12 more accounts were hacked, the seller said: I have been blacklisted by Amazon?

At 3 a.m., Amazon seller Tian Wei sent a response: "12 accounts were blocked today. The platform may have blacklisted me and will not allow me to do business on Amazon in the future."

After last year's account blocking, Tian Wei went back to the days before liberation. More than 200 accounts were blocked and more than 200 million yuan of funds were frozen. So far, neither the accounts nor the funds have been returned. After being blocked, he was depressed for a while, but soon changed categories and re-entered Amazon. A year later, Tian Wei's account was blocked again by Amazon because it was suspected of having information related to the previously blocked account.

After this account was blocked, Tian Wei thought about it for a long time and determined that he was on Amazon’s blacklist and he didn’t know what to do in the future.

12 accounts were blocked overnight , and the seller lost 700,000 yuan

On the afternoon of October 19, Tian Wei found that one of his accounts had been blocked by Amazon. He then found that nine other accounts had been blocked. At around 8 p.m. that night, Tian Wei saw that a total of 12 accounts had been blocked by the platform.

Among the 12 blocked accounts, 9 were new accounts, all of which were test accounts purchased two months ago. According to Tian Wei, he bought a total of 10 new accounts at 1,000 yuan each, hoping to slowly grow them and put products on the shelves, but in the end, 9 of the 10 accounts died.

In addition to the new account, Tian Wei also had three old accounts blocked by Amazon. These three accounts were purchased at the end of last year and have only been selling products for four months.

The email from Amazon generally mentioned that your account has been deactivated, mainly involving product policy compliance. Amazon policies ensure a safe store environment for buyers and fair treatment for sellers. Violation of these policies may result in content removal or account deactivation.

A total of about 100,000 US dollars (equivalent to about 700,000 RMB at the current exchange rate) was frozen in the three blocked old accounts. The balance of one of the accounts was more than 60,000 US dollars. The sales of this account were good, with average daily sales ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 US dollars.

After discovering that his account was blocked, Tian Wei fell into anxiety.

First, he repeatedly checked the emails sent by Amazon to analyze the reasons; second, he asked his colleagues whether they were affected; finally, he consulted the service provider to see if there was a solution.

After working all night, at 3 a.m. on the 20th, Tian Wei was helpless: "12 accounts have been blocked and there is no way to save them."

Maybe this is the norm for Amazon employees, working without rest and under great pressure when there are problems with their accounts.

After analyzing the reasons for the account being blocked, Tian Wei was relatively relieved about the 9 new accounts being blocked. He said: "Amazon will scan a batch of new accounts from time to time for routine review. Once scanned, they will need to undergo relevant certification and submit various materials to appeal. I encountered a routine review."

Regarding whether to appeal to get back the account, Tian Wei believes that these new accounts are all bought and cannot be submitted with relevant materials, so there is no hope. He is also sure that he will not appeal because it takes time and money to appeal, and an account that costs 1,000 yuan is not worth the investment.

However, Tian Wei was very distressed about the sudden suspension of the three old accounts, not only because there were balances in the accounts, but more importantly, these accounts had just achieved sales results.

After finding out his account was blocked, Tian Wei’s first reaction was: “This shouldn’t happen. I didn’t violate any rules. Why did they block my account?”

After a closer look, Tian Wei seemed to have found the answer. Perhaps his payment account information was linked to the previously blocked account.  

In the 2021 account blocking wave, Tian Wei had more than 200 accounts blocked by Amazon for violating regulations and placing fake orders, with funds in the accounts amounting to more than 200 million yuan. After experiencing the account blocking wave, Tian Wei continued to operate on Amazon, and the payment information of the newly opened accounts overlapped with the information of the previously blocked accounts.

"It should be the information connection of the payment account that was caught by Amazon. So, I am on the platform blacklist, and Amazon will not let me sell. Even if I don't violate the rules anymore, it won't give me any chance." Tian Wei seemed a little disappointed.

He further explained: "Amazon may have a sanctions list, which will catch sellers who have violated the rules before. Through various data analysis, they will record you on the list and then directly blacklist you. For example, if a company's legal person does something on Amazon that violates the platform's sales principles, Amazon will mark it, and you may become the focus of the platform's supervision in the future."

Obviously, this has become Tian Wei's biggest concern. If this is true, how will the business on the Amazon platform continue in the future?

Multiple sellers targeting adults were affected

Without exception, all of Tian Wei’s old accounts that were blocked were operating adult products categories, and the accounts were all purchased.

