Breaking news! Amazon's ID scanning system has been "upgraded", hundreds of accounts have been suddenly deactivated!

Since 2024, the changes on the Amazon platform have not stopped, but have intensified. First there was the new Amazon coupon policy, and then there were various illegal scanning numbers. This made sellers like frightened birds, always worrying whether their stores would become the next target of scanning.

On March 20, when the North American spring promotion campaign started, Amazon also launched a large-scale number-sweeping operation.

Amazon launches large-scale ID scanning

On the afternoon of March 20, the Amazon seller group was in an uproar. Many sellers said their accounts were suddenly blocked for unknown reasons and received email notifications from Amazon:

Amazon did not specify the reason in the email, but only said that these seller accounts had engaged in unfair behavior or abused Amazon functions , violating Article 3 of the Amazon Agreement and were therefore deactivated.

As for the examples of unfair behavior mentioned in the email, Xiaozhi sorted out the following situations based on the feedback from sellers:

It is understood that the scale of this sweep was very large, and all the sweeps were carried out collectively around 3 pm. Not only did it involve newly registered accounts, but also some old accounts that had been operating for a long time and had a good reputation. This sudden blow caught many sellers off guard.

But it is worth mentioning that this time, many sellers reported that many of the accounts that were swept had never conducted any illegal operations and were pure white hat operations :

"We have received it from three accounts, all of which are old accounts with no violations."

"There was no fake ordering, and none of the unfair practices mentioned by Amazon were shut down. I have no clue."

"I lost 5 accounts today. I am so tired. They are all clean old accounts. The oldest one is 4 or 5 years old."

“The store was also shut down just now. It is also an old store and has always been operated by pure white hat.”

"The store is closed. The goods were shipped last week, but the store is closed today."

"Sellers are panicking because of the rounds of account sweeps. Doing business on Amazon has become a matter of life and death. The first thing I do every morning is to check if my account is still there. No wonder my brother-in-law is the richest man in the world. There must be a reason for that. If I don't have enough money, I will sweep a wave of seller accounts."

Screenshots of some sellers asking for help

It was also revealed that dozens of accounts of a French local seller were swept, and the total frozen funds amounted to 200 million yuan, which was a heavy loss.

Misjudgment? Or concentrated number scanning?

Amazon's sudden large-scale review and account blocking actions have led some sellers to speculate that this may be a mistake by Amazon and that they need to "let the bullet fly for a while."

Some sellers also believe that the scanning of accounts was basically due to the high risk of internal score of the accounts. It was the spring promotion period, and the large-scale scanning of accounts was most likely due to Amazon's strict enforcement of the terms of the originally relaxed review operation.

According to Amazon's official announcement, the two major North American sites, the United States and Canada, will usher in the March Sale from March 20 to March 25; the spring promotion of the European site has also started and will end on March 25; the Japanese site will hold an April promotion from March 29 to April 1. Amazon is holding promotions in the off-season, hoping to attract a wave of heavy traffic, and it is not surprising to clear some problematic accounts before that.

In addition, Amazon stated in the email: If the seller believes that the account was mistakenly deactivated, they can submit an "explanation" to reactivate the account.

The appeal box provided by Amazon is as follows, which sellers need to provide:

1. A statement of the reasons why the suspension should be revoked.

2. Evidence supporting the above statements, including but not limited to invoices, receipts, orders or emails.

Image source: Know everything

However, due to the unclear reasons for the account suspension, most sellers currently still do not know the specific reasons why their accounts were deactivated, and have no way of filing an appeal; some sellers have chosen to continue to wait and see.

Amazon has not responded to this yet. Scanning numbers before big sales is already the norm. For the normal operation of the store, sellers need to pay attention to the platform's rules and policies at all times to ensure that they operate in compliance with regulations and avoid losses due to illegal operations.