My Amazon Account has been Locked for Security Purposes

Someone Was Trying To Hack Your Account

If Amazon gets the slightest hint that your account is compromised, it will lock it down.

Some might call this unfair, but this is actually the Amazon way of protecting you.

By freezing your account, it means that you, and the hacker, won’t be able to access your account, preventing any unauthorized use of said account until the issue is resolved.

So what do you do if Amazon suspended your account due to account hacking? Well, you send an appeal to the Amazon Seller Performance team.

Your appeal should contain a detailed action plan on what YOU intend to do in order to secure your account in the future.

Example: updating your virus protection, making sure that your wi-fi is secure, changing and using a more complicated password, no more using of open Wi-Fi’s, etc.

Violating Amazon Policies and Code of Conduct

Amazon is strict when enforcing its policies. And breaking even the most simple ones could have your account frozen.

What are some of these basic policies/rules you ask?

• Failure to honor your commitment to selling a product
• Failure to maintain accurate and current account information
• Continuous use of an account that has its seller privileges removed by Amazon
• Seller misrepresentation
• Now in order for Amazon to unfreeze your account, you need to prove to them that you are now aware of said policies and rules you have violated, proof that you have taken action to rectify the mistake you made and an assurance that no other violations will be happening in the future

Violation of Federal Regulations

This is one of those times where it is best for a new seller to read the fine print on what Amazon allows you to sell on their platform.

You see, Amazon strictly states that all products that are sold within its ecosystem conform to Federal laws.

What are these laws?

You need to comply with the rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s overview of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Federal Warranty Law, and the Federal Trade Commission.

As an example, you can’t sell any product that is labeled as “prescription use only” on Amazon.

Yes I know, it’s basic common sense. But you would be surprised how many sellers don’t realize this.

For them, Amazon is just a retail platform, thus, they practically try to sell anything they could get their hands on.

Don’t be like those sellers. Check the fine print and learn what you can, and what you cannot sell.

And yes, if you got your account suspended due to violating Federal Regulations policies, you need to prove to Amazon that you are now aware of said policies and rules you have violated, proof that you have taken action to rectify the mistake you made and an assurance that no other violations will be happening in the future.

Manipulating Reviews

This basically means that you have asked, coerced, or forced anyone within the Amazon ecosystem to obtain a positive review for your listing.

Before, anyone could manipulate reviews for their listing. But it is of October of 2016, Amazon imposed a rule that prohibits any sort of review manipulation.

So now the rule is, you should never ask for a “positive” review, provide a pre-made review template to your customers, or anything that Amazon might deem as a request for a “favorable” review.

And again, if this is the cause for your account to be locked, yes, to create that “I’ll never do it again, I promise” letter.

Wait, isn’t SellerLift an Amazon Feedback Tool?!

Doesn’t your tool promise better search visibility by asking customers for reviews? How does that work when you just said Amazon doesn’t want sellers to ask for a review?

I know, it’s a bit confusing. So let me explain.

If you noticed, I highlighted the words “positive” and “favorable”.

If you ask a customer to give you a positive review after buying something off you, that’s coercion and is against Amazon policy.

But if you ask a customer for just a “review” or “feedback”, the customer can either give you a positive or negative one, thus making said review or feedback objective.

This is the core feature of our Amazon Feedback Tool. It allows you to interact with your customers and ask them to leave a “reaction” in the form of a review, or feedback. And yup! There is nothing wrong with that.

To End

Amazon is a great retail platform.

In fact, it is the biggest in the world and is getting bigger each day.

So by being part of a retail ecosystem that is presumed to dominate the global retail industry in the years to come, you are leveraging a platform that could help kick-start your retail empire.

Do you want to jeopardize that possibility? I don’t think so.

That is why read the fine print. Go check what policies Amazon has implemented in the last few months. Play within the rules for you not to get that dreaded “Amazon Account Locked for Security Purposes” email.

Anyway, I hope this somewhat helped shed light in the event you got your Amazon account locked for security reasons

If you have any questions, feel free to leave it in the comment section below.

And maybe, just maybe, if the questions are enough to come up with an FAQ type article, I’ll even credit your name with a hyperlink.

Have a great day, and I’ll see you next time.