According to Tian Wei's analysis, the account was blocked this time probably because Amazon focused on reviewing this special category.

"A friend of mine who sells adult products also had more than a dozen accounts blocked last week. A friend of mine also had his account blocked the week before last. Most of those blocked accounts were new accounts. So I think Amazon has become more stringent in its requirements for this category."

Tian Wei's guess corresponds exactly to the experiences of some sellers in the industry.

According to a seller in the industry, most of the accounts of a company with more than 100 employees were blocked this year. This company deals in adult products. The company also had some illegal operations, but accounts that did not violate the regulations were also closed by the platform.

Another seller who deals in adult products said that this category of products is very easy to get blocked, and it took him dozens of accounts to figure out some tricks.

Some sellers bluntly stated that adult products are actually madly testing the edge of prohibited items.

According to an industry insider, Amazon seems to have stepped up its review of new accounts in the adult products category since July this year. He knows that the platform scans at least 2,000 accounts every day, and new accounts are basically blocked as soon as they are blocked. An insider also said that permanent blocking of adult product accounts has always been a common occurrence, but has been more frequent recently.

Tian Wei started his business on Amazon with adult products. The more than 200 accounts that were previously blocked were all selling adult products. During the peak period in 2019, his sales exceeded 800 million. He has his own adult products factory, which can serve as a stable supply chain.

Because of the pitfalls in adult products, Tian Wei wanted to give up this category completely at the beginning of this year. At that time, he sold all the adult product accounts he was operating. The main reasons were the following two points: 1. The price of raw materials for adult products increased, and the supply cost increased significantly; 2. It was not possible to perform operations such as fake orders and fake reviews, and the platform had certain restrictions on advertising for adult products, making it difficult to obtain traffic.

These two reasons forced Tian Wei to switch to other categories and move the company from Shenzhen to Humen, Dongguan. The number of employees in the Shenzhen company was also reduced from more than 300 at its peak to 5.

After escaping from Shenzhen, Tian Wei tried to use Dongguan's supply chain advantages to reopen other categories, and the new category was selected as daily necessities.

This time, Tian Wei learned from his previous experience and stopped violating regulations such as fake orders and fake reviews. After operating the new category for a while, Tian Wei felt a lot of pressure. The market environment changed suddenly this year, with fierce price competition among sellers in the same category, and a sharp increase in advertising costs and ocean freight, it was not easy for Tian Wei to operate in the new category.

"Everyone is selling at low prices. If you don't follow them, you won't get any orders. If you follow the low prices, you won't make any profit. You won't make any money at all!" Tian Wei sighed.

In June this year , Tian Wei picked up the adult products category again, in which he had a supply chain advantage. He believed that as long as he did not fake orders or engage in illegal operations, he should be able to continue operating the business. This category was one he was familiar with, and he had his own factory, so the profits would be relatively better, which would allow the company to survive smoothly.

After just four months of operation , Tian Wei's adult products account was blocked again. All 12 accounts were closed overnight, and the three old accounts that had just started to pick up were also closed. This became a lingering shadow for him.

“The adult category will be subject to key supervision by the platform, and there will be more related audits and requirements. Even if you don’t fake orders or violate regulations, it will be more difficult to do than other categories.” said a seller in the industry.

The account was blocked again, and Tian Wei communicated with the service provider, and concluded that the account might never be restored for three reasons: 1. The chance of a successful appeal for account association itself is low; 2. Amazon can easily find the information of an illegal account and compare it with previous illegal accounts. The platform technology is undoubtedly advanced; 3. The three old accounts were all purchased, and purchased accounts themselves are risky. Now that there is a problem, it is impossible to find a legal person to cooperate with relevant audits.

Tian Wei’s experience also reminds cross-border sellers that buying accounts to do business on Amazon is not allowed by the platform. Once caught, there is basically no possibility of recovery, especially for accounts with a certain sales base. Once a problem occurs, it may cause considerable losses, so Amazon sellers are reminded to be careful.

Amazon cleans up a batch of illegal accounts

Among Tian Wei’s accounts that were blocked this time, some received a “restricted product policy violation” notification, which was the most recent account blockage initiated by Amazon.

Last Wednesday, eight out of ten accounts of a seller were suddenly blocked. These were old stores that had been in business for two or three years, using the non-distribution FBA model, and the brands and products in the stores were different. The main products sold were toys, masks, etc.

