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Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

I recently found out one of my competitors has 12 (!) duplicate (likely stealth) accounts, selling the exact same items across hundreds of listings. This seller is also selling many of their products at a loss - I know the industry well, and even if some of the items are sourced for free there are fixed shipping and tax costs that are unavoidable.

I'm not against stealth accounts, but I think selling across 12 stores at a loss is destructive to the market (not to mention to me personally). I don't want to give too much detail here, but I have irrefutable proof connecting all 12 accounts and have recently (as of a few months ago) reported this seller to seller performance and emailed Jeff as well. Unfortunately, I have not been successful.

I realize this is an unusual question, but does anyone here has any advice on how to better report this infringing seller? any help would be appreciated.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

not surprising at all, ijust got some listings removed as a competitor made a complaint. I cannot prove who it was, and it was my number on ebest selling item (currently wehre 90% of my income comes from) im now left without being able to sell it!

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

How can u tell without any doubt that they are all the same seller? Im guessing its more than just their ebay sites being identical since many ebay members copy and paste

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

@dm I am assuming it is az not eb.

You can tell if they are linked, often they do not hide it that much as they move on to another account anyway. It is not just products but eg. addresses can be similar or some other format....

What can you do other than report? maybe do on overdrive with buying and bad feedback reviews from multiple stealth buying accs yourself? this would be a huge undertaking, but if you are going to completely lose your income over this issue, then you may have no other option. If this is a stealther though, they will adapt, move on and be knowledgeable.......

one other suggestion though, are you sure it is not someone trying to start multi accs at a loss but then will up their prices later?

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

Best help is not to worry about wasting time on this seller since (if the accounts are his/hers) this seller is on top of the game and might have even more sleeper accounts you don't know of. Worry more about building your own sales, making your own accounts and fighting off the competition in this market...or find another market to dominate.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

Yes, it's Amazon. Thanks for the information. Yes, this seller may be trying to take over the market, but the loss they are enduring currently is massive. In my opinion, it would take years to recoup their cost, which is why laundering seems more likely.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

What makes it hard to compete is that this seller is offering many of their items at cost or at a lost across those many duplicate stores. I have the choice of fighting them or giving up on the market. Thanks for your response.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

All I can say is you have no idea what someones else costs are no matter how deep in the industry you are. Big Wallets get big discounts and taxes and fees always have a sketchy work around.

If you have a really hard time in the market, then delving into others may be your better option. Now if you are passionate about this nitch, then work on improving YOUR business/buying/selling etc... to compete and dominate.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

just sounds like AZ cannibalizing industries as usual.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

Mine is dead in Amazon. No money to be made in my nitch. Race to the bottom. We have Chinese making pennies per item these days and cross listing every major brand with junk with unique UPCs.....

My guess is two years from now it will be worth it again. Meanwhile I sit back and look at people work like crazy making pennies....

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

If they were doing money laundering, scheme would be different, so no random people can buy these items and require actual delivery. So that is just someone trying to kill all players in the niche and take it over.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

This is the 2nd one of these threads I've read and it blows my mind. "Someone is doing what I do better than I can do it... and I can, and will not except that reality... I must stop them by any means necessary even if I lose my integrity and dignity and go against everything I believe in...:clap:

Just last week Obama gave Iran $400million in unmarked bills, almost half a billion in untraceable cash. And I cant even buy high dollar gift cards from Walmart with a stealth paypal account??? Or buy a re-loadable gift card without having to attach a social to it??? Because my government doesn't want people funding terrorists...:nono:

You want to talk about money laundering... How many believe none of that untraceable cash will find its way into the hands of terrorists?:doh:

Wake up to the world you live in... This didn't just start, your not the only one. What your complaining about is life, and the only thing fair about life is that life isn't fair for anyone. It does not discriminate. We all get ****ed...

I lost close to 10 years of my life, a few years here and a few years there, enslaved by my government, had people try to literally kill me... and lost more money than a good portion of the population makes in a life time... Twice... Complements to people with that same mentality. Guess what, its all part of the game... life isn't fair. You have to adapt and keep moving forward.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

I agree that you have to play the cards you are dealt in life and not talk about 'fairness', however this competitor has made their own 'fairness' and whilst it is legal, it still affects the OP and if the OP wants to walk away and find new products then fine, but I do not think that we should discourage tacking these bully competitors....David vs Goliath....hehe

on another note, gosh I saw that cash to iran thing, what the?

same happened to me in different ways, and now there are products I would like to sell but are not worth it...big boys rule...

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

Agreed . best post i have read on here.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

Well said!

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

competition on Amazon is getting ridiculous

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

I read that some customer service representatives can reach seller performance more directly, but i'm not sure if that's true.

Re: Competitor using stealth in a massive money laundering / market takeover scheme
 

OP:

Are you certain the seller(s) in question aren't selling phakes? And please don't be so naive to assume that phakes aren't or can't be made......