gain. Try to choose logistics companies with deeper qualifications to cooperate with.
Cross-border scams emerge in an endless stream, and the tricks mentioned above are just a drop in the ocean. I hope it can be helpful to all cross-border sellers. Finally, I would like to remind cross-border sellers again that if you feel that the above routines are somewhat "familiar" after reading this , please do not hesitate to:
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