r/AmazonSeller update – Bot notices, scammers, misinformation, and adding moderators

Hey Sellers,

a few concerns to go over with you

Permanent pest control problem reminder

All ecom forums get targeted by scammers and this sub is not immune. While we work hard to blockade it, a small portion does get past. This is not new.

However, be aware that it’s far more organized and manipulative than you might think – There are extensive rings of entities we regularly deal with working out of at least five countries. They’re all over ecom forums using large numbers of alt accounts in their attempts to scam people, insert malicious links, and intentionally, on a deceitful basis, insert misinformation. Stay on your guard and don’t take unsubstantiated advice at face value no matter how many other people in the comments say the same thing. Always verify via proper sources

We’ve updated the bot comment pinned to posts here

We understand some of you don’t like the pinned bot comment. It’s still completely necessary and will continue.

Further, we’ll be temporarily expanding it to address some recent ballooning of misinformation going on. Some of the misinformation is coming from the scam ring entities mentioned in the section above and some is coming from participants who just don’t have facts right, are working on mistaken assumptions, misinterpreted policies, or are mistaking anecdotal evidence to leap to assumptions about what circumstances others may have, stated policies, and frequency of enforcement.

Frequent misinformation areas

The following points will temporarily be added to the bot comment pinned to every post in this sub

* **Arbitrage / OA / RA** – It is neither all allowed nor all disallowed on Amazon. Their policies determine what circumstances are allowable and how it has to be handled by the seller. * **”First sale doctrine”** – This is often misunderstood and misapplied. It is not a blanket exception from Amazon policies or a license to force OA allowance in any manner desired. Arbitrage is allowable but must comply with Amazon policies. They do not want retail purchases resold on their platform (mis)represented as ‘new’ or their customers having issues like warranties not being honored due to original purchaser confusion. For ungating some brands and to sell in some categories, *an invoice is required* to qualify and a retail receipt does not comply. * **Receipts and invoices** – A retail receipt is NOT an invoice. In cases where an invoice is required by Amazon, the invoice MUST meet Amazon’s specific requirements. “Someone I know successfully used a receipt and…”, well congratulations to them. That does not change Amazon’s policies, that invoice policy enforcement is increasing, and that scenarios requiring a compliant invoice are growing. * **Target receipts** – Some scenarios allow receipts and for those cases a Target receipt will comply. For categories and ungating cases where an *invoice* is required, Target retail receipts DO NOT comply with Amazon’s invoice requirements. Someone you know getting away with submitting a receipt once (or more) does not mean it’s the same category or scenario as someone else, nor does it change Amazon’s policies or their growing enforcement of them. * **Paid courses and buyer groups** – In most cases, they’re a scam. Avoid. Amazon’s Seller University is the best place to start.

Anecdotal based misinformation

(Again, because of the extremely high rate this fallacy has been popping up lately)

Whether you or someone you know was able to do “X” does not mean it applies in all other circumstances and categories, change what the policies in fact state, or that a any lapses in enforcement mean it will therefore always have the same result.

More moderators are needed

There are not enough active moderators in this sub, More are needed to deal with the ongoing avalanche of scammers. To get started, see this wiki page

Thank you and may your sales be incredible today!!