Amazon said in the email that the seller's account has been permanently deactivated and the listing has been deleted in accordance with Section 3 of the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement. The funds will not be transferred to the seller, but will remain in his account. The reason for the suspension is that the items listed by the seller are not allowed to be sold on Amazon, and items sold on Amazon must comply with all applicable laws and Amazon policies.

To reactivate an account, sellers need to submit evidence or documents to prove that the account does not violate the platform's "restricted products" policy. Accounts that cannot provide this information will continue to be deactivated.

Sellers are not optimistic about whether their blocked accounts can be restored. Generally, when there is a product violation, Amazon will mention the violation or infringing ASIN in the email, but these emails did not mention it, so sellers regard it as an "unsolvable" situation.

This may not be an unprovoked disaster. According to informed sellers, some of these banned stores sell Pop It-related toy products, and it is possible that they have stepped on the minefield of copyright infringement.

Another analysis believes that perhaps there was a problem with the category of one of the stores, which was not resolved in time. After being discovered by the platform, the stores were linked, causing group damage. "My store is a boutique FBA. This time all the accounts were suspended, including the conjoined account," said a seller.

There is also the possibility of misjudgment. Another seller said that his company's store also follows the boutique FBA route, selling regular home and office products. He has never sold any illegal products, and has not received any performance notifications for restricted products before. Now he suddenly received a performance notification for restricted products and his account was suspended, which is very puzzling.

"If it is a misjudgment of prohibited goods, you can appeal back with just a few words. I helped a friend appeal in May, and it was approved in seconds because it was a misjudgment. If it is not a misjudgment, it will be very difficult to deal with it." A seller said. If you think the account was killed by mistake, the seller can also appeal and prove how the account did not violate the "restricted products" policy and provide relevant evidence, but if Amazon confirms that these accounts have violated the policy, these accounts will continue to be suspended.

According to sellers’ feedback, most of the products Amazon is rectifying this time are suspected of violating regulations or skirting the rules. Once detected and confirmed to be selling restricted products, the account will face permanent suspension and heavy penalties, and it will be difficult to recover. This was a self-examination and cleanup by Amazon before the peak season this year, and Tian Wei and others ran into the gun.

5 years, the ups and downs of the cross-border business people born after 1995

Nearly 1 billion-level mid-level sellers have fallen, and have become the focus of Amazon's attention again. Amazon is a major road in the cross-border e-commerce industry. Does Tian Wei still have a chance on this road?

As an e-commerce entrepreneur who has not even graduated from elementary school, his experience is very rare in the industry.

Tian Wei was born in a remote mountain village in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province in 1995. Both his parents were farmers. In 2003, due to family changes, his mother took Tian Wei and his younger brother to study in Shantou, Guangdong Province. In order to reduce the burden on his family, he dropped out of school in 2009.

Tian Wei's first job was to sort plastics in a company in Chaozhou, Shantou, working 12 hours a day for 60 yuan. The next year, he came to Xili, Nanshan, Shenzhen to start his second job. In this company that made LED light strips, he was exposed to online shopping. At that time, he didn't know about Taobao, but he saw many colleagues receiving packages frequently. One day, he couldn't help but ask his supervisor who had just received a Samsung mobile phone memory card, "Where did you buy this?" The other party told him that it was Taobao.

This was a new thing for him. In 2011, Tian Wei learned how to open an online store from his colleagues, and in order to better understand e-commerce, he bought his first smartphone.

On his way home from get off work in 2012, he picked up a budgie and wanted to find a companion for it. He searched on Taobao and found one. He had an idea - why not sell parrots himself? In July of that year, Tian opened his first Taobao store. While working, he learned basic knowledge from his colleagues who were doing Taobao business, learned how to draw pictures and decorate the store, and earned his first 1 million yuan in a short period of time.

But in December of that year, Taobao removed the live parrot category, so Tian Wei's store had to close. After that, he tried several other stores selling Bluetooth headsets and maternal and child products, but none of them were satisfactory.

After careful investigation, Tian Wei found that the adult products category was relatively new, the products were suitable for online shopping, and most importantly, there was little competition. So he changed direction and made a profit of 2 million yuan from adult products in 2013.

In order to expand the business, he founded an online sales company in 2014 to produce such products. The company quickly grew from 4 people to 90 people, opened three Taobao stores, and achieved a monthly profit of 2.4 million yuan. In 2015, the company added two Tmall flagship stores and three JD flagship stores. In 2016, a large number of merchants poured in, and the number of orders for Tian Wei's company began to decline. He learned from many sources and the company's profit was able to remain at more than 40 million yuan.

