The value of the e-commerce market is increasing annually by approximately $1 trillion (+14.45%), according to Statista. The first quarter of 2025 has already registered another significant surge in online transactions, highlighting the unstoppable momentum of digital retail.
This rapid expansion, however, brings substantial challenges: as legitimate online businesses flourish, so too does the sophisticated ecosystem of counterfeiters and fraudsters who deploy increasingly advanced techniques to infiltrate marketplaces with counterfeit listings (CLs).
Reports have shown that scammers are most active on days when consumer demand for discounted goods peaks, such as on Black Friday. However, brands face issues daily, so companies must use effective practices and tools to promptly identify and counter threats. One of the ways to ensure brand protection is to use the brand bidding detection tool.
Danger of Counterfeit Products
It should be noted that fakes cause damage not only to sellers but also to buyers who receive low-quality goods and suffer from insufficient functionality and aesthetics.
The counterfeit economy represents a multi-layered threat that extends far beyond simple trademark infringement. Current data indicates that over 3% of all online goods are counterfeit, translating to billions in lost revenue and damaged brand equity.
A significant part of high-quality, original products remains on the market. At the same time, small businesses are the most vulnerable, as weak companies cannot effectively protect their brand online due to limited budgets.
Scammers on Marketplaces
E-commerce has faced a new challenge when the largest marketplaces (eBay, amazon, fragrancex, strawberrynet) have the opportunity to quickly register new users, inadvertently creating technical vulnerabilities that counterfeiters exploit systematically.
Anyone can start trading by quickly checking their data. On the one hand, such a policy allows for a significant increase in sellers, and on the other, there are more and more scammers who deceive customers by selling goods that do not match the description.
About Counterfeit Listings
Fake listings are not so easy to detect; they are designed so that they do not differ from ordinary ads. Only after numerous complaints does the marketplace's security service delete the product card and block the seller.
Unfortunately, plenty of time has passed since the publication's publication to sell many items. The dishonest seller spends a little time creating another profile using a program to change the IP address. As a result, scammers remain in the marketplace and continue their activities. In addition, crooks register at once on many different sites to sell counterfeit products.
Anonymity Factor
Some e-commerce platforms reduce the time required to verify personal data to a minimum, which benefits fraudsters who use any opportunity to register on the marketplace. Crooks appreciate websites where they can stay anonymous.
Buyers consider quick registration an advantage, although it is better to look for sites where all participants in the trade are checked, especially sellers. It should also be taken into account that some scammers have forged documents. Even verification does not guarantee that the new user is not a counterfeiter.
Combating Counterfeit Goods
The threat of the proliferation of counterfeit goods is growing daily, and top marketplaces cannot ignore this. They invest large sums to develop technologies to counter fraud. Reports on blocking many fake listings are published annually; for instance, in 2024, more than 8.2 million CLs were blocked on Amazon.
In addition, many leading platforms have launched special brand protection programs that anyone can join for a set fee. For instance, Amazon has a "Brand Registry," and eBay has a unique VeRO program. The point of these tools is that brand owners receive a signal when a fake listing appears, which can be deleted quickly when contacting the marketplace administration.
Methods for Detecting Counterfeit Listings
Currently, remote monitoring tools that work according to AI algorithms are deemed the most effective; they can view profiles, analyze them, compare data from sellers and products, and identify fakes and suspicious activity.
At the same time, authentication is possible in real-time, allowing you to receive protection even when purchase volumes reach their maximum (the days before the special offer day, like the Christmas holidays, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and so on).
You need to know that with the help of blockchain technology, you can track the supply chain and find out where the product was delivered from and where it is going; this technology allows you to filter out goods with a suspicious history.
Tools for Finding and Deleting CLs
AI-based solutions can be used remotely; you can assign a third-party company to protect your brand. At the same time, you can view and analyze statistics in your personal account and collect data on individuals who violated your rights.
If the marketplace does not respond to your request or remove the fake ad, you can go to court by providing the necessary evidence. Image recognition tools can help you, as attackers can take and use your photo. In this case, contacting the marketplace support service quickly solves the problem.
Social Media Monitoring, Trackers
Don't forget to monitor social media, as your products may be advertised and distributed there under a different brand.
You can also use "trackers," tools that simplify the preparation of reports and filing complaints. Using a range of continuous monitoring services can protect your brand's reputation and reduce financial losses.
Practice shows that fraudsters are more likely to attack brands with poor protection, so companies with small capital are at risk. On Forbes, you can read more about how fakes affect businesses and how companies deal with this problem today.
Conclusion
As digital commerce continues its exponential growth, the technical infrastructure of brand protection must evolve at a matching pace. The most effective countermeasures combine advanced detection algorithms, blockchain-based authentication, and cross-platform monitoring into unified systems that identify and neutralize counterfeit threats before significant damage occurs.
The protection of brand integrity in digital spaces has transcended simple legal enforcement to become a sophisticated technical discipline requiring specialized tools and expertise.
Organizations that implement comprehensive technical protections preserve their immediate revenue and their long-term brand equity and customer trust—assets that, once damaged by counterfeiting, prove far more difficult to restore than to protect proactively.
For businesses navigating this complex landscape, the investment in robust technical protection represents a defensive measure against counterfeiters and a strategic business imperative in an environment where brand integrity directly influences consumer confidence and commercial success.