An account with annual sales of 160 million suddenly went down, and Amazon caught fake orders again

Amazon's rectification of violations is still ongoing, and a number of accounts are being shut down quietly.

Recently, Amazon sellers who were involved in fake orders, account trading and other illegal activities have paid a heavy price. A seller with an annual sales of 160 million was blocked because of fake orders ; many sellers received warning emails from Amazon due to review violations; due to account review issues, sellers woke up in the morning to find that more than a dozen accounts were suspended...

As Amazon's controls have been upgraded , many sellers have seen a decline in both orders and profits . In order to regain traffic, some peers have tried to start with off-site promotions , but they didn't get a single order off-site and were even scammed by unscrupulous service providers.

Amazon sellers are facing different difficulties , such as account suspension and declining orders . As the end of the year approaches, a sudden outbreak of the epidemic in Shenzhen has caused some cross-border companies to start working from home. What is more worrying is that an employee of a local logistics company has been diagnosed with the virus, 50% of flights have been cancelled , and Shenzhen sellers are facing difficulties in shipping goods at the end of the year.

Amazon is catching fake orders again , and many sellers have received warnings

Amazon's crackdown on review violations seems to have never stopped. Since the end of April 2021, many sellers in the industry have had their accounts blocked for review violations, including some of the top sellers with annual sales of over 100 million and high category rankings. Now these accounts are almost impossible to unblock, and the sellers' store funds are frozen.

Seeing their peers suffer heavy losses due to review violations, sellers in the industry have stopped illegal operations, and many sellers have notified service providers to stop fake orders, fake reviews, homepage likes, etc. Some bold sellers continue to commit crimes, but they will soon be caught by the platform. Recently, Amazon has caught another wave of sellers involved in review violations. According to its usual style of settling accounts after the event, not all the sellers who were caught this time were recent violations.

Recently, another batch of sellers were caught by Amazon for fake orders. Among the sellers caught, some of their accounts were directly banned, and Amazon’s ban is still continuing.

Among the team of people whose accounts were blocked due to fake orders, one seller suffered a considerable loss. His account with sales of approximately 160 million yuan in 2021 was blocked, and he is now anxiously looking for a solution.

Compared to those who directly hacked their accounts, another part of the sellers who were caught for fake orders received warning emails from Amazon, and the number of sellers receiving emails has been gradually increasing in recent days.

Amazon sent an email to sellers saying, "We have detected that you have violated Amazon's policies. If you do not resolve this issue, your account may be deactivated. Policy violations include influencing buyers' ratings, feedback and comments; manipulating sales rankings; and artificially increasing web traffic."

A seller who received a warning email said that he had not made any comments in violation of regulations recently. Later, after careful consideration, he realized that he had given direct reviews to several products about a year and a half ago. As a result, the account, which had been operating for 4 years and had high hopes, received a warning from Amazon for fake orders for the first time. There are still a lot of goods in the account, and the seller is not sure whether to continue shipping.

Another seller who received a warning email was clearing out his inventory off-site. In his opinion, this was a violation of Amazon’s policy on artificially increasing web traffic.

Some of the affected sellers speculated that they had violated the relevant regulations on ranking manipulation based on their own situations. According to their analysis, paid discount codes outside the site, no negative reviews on the homepage, likes and purchases, and QA are all considered ranking manipulation behaviors. Sellers must operate with caution to avoid being caught by the platform.

According to relevant feedback, sellers who have received warning emails recently have almost all violated regulations. A seller on the US site asked a foreign friend to help him place a few orders and pass a few QA tests. As a result, an old account that had been in operation for 3 years also received a warning email.

However, some sellers who received warnings also expressed their grievances. One of the sellers said that the company usually does not make fake orders or do off-site operations, and operates in a pure white hat manner. He received the first warning in November 2021 , but ignored it, and the account status has been good. In January 2022, he received a second warning letter for manipulating reviews. He called the support team and was told that the Amazon performance team detected problems with the buyer accounts of some of his orders at the beginning of the month, and asked them to investigate whether the hot-selling links had been diverted . Now the seller is confused about the investigation and does not know what to do next.

Sellers who feel they are innocent are not isolated cases. Another seller mentioned that an account that never made fake orders received a warning letter from Amazon, but he did not know where he had violated the rules and did not know how to appeal.