At this time, cross-border e-commerce has gradually become a new topic in Shenzhen. In 2017, Tian Wei learned about Amazon, AliExpress and independent websites, and entered Amazon to start his cross-border e-commerce career, with the US market as his first stop. In order to better understand the market, Tian Wei went to the United States in August of that year to study local living customs. After some consideration, he registered a company in the United States, applied for trademarks and patents, opened a US bank account, and set up an overseas warehouse in Washington.

After returning to China in November, Tian Wei accelerated his business on Amazon. He also set up the AliExpress platform, invested 20 million yuan in self-built factories in Ningbo and Dongguan, and established 6 exclusive supply chains. This year, Tian Wei bought a house and a Mercedes-Benz in Shenzhen, and made a profit of more than 60 million yuan.

The company entered the fast lane, and Tian Wei also ushered in the "peak of life". In 2018, his company's Amazon business developed to 89 accounts, with five sites in the United States, Japan, Germany, Singapore and Brazil, and the average orders of several sites were relatively stable. So far, his company has more than 500 employees in China, more than 100 employees in overseas warehouses, and the company's annual sales are more than 600 million, with a total of more than 200 accounts.

2019 was the busiest year. Tian Wei added a new Pinduoduo channel to the company and opened 39 official flagship stores. This is the only platform that can advertise adult products, with considerable traffic, and Tian Wei attaches great importance to it. During the same period, he went to Southeast Asia to build an independent station live broadcast system. It took him two months to complete the system construction in Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Kenya, and cooperated with local Internet celebrities and websites to promote it. This is due to the fact that there are no restrictions on the sale of adult products in the local area. This category has also become a sales trend for independent stations.

During this year, Tianwei's company sold an average of more than 15,000 orders per day in the domestic market, of which JD.com and Taobao channels accounted for 20%, and Pinduoduo accounted for 80%; in terms of overseas channels, there were 216 accounts on Amazon, with an average daily sales of about 20,000 orders, two accounts on AliExpress sold more than 400 orders per day, and the independent site sold more than 5,000 orders per day. With 6 factories working overtime to supply goods, the company's annual sales totaled more than 800 million yuan.

The outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 has brought unexpected benefits to many e-commerce sellers, but Tian Wei is not one of them. After experiencing difficulties in starting work at the beginning of the year, his company is facing many problems such as shortage of raw materials and skyrocketing freight costs. Severe shortages and other factors have led to basically no orders in the overseas market, and domestic market orders have also dropped to half of the previous level, which can be described as a straight decline. Tian Wei said that this year was a loss year. The company lost more than 200 million on Amazon and more than 30 million in the domestic market.

In 2021, the company's business still did not ease, but to make matters worse, it encountered a wave of Amazon account blocking. "On June 7, the nightmare struck. All Amazon accounts were wiped out. The total amount of funds of 218 stores reached more than 200 million yuan and could not be withdrawn. The company fell into an unprecedented crisis. I tried to apply for unblocking the account, but to no avail. The company was already difficult to sustain, but I still gritted my teeth and persisted for a year. In the end, the cross-border e-commerce lost more than 600 million yuan and the domestic loss was more than 90 million yuan." Tian Wei said.

He hopes to turn things around in 2022. He plans to exit the adult products category on Amazon and start with other more stable categories. In April, Tian Wei ended his eight-year entrepreneurial career in a Shenzhen company and moved the remaining team to Humen, Dongguan, where he has a familiar supply chain and can start over. The company's business focus has also shifted to independent sites and Tik Tok.

On the Amazon channel, he chose the daily necessities category for his new business, but the competition was fierce. Considering the advantages of the original business, Tian Wei began to try selling adult products, but he no longer crossed the line to do fake orders and other prohibited behaviors. However, not long after the new account was launched, the account was blocked last week, and all 12 adult product accounts were blocked.

He speculated that it was the previous account suspension that put him on Amazon's blacklist. Although he was a little confused, he was unwilling to give up. In terms of adult products, the company has production advantages and the category has high profits, so he cannot give up. In the future, he will continue to try how to sell within the scope allowed by the platform.

Tian Wei's experience has made many insiders sigh. The ups and downs of the business world are fleeting. The fast-growing e-commerce era blew a gust of east wind to him, and he soared up and then fell from a height. Beside him, hundreds of thousands of cross-border merchants are shuttling in the information flow, hoping to seize the fleeting opportunities. Whether they can properly place the wealth given by the times ultimately depends on the personal cultivation of the sellers.

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