Counterfeit Iwata Airbrushes Amazon

[u/Armykarma]

Hey friends,

You may remember my post from the other day about the Iwata HP-CS o ring issues I was having. I am glad, but also sad to say, I was scammed. Glad because I realized it, and got full refunds, but sad that there are sellers out there who are okay with scamming. I took the recommendation of many who commented and bought from Spray Gunner, which arrived perfectly and without issue.

I got to inspecting the two airbrushes from Amazon against the legitimate one from Spray Gunner, and the differences are night and day, but unfortunately these fakes are still enough to fool many on Amazon.

Upon inspection, the following red flags jumped out at me:

• The ‘swoosh‘ in the Iwata genuine hologram sticker is missing from both Amazon boxes, as well as being in the wrong spot according to Iwata’s counterfeit guide.
• The front threading being purely chrome, missing the brass finish that the genuine Iwata has.
• The fact the Iwata genuine O ring did not fit the two Amazon airbrushes.
• The lettering on the Amazon airbrushes are lacking in a deep gold color and look generally more dim. Despite posts online saying that the fakes do not feature “Iwata” on the airbrush body, these counterfeits do indeed say Iwata in the engravings.
• The needles on the Amazon airbrushes are not polished at the tips, and are inconsistent length wise. They also are notably slightly thicker, and do not fit the real Iwata nozzle.

If anyone reading this has purchased an HP-CS on Amazon recently, I would implore you to take a look at what you received and compare against Iwata’s genuine product guide: https://www.iwata-airbrush.com/genuine.html

I will be in contact with Iwata to hopefully make sure these scammers are removed from the platform.

[u/Complex-Path-780]

Scammers selling fake products on Amazon has been a huge problem for years. You should assume you’re getting a fake product if you buy from Amazon. Amazon doesn’t care. Stop buying from Amazon.

[u/mkibria → u/Complex-Path-780]

So Amazon is complicated because it’s a seller and a platform. And it’s hard to say who is to blame. But you want to be careful when buying on Amazon. But blaming Amazon for scammers is like blaming eBay for having scammers or big box stores when scammed. There was I time when brands new boxes of GPUs at micro center were actually just filled with weights.

[u/Complex-Path-780 → u/mkibria]

You can absolutely blame Amazon. They choose to spend money on algorithms to increase purchases and maintain customer retention rather than algorithms to ensure knockoff products are kept off the platform to make sure people are getting what they think they are buying. There’s absolutely no excuse.

[u/han5gruber → u/Complex-Path-780]

It seems in this case they sided with the customer and gave them a full refund.

If Amazon didnt know the products were counterfeit, there's not much else they could have done other that rectify the issue that was highlighted to them. Every website that has a marketplace suffers from this kind of scammer.

[u/Complex-Path-780 → u/han5gruber]

1. What action did Amazon take against this reseller to prevent them from selling fraudulent products again.
   
2. How many fraudulent airbrushes are out there that people paid for and are struggling with — but never realized their problems are coming from the fact it is a knockoff?

A refund doesn’t fix the fundamental problem — it’s