Sellers who have received warnings are getting anxious. After experiencing the wave of Amazon bans, sellers are suddenly nervous about warnings for fake orders. One seller said frankly that when he received such warnings before, he felt that it was nothing, but now he is panicking when he receives warnings for fake orders.

According to Amazon’s email, if the seller does not file an appeal, his account may be blocked. Therefore, some sellers who have been affected are preparing to file an appeal. Some peers have provided relevant experience. Since Amazon has detected it, you may have violated the rules. You can first carefully check your products to see if there are any violations and determine which regulations have been violated. Because there are quite a few sellers who have received warnings recently, you can wait and see and determine the solution later.

While rectifying review violations, other compliance rectifications on the Amazon platform were also carried out at the same time, and some sellers’ accounts were directly blocked.

Amazon's second review number scanning? Some sellers have more than a dozen accounts

Amazon’s second-instance sweep is in progress. In recent days, many seller accounts have been swept. Some of the swept accounts have been directly blocked by the platform, and some accounts seem to have no possibility of recovery.

One seller said that he woke up early in the morning to find that more than a dozen accounts were suspended, and he was very upset. Some of these accounts had no sales yet , while others were in the process of sales . All the suspended accounts received the same violation email.

The general content of the email received by the seller is that your Amazon account has been deactivated and the listing has been deleted. We have found that you have engaged in fraudulent, deceptive and illegal activities, or abused our systems and repeatedly violated our policies to protect our customers and selling partners. We may withhold some or all funds in your account.

The seller said that the dozen or so accounts that were shut down were all purchased and recently registered. When he appealed, he provided the broadband bill and business license, and asked the service provider to issue a broadband bill invoice, but the account was still shut down.

Coincidentally, an account purchased by another seller also encountered the same review and was ruthlessly blocked by the platform.

An informed seller said frankly that he had encountered this situation several times recently and his account was suspended. Those that were suspended were new stores , most of which were registered in October-December. The stores had no performance and had never placed any orders .

According to experienced sellers, these affected sellers encountered Amazon's second review, and Amazon robots are scanning accounts recently. If these affected accounts are registered with personal information, there is no problem with authenticity. Sellers only need to provide material certification as required, and they should be able to return to normal later. If the account is purchased, it may be a bit troublesome, because the purchased account is likely to be registered with false information . If the service provider cannot provide the information, these accounts are equivalent to being sentenced to death, and there is basically no possibility of rescue.

In fact, Amazon account scanning has been ongoing, and a wave of sellers were affected last month. More than 20 accounts of one company were suddenly deactivated. These accounts were all from Amazon US and newly registered, and there were no violations during operation. The account had previously passed address verification, but did not trigger video verification. The account was legal for promotion and advertising, had no violations, and the business license was completely normal, and it was reported every quarter.

It is worth noting that before the account was blocked, no warning was received from the platform. When the account was blocked, an email was received from Amazon . The content of the email was exactly the same as the email received by the sellers who were recently affected.

From last month to recently, in order to crack down on violations, Amazon has been conducting account scanning and has aimed its guns at new accounts. In the absence of any illegal operations, new accounts are being further strictly reviewed. If they encounter an audit, the purchased accounts will most likely be permanently blocked.

Previously, there were cases where purchased accounts could not pass the platform review, but some service providers still illegally registered accounts for sale, and sellers in the industry were still buying accounts. As a seller, using these purchased accounts is equivalent to planting a bomb for yourself, and the consequences will only be borne by yourself.

As Amazon's control is upgraded, the difficulty of buying and selling accounts and fake orders has doubled, and sellers need to operate within Amazon's rules. So how to get more potential customers and increase sales? Some sellers put their hopes on off-site promotion, but compared with on-site promotion, there is greater uncertainty off-site, and a seller accidentally fell into a trap recently.

I spent 390 yuan on celebrity promotion, but no orders were received. I only got a refund of 30 yuan.

On December 20, a stranger who was doing off-site promotion added Andy on WeChat. Because he had the need to do off-site promotion, Andy started chatting with the stranger.

