Amazon launches Project Zero

Amazon doesn't want any frauds. The global retailer has announced plans for Project Zero, a new program that will help them counteract one of their biggest criticisms: counterfeits. The news was reported by Business Insider. The name of the project derives from Amazon's goal to get the number of counterfeits on its website to zero.

"Our aim is that customers always receive authentic goods when shopping on Amazon," Dharmesh M. Mehta, Amazon's VP of consumer trust, said in a statement. "Project Zero builds on our long-standing work and investments in this area. It allows brands to work with us to leverage our combined strengths to move quickly and at scale to drive counterfeits to zero."

It is unclear as to what the full extent of Amazon's counterfeit problem is. The issues surrounding Amazon's counterfeit problem went viral earlier this year when The Atlantic published a story on a customer who had bought a fake Canada Goose jacket online. Since them, consumers have been calling for a crackdown on sales of counterfeit goods on the marketplace louder than ever before.

Project Zero includes three tools used to counteract counterfeiting including automatic protections, self-service counterfeit removal, and a way to serialize goods. Automatic protections will use machine learning to identify counterfeits, self-service counterfeiting will allow brands to remove counterfeits they immediately find, and product serialization will prevent fake goods from ever reaching consumers.

Currently, the program is by invite only for brands, but other brands interested in joining can get on a waitlist.

Photo via Amazon.com