Check both platforms monthly with saved searches on your brand name, common misspellings, and your bestselling product names. Counterfeits there hide behind generic storefront names, stolen product photos, and prices set just below yours. The listings that matter are the ones using your photos or your brand name in the title; those are the fastest to document and the easiest to remove.
These platforms surface products first and sellers second. A counterfeit listing typically sits under a generic store name with a short history: your product photos, your brand name or a close misspelling in the title, and a price ten to thirty percent below retail.
Photos are the biggest tell. Counterfeit sellers rarely photograph the actual item; they lift your lifestyle shots and studio images, sometimes with your watermark clumsily cropped out. If the photos look exactly like yours but the seller is unfamiliar, it is a counterfeit listing, not an authorized reseller.
Titles use deliberate misspellings and spacing tricks to dodge brand-name filters: extra or missing letters, or your brand name buried mid-title among generic keywords. Search these variants yourself; the platform's filters miss most of them, and sellers reuse the same tricks.
Price is a signal, not proof. A price far below your wholesale cost on a current product is a strong indicator, but counterfeiters have learned to price near retail to avoid suspicion. Combine price with the other signals instead of relying on it alone: unfamiliar seller, stolen photos, vague product descriptions, and no mention of warranty or authenticity.
Read the product description for the copy-paste signs. Counterfeit listings often have descriptions that describe a different product than the photos show, because the text was copied from another listing. Mismatched sizes, wrong materials, or descriptions that never mention your brand while the title does are all worth flagging.
Check the review photos, not just the star rating. On counterfeit listings, customer-uploaded photos sometimes show a visibly different or lower-quality item than the main photos. Those review images are free evidence: screenshot them before the listing changes, because sellers do swap photos after complaints.
Check the seller's full catalog. Counterfeit operations rarely sell one fake product; the storefront usually lists knockoffs across unrelated brands and categories. A store selling your product alongside phone cases and pet toys is not authorized anything.
A storefront created weeks ago with hundreds of listings across categories is a classic counterfeit pattern; legitimate sellers grow gradually. Screenshot the storefront age and catalog the day you find it, since both can change or disappear.
Watch for the whack-a-mole pattern: the same product photos reappearing under new store names after a takedown. Keep a hash or a saved copy of the stolen images so you can recognize them instantly. When the same photos resurface, you can file faster and reference the prior removal.
For each listing, capture the full URL, the listing title, the seller name, the price, and screenshots of the product photos and any place your brand name appears. Date everything. Platforms process takedowns faster when the submission is complete on the first try, and incomplete filings are the most common reason for delays.
Do a test buy on the highest-volume listings. A physical counterfeit photographed next to your genuine product is the strongest evidence you can submit, and it reveals the shipper, return address, and payment flow. Prioritize test buys for high-volume listings rather than buying every instance.
Keep a simple log: listing URL, date found, date filed, outcome. Over a few months this maps which sellers persist and which product lines get targeted most, so you can focus enforcement on repeat operators instead of one-off sellers.
File through the platform's IP protection portal with your trademark registration details, not through the generic customer report form. The IP portal routes to the team that can actually remove listings; the generic form often goes nowhere. Register for the portal before you need it, since approval can take days.
Be specific: name the trademark, show exactly where it appears, and attach the evidence. "Our registered mark appears in the title and in product photos 2 and 4, which are our copyrighted images" gets far faster handling than a generic infringement claim.