The other party quoted: FB general group/298 (more than 600,000 fans), high-quality celebrity/398 (900,000 fans), big celebrity/568 (1.3 million fans), 10 yuan discount for more than two, and 30 yuan warranty. Andy thought it was okay, so he took out a product and asked if he could promote it. The other party replied that he could and asked for payment via WeChat. Andy transferred 298 yuan and told the promoter that now he just wanted to see how the effect was, and there were many more products to be developed next. The other party promised: "Don't worry, I will do my best to help you promote it."

The embarrassing thing is that this promotion only resulted in 7 orders. The other party suggested that even if the product was reissued, the effect would probably be the same, so it would be better to change to a better celebrity. "There is a big celebrity who has been doing quite well recently. Why don't you try our big celebrity? He has more fans and stronger purchasing power."

Andy was a little confused, and after a little thought, he decided to bargain: "Give me a discount, considering that the effect was so bad the first time." The other party reluctantly agreed: "Okay, 390 for you." Andy emphasized to the other party that the effect must be better this time, otherwise it would not be satisfactory. The other party still said, "Don't worry, I will do my best to promote it."

But this time the promotion was directly hit with 0, no orders. The promoter said that they would help to promote more products when the time comes, or to promote another product. After some communication, Andy decided to return the money, but the promoter said: "There is no way to return the money, the money has been arranged with the influencer, I will continue to help you promote more." Faced with the customer's attitude of "wanting results", the promoter said that if a product has a good audience, it will naturally be good to get orders.

Andy was furious, and the promoter finally said that they would return the money to Andy. After receiving the red envelope, Andy was speechless. "Finally, the kind-hearted scammer returned me 30 yuan. I thought about it and thought, what can I do with 30 yuan? I can send 1KG of goods through Mason, and if it is a slow ship, it can pay for the freight of 2KG of goods..."

Andy's experience made many sellers laugh and cry. Sellers analyzed that Andy should not promote without asking for links, and similar routines are also very common. "I used to work for a service provider for off-site promotion, and the package quotation was the same as yours. The first time I sent 0 orders, the second time I sent 1 order, and then they said that the traffic would be better on weekends, so I changed the product and helped me to send it again. Oh my god, there were 0 orders again, and I wasted more than ten days. I sent it three times in total. It seems that the service is thoughtful, but it is actually useless!"

In fact, compared with the stability of on-site promotion, many sellers think that off-site promotion is average. If promotion is needed, sellers can contact the appropriate FB group owner themselves , which is cost-controllable and can be targeted.

Now that the year is coming to an end, sellers are busy reviewing, making plans for the coming year and preparing for stock. One seller said that after calculating the profits for 2021, he felt a little disappointed. He had been busy for a year, making wedding dresses for logistics and doing charity for customers. At the end of the year, epidemics broke out in many places in China. In Shenzhen, a cross-border e-commerce highland, the new crown epidemic is affecting local sellers.

Shenzhen has reported 14 cases of the epidemic so far , and sellers are under pressure to ship goods

According to yesterday's announcement, Shenzhen City has added one new asymptomatic COVID-19 case; as of 17:00 on the 13th, a total of 14 cases have been reported in this round of the epidemic, including 12 confirmed cases and 2 asymptomatic cases. As the epidemic develops, some areas have been designated as closed or controlled areas, and feedback from cross-border sellers about staying at home has continued to increase:

"Someone I know works in Shenzhou Computer Building and is under home quarantine."

"My Phuket client is actually under home quarantine"

"There are three close contacts or secondary close contacts in the community where I live, so I have to be quarantined at home."

"The company is surrounded by the virus. From today on, we have been working from home..."

At present, communities such as Gangtou have completed the fifth round of nucleic acid testing, and some areas need to be tested for seven consecutive days. A property management company notified: "Bantian Street has been set up as an epidemic prevention zone. From January 12 to 18, all staff will be tested daily. No one will be allowed to enter without a negative nucleic acid test result on the same day."

On January 11, it was reported that a 10-in-1 sample from DHL Cargo at Shenzhen Airport was positive for nucleic acid after preliminary screening by a third-party testing agency. Among them, 9 were truck drivers and 1 was an outbound cargo operator; 8 of them lived in Bao'an District, 1 lived in Luohu, and 1 lived in Foshan.

The next day, Shenzhen announced new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the 11th, one of whom was an employee of a logistics company in Bao'an District:

"Case 11: Male, 42 years old, an employee of a logistics company in Bao'an District, living in Building 58, Hewei Village, Caopu West Community, Qingshuihe Street, Luohu District, diagnosed as a confirmed case of new coronary pneumonia (common type)."

