Beware! As the year draws to a close, a large number of Amazon sellers have received warning letters...

The New Year is coming soon, have you gone home?

Today is the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month. I believe that many cross-border people have returned home for the New Year. However, according to the editor, there are still many sellers fighting for their own stores, and many sellers are melancholy about receiving warning letters from Amazon ...

Since last week, many sellers have received warning letters from Amazon. The sellers who received the warning letters were very panicked. Their stores were doing well, so why did they receive such a letter?

After careful consideration, the seller finally figured it out ...

A large number of Amazon sellers received warning letters for fake orders

Sellers must be familiar with the words "brushing orders". No matter they are veteran sellers who have been in the market for years or newbie sellers who have just entered the industry, they will more or less brush a few orders. Many sellers even use brushing orders and reviews to grab market share.

As the year draws to a close, I have discovered that many sellers have received fake order warning letters from Amazon, which read :

"We have determined that your account is associated with accounts that write Amazon customer reviews for products in which you have a financial interest, which may include products sold by you or your competitors.

Amazon sellers’ family, friends, or employees may not write reviews for the seller’s products, nor may they write negative reviews about products sold by the seller’s competitors. Sellers may not manipulate ratings, feedback, or customer reviews.

Amazon is committed to maintaining customer trust and providing the best shopping experience. Therefore, Amazon will investigate any attempts to manipulate reviews by sellers, vendors, or others that we learn of, including by offering compensation to customers in exchange for reviews.”

Amazon also mentioned at the bottom of this warning letter: " If this problem persists, we will deactivate your account . "

Many sellers were very scared after receiving the letter and seeing the description at the beginning, thinking that their accounts would be blocked. But in fact, Amazon only warned the sellers and did not block their accounts. Some sellers speculated that this was most likely a warning letter sent by Amazon in bulk.

There are quite a few sellers who received warning letters this time. In theory, there is no need to worry too much, but some sellers said: "Don't take emails from Amazon lightly. Don't place fake orders after receiving such letters. Amazon always likes to settle accounts later. Don't wait until your account is frozen and then regret it."

Many people thought that Amazon started sending out warning letters about fake orders in January, but that is not the case. One seller said: “I recently received another warning letter about fake orders . It feels like it has never stopped. It has been sent since the second half of 2020.”

Another seller said: “Amazon definitely did not send this email in bulk this time. I believe many sellers who received the email have faked orders. Sellers who have never faked orders have definitely not received a warning letter, so sellers who received the email this time should be more restrained…”

The editor has learned that many of the sellers who received the warning letters have engaged in fake orders. The editor would like to advise all sellers not to fake orders anymore. Selling goods on Amazon is no longer as free as it used to be. Under the trend of compliance, Amazon’s crackdown on violations will become more and more severe!

After all, before this wave of warning letters, many sellers had suffered heavy losses due to false orders, from account suspension to being cheated, all of them had experienced hardships.

Have you ever fallen into these order-brushing traps?

Throughout the year, there are sellers who fall into the trap of fake orders, and there are also sellers who are "blocked once and have to avoid it for ten years" because of fake orders . Regardless of whether fake orders will cause serious consequences, the ups and downs derived from the process of fake orders are too numerous to list.

For example, being cheated by a fake order company, having your reviews deleted by your brother-in-law, having your account blocked, being fired by your boss for secretly placing fake orders ... I can’t even imagine how terrible these scenes are.

An employee in charge of the company's operations said that he was cheated by a fake order company when he was brushing orders. Not only was he scolded by his boss, he was also fired by the company and even lost his job.

This was the final result - the order was not placed, and the store also received a warning from Amazon about ranking manipulation.

However, when it comes to being cheated by fake order companies, many sellers have encountered this. Some fake order companies use machines to fake reviews under the guise of real-person reviews. Because of this, many fake orders have been directly refunded.

Moreover, the cost of fake orders is not low. If this behavior is exploited by people with ulterior motives, the seller’s losses will be even greater.

In November last year , many sellers were threatened by buyers who faked orders - if they didn't pay, they would give one-star bad reviews and ruin their stores.

I still remember that this incident was widely circulated in the cross-border circle. Both veteran and novice sellers received endless in-site messages. In that "malicious order-brushing" incident, no matter whether they brushed orders or not, they could not escape the terrible threat.

Sellers are certainly victims of these fraudulent tactics, but from the root cause, if the phenomenon of fake orders was not so prevalent, how could fake order buyers and intermediaries easily catch the sellers’ weaknesses?

After being caught for fake orders, the peak season came and the order volume was no longer booming.

Sellers are going to have a lot of worries when they hear about "Amazon's strict crackdown on fake orders during peak season". In addition, sellers will tremble with fear as soon as they enter the backend after receiving the fatal emails from Amazon.

It is well known that the brother-in-law likes to find fault with sellers during the peak season, but some sellers said that they had clearly placed fake orders in April, but were discovered by the brother-in-law during the peak season. The sellers were also very aggrieved - they only placed less than 20 orders, but their accounts were blocked during the peak season.

There were also 3C sellers who were discovered by Amazon to have faked orders during the Christmas period, which directly led to their store accounts being blocked for one month.

The end of the year is the time when sellers are striving to achieve good performance, and the consequences of having their accounts blocked can be imagined. This seller said that after his account was blocked, sales plummeted and the peak season could no longer be revived.

The most terrifying thing is that after brushing the orders, I accumulated a lot of good reviews, but once my brother-in-law deleted the reviews, all the money I spent on brushing the orders was wasted.

In November last year , Amazon had a wave of review deletions. Many reviews from sellers on the Japanese site disappeared overnight. Moreover, the deleted reviews were those with pictures. Once these reviews are deleted, the rankings and traffic will be affected.

The editor learned that in that wave of large-scale review deletions, some sellers who had never faked orders were also affected. They submitted appeals tremblingly, but waited for a long time but their appeals were not approved. They watched dozens of reviews being deleted but were powerless to do anything.

To brush or not to brush? This is indeed a problem. Without brushing, there will be no traffic and new products will not be promoted. Some sellers also say that "brushing orders is fun for a while, and brushing orders all the time is fun".

Regarding fake orders and reviews, many sellers treat it as a "gambling" mentality. If they win, they will get a lot of orders, and if they lose, their account will be blocked.

But after careful consideration, is it really worth it? From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, how many opportunities can you seize to make a big profit? If your account is blocked in one day, the consequences can be imagined.

Therefore, when it comes to this common yet unusual behavior of fake orders, everyone has their own opinion, and sellers also need to weigh the pros and cons.

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