Amazon's ID scanning crisis strikes again! Is it related to payment security?

Recently, the addition of a KYC button in the backend of Amazon's US site has caused a heated discussion in the cross-border circle. Once KYC verification is initiated, many sellers' accounts may suffer under the strict review mechanism. Fortunately, it has been confirmed by many parties that the incident was just a false alarm, but the signal of Amazon's further upgrading of risk control measures is obvious.

We have learned that Amazon’s account blocking hammer has been “on the move” recently, with some sellers receiving frightening emails about multiple accounts being scanned for a second review, and the spearhead behind this seems to be mostly pointing to problems with the payment accounts.

Not only that, independent website sellers have also experienced several shocks, with a large number of accounts blocked by PayPal and funds frozen.

Nowadays, cross-border sellers are facing increasingly stringent compliance reviews. As a key regulatory target, cross-border payments are not only closely related to the account security of sellers, but the complex problems derived from them are also a major pain point for sellers.

Although the KYC audit was a false alarm, the second audit has quietly arrived. According to feedback from many sellers, a large number of accounts have been swept by the second audit recently, and they received many identical warning emails overnight.

"Ten accounts were scanned in one morning. Later, I asked the manager to check and he said it was a high-risk account. There was no way to unlock it, and I don't know why."

"I have registered seven new accounts in a row and they have been immediately reviewed, but they all failed. All of them passed the video verification with real information and physical credit cards."

"Some were detained after issuing a few invoices, and some were detained without any invoices. They did not provide invoices. If invoices are needed for the second review, we can provide them. They are all real. This is not an ordinary second review."

A seller reported that even though he submitted authentic information and all registration procedures were in compliance with regulations, his company’s stores were repeatedly scanned for re-examination.

  ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan

In fact, many sellers have encountered similar situations recently. Both new and old stores have been swept away by Amazon in batches. According to Amazon’s statement in the warning letter, “We cannot verify the information related to your seller account, or have not received information about the product or sales history” , some sellers pointed out that it is likely because there is a problem with the payment account.

"Nine accounts registered using real information were shut down one after another. I appealed through the internal channels of the investment manager and was told that they were judged as high-risk accounts due to problems with the binding of the payment account. " said a seller.

As we all know, cross-border industry transactions involve huge capital flows, so both platforms and countries around the world attach great importance to the supervision of cross-border payment links.

Once a seller binds a non-compliant payment platform or arbitrarily changes the payment account , he or she may receive a violation warning from Amazon, or even worse, his or her account may be directly banned and funds may be frozen.

Amazon announced last year that starting from March 1, 2021, sellers must choose the payment platform of the Amazon Payments Program to conduct transactions. There have been rumors that seller information has been leaked by third-party payment platforms. Although the news has not been confirmed, it also warns sellers to choose compliant payment platforms to protect the safety of funds.

As one of the compliant payment platforms, Airwallex has built a proprietary global financial infrastructure platform. Its global payment network has covered more than 50 currencies in more than 130 countries and regions, enabling cross-border operations for companies of all sizes and providing sellers with a more stable payment environment.

The cross-border e-commerce industry is developing rapidly, but due to the complexity and huge amount of capital flow, illegal money laundering and fraud are becoming more rampant, so the supervision of cross-border payments at home and abroad is becoming increasingly strict. While ensuring risk control security and avoiding risks such as money laundering and taxation, sellers are also facing many pain points in collecting payments.

Regional limitations and differences in policies among countries around the world mean that cross-border transactions are full of uncontrollability. Whether sellers can successfully collect payments, withdraw cash quickly, and avoid exchange losses have become urgent problems that need to be solved.

At present, cross-border sellers are still facing concerns about the compliance, security and convenience of the payment process. On the one hand, third-party payment platforms vary in quality, and are prone to problems such as complex and opaque service processes, lack of security and stability in channels, and risks of information leakage.

On the other hand, cross-border trade involves the operation of multiple stores and multiple accounts. In addition, the currencies and exchange rates of different countries are different, which may lead to chaotic financial management and inefficient fund management. This requires the payment platform to provide an efficient solution that integrates collection, management and payment to help sellers control the funds and transactions of multiple accounts at the same time.

At the same time, with the continuous expansion of sellers' businesses, more and more sellers choose to develop multiple platforms such as independent sites. In order to ensure the safety of funds, avoid funds being frozen and cleared, and avoid payment rejections, they undoubtedly rely on the stable and efficient payment solutions of the payment platform to promote the expansion of business scale.

Based on a series of pain points of sellers, Airwallex has recently optimized and upgraded its full-link cross-border payment products including online acquiring and collection, account management, global payment, etc., to help sellers cross borders and collect payments without worries.

Through this full-line product upgrade, Airwallex will further expand its local collection and payment capabilities, improve payment efficiency and reduce costs for more overseas companies. At the same time, it will provide efficient and stable payment collection services for independent website sellers on mainstream website building platforms such as Shopify and SHOPLINE, facilitate centralized management of funds in multiple accounts of enterprises, and work with ecological partners to bring preferential benefits to cross-border enterprises, reducing the cost of going overseas without tricks.

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