There are many different opinions about the seller, and it is speculated that he is a staff member of a logistics company in the industry. According to the latest news, based on the needs of epidemic prevention and control, from 21:00 on January 13, two areas including Building 58, Hewei Village, Qingshuihe Street, Luohu District, Shenzhen, and Building 64, Hewei Village, Qingshuihe Street, were adjusted to medium-risk areas.

In addition to directly affecting sellers' daily work, the epidemic has also affected local logistics and transportation, and now is the peak period for stocking up before the Spring Festival.

Yantian Port is the main channel for foreign trade in South China. During the "May 21" epidemic in 2021, many cases in Shenzhen were related to international cargo ship operations in Yantian Port. The port's capacity has seriously declined, heavy containers have been piled up, major shipping companies have skipped ports, freight rates have risen, and pressure on surrounding ports has increased sharply, which has had a huge impact on global shipping and supply chain operations. It was not until June 24 that all berths of Yantian International Container Terminal, including the West Port Operation Area, resumed basic normal operations.

After Shenzhen reported this round of COVID-19 epidemic on January 7, some sellers prayed: "We must defend Yantian Port no matter what!" Yantian Port responded quickly and issued the "Anti-epidemic Measures for Tow Truck Drivers Entering the Terminal Operations" on the same day, requiring drivers to cooperate with a series of epidemic prevention measures, such as not getting off the vehicle unless necessary, except for unlocking the containers, completing the necessary handover procedures and emergency situations; cooperating with temperature measurement and health code inspection; reducing the handover of paper documents, and not entering the port without an appointment.

On January 11, Shekou Container Terminal also issued a notice on the arrangement of export heavy containers entering the gate, indicating that based on the current stage, SCT, CCT, and MCT will accept export heavy containers entering the gate with ETA-3 days (i.e., within 3 days before the estimated arrival date of the ship) from 0:00 on January 14, 2022 (today). For example: if the ETA time is 2022-01-17 00:00, the start time for receiving containers is 2022-01-14 00:00. At the same time, drivers are required to cooperate with the inspection of health codes and travel codes when entering the terminal for operation, maintain a safe social distance of 1.5 meters, and do not get off the vehicle unless necessary.

Major ports have successively adopted epidemic prevention measures, which may bring certain pressure to the shipping rush before the Spring Festival.

Not only ports, but also airport flights have been affected to a certain extent. According to VariFlight data, as of 22:30 on the evening of January 13, flights at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport have been cancelled on a large scale. Among the cancelled flights, 455 were canceled in advance due to reasons such as airlines, and 51 were temporarily canceled due to weather and other reasons.

In the cross-border export transportation chain, the epidemic has spread widely at the end points such as Europe and the United States. There is a serious shortage of local dock workers, low processing efficiency, serious cargo backlog, and the time ships wait in line to dock and wait for unloading is constantly being refreshed. Domestic epidemics occur from time to time, and Shenzhen Yantian Port, Ningbo Beilun Port, etc. have been affected.

The uncertainty of sellers’ shipments has increased significantly. Even on the way, the goods may suffer unexpected disasters. Especially in the past year, shipping accidents have occurred more frequently.

A week ago, a super-large container ship named "Madrid Bridge" with a capacity of up to 13,900 TEU, owned by Japanese shipping company ONE, was suspected to have encountered bad weather on its way to the eastern United States. A serious container collapse accident occurred on the ship, resulting in the loss of at least 30 containers on the container ship. The ship's schedule is also expected to be delayed. The ship had called at two major ports in China, Hong Kong and Shenzhen Yantian, and there were a large number of Chinese goods on board. Accidents such as containers falling into the sea and ships catching fire have occurred frequently in the past one or two years, and the sense of security of shipping sellers is decreasing.

Over the past year, cross-border sellers have experienced continuous rectification of platforms, intensified internal competition among peers, high logistics costs, and declining profits. The pandemic has also magnified the uncertainty of cross-border e-commerce in many ways. For most sellers, adapting to the environment, upgrading operational strategies, and maintaining a foothold in the face of drastic changes in the overall environment has become a compulsory course.

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