Amazon has a plan to stop scams in India, it is called Counterfeit Crimes Unit

The world of e-commerce, despite its consistent presence in our lives, can still throw nasty surprises for buyers. And sometimes for sellers. Frauds still happen, scams continue unabated. Amazon has a new plan to curb e-commerce frauds in India, and it is called the Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU).Six years ago in 2020, even as Amazon continued to thrive as the de-facto online store in almost all markets where it operated, it decided to do something more about frauds and counterfeit products. Until then it mostly relied on the wisdom of the crowd through reviews and ratings, as well as at detecting more obvious signs of scams and frauds. But in 2020, the company started the Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU). Now, in 2026, the team is expanding its operations to India. The goal, global director of CCU Kebharu Smith, tells India Today Tech is to proactively go after scammers and sellers who sell fraudulent products on Amazon India. The CCU team started working in India in April this year and already there is enough going on behind the scenes to give an impression that it is yielding results. Kebharu says already there are “ongoing actions and investigations” in collaboration “with CBI” against sellers who were misusing Amazon India marketplace. “We also have some lawsuits that we're pursuing against bad actors who have attempted to sell counterfeit products here in India,” he says.Working with law enforcement and dragging the scammers to courts is the modus operandi of CCU at Amazon. In this way it differs from other teams within the company — in total there are over 15,000 Amazon employees tasked with preventing frauds and scams — because they mostly work at a more micro level, dealing with specific contentious cases between sellers and buyers. Kebharu’s team, which has lawyers, investigators, data scientists among others, is more focussed on macro-level efforts to purge Amazon marketplace of frauds and fake products. While it is too early to talk about the team’s India operations, Kebharu says that globally CCU has been able to act as a major bulwark against “bad actors”. “In 2025 Amazon identified, seized and appropriately disposed of more than 15 million counterfeit products, and strengthened enforcement against scams, fraud and counterfeit networks,” he says. “Since 2020, Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit has pursued more than 32,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals across 14 countries.”Due to CCU actions Amazon has not only managed to kick-out scammers from its website, it has also made them pay damages. The company says CCU actions have resulted in $300 million in court-ordered restitution and jailing of more than 290 criminals in the last six years. The beginning of CCU operations in India is part of the company’s broader initiative to cut down on frauds in its marketplace. The company says that to ensure consumers have a safe place to shop, its efforts start from the moment a seller applies to enter the marketplace. “For us, trust begins long before a customer clicks Buy Now,” notes Kebharu “It starts with seller verification, proactive product safety checks and AI systems that identify suspicious behaviour. Hundred per cent of new sellers are required to complete our verification process, which uses machine learning to detect document forgery and advanced image and video verification to authenticate government-issued IDs.”Even after a seller has been allowed in, there are periodic checks on their identity to ensure that they are what they claim to be.Irrespective, the safe online experience on e-commerce, whether on Amazon or somewhere else, remains a work in progress. There are still times when users trying to buy iPhones receive two bars of soaps, or when they buy shoes of the brand Z they get something that looks similar but is clearly fake. The Amazon team in India says that challenges remain, and that the work continues on multiple fronts. One of them is partnering with brands so that counterfeit products can be identified quickly and before they reach a listing page. Similarly, there are efforts at increasing awareness. “In India, we work with state police, regulators, and industry associations to report fraudsters, conduct awareness campaigns like Mission Grahak and ScamSmartIndia,” says Kebharu. “Additionally, we have deepened our collaboration by voluntarily enrolling in the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”Amazon believes that CCU operations, when combined with its various anti-fraud measures, would make shopping much safer for Indian consumers in the marketplace. Yet, we have also seen that the scams evolve, something the Amazon team acknowledges. India is a particularly challenging market because there is potential for fraud from both ends, which is from sellers as well as buyers. It poses a unique challenge to any e-commerce entity. Compared to our online shopping experience around five to seven years ago, changes are already visible due to the pressure India’s unique challenges put on online transactions. And not all of these changes are consumer friendly. But as scammers evolve, so do e-commerce platforms. Or at least, Amazon is evolving by bringing CCU operations to India. There is a good chance it may make shopping on Amazon India safer in the coming months and years.- EndsPublished By: Divya BhatiPublished On: Aug 28, 2026 13:24 IST