As organised fraud networks increasingly target multiple online marketplaces rather than a single platform, e-commerce companies should explore a common mechanism to share intelligence on bad actors, a senior Amazon executive said, adding that industry-wide collaboration is essential to tackle sophisticated fraud and counterfeiting operations.
“It would be a great idea to find common areas for us to share information,” Rohan Oommen, vice president, customer & partner trust at Amazon, told FE. He said organised fraudsters rarely restrict themselves to one marketplace, making it difficult for individual platforms to curb such activities on their own.
Oommen said Amazon had in the past explored industry forums and data-sharing arrangements, including initiatives involving government agencies, but participation from the broader ecosystem remained limited. Any future framework, he said, should enable companies to collectively identify and disrupt repeat offenders without requiring them to share commercially sensitive information.
The comments come as Amazon recently expanded its Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) to India, bringing a specialised investigations team that works with brands, sellers and law enforcement agencies to identify and dismantle counterfeit networks operating beyond Amazon’s own marketplace. Unlike routine enforcement that removes suspicious listings from the platform, the unit pursues civil and criminal action against organised counterfeiters.
“Removing a bad actor from Amazon alone isn’t enough because they simply move elsewhere,” Oommen said, adding that the objective is to investigate the wider network, gather evidence and work with enforcement agencies to take action against those responsible.
Globally, Amazon’s CCU has helped take down more than 32,000 bad actors, removed over 15 million counterfeit products from circulation and contributed to nearly 300 jail terms, according to the company.
The India unit, launched about two months ago, has already begun filing cases and reporting frauds. Oommen said several brands had been pushing for the specialised unit to be established in the country and that its early progress had exceeded the company’s expectations.
Beyond counterfeiting, Oommen said a growing share of online scams now originates outside e-commerce platforms through phishing links, fake websites and impersonation attempts designed to deceive consumers. Amazon uses artificial intelligence to identify fraudulent websites and also offers customers a verification service to check whether communications claiming to be from the company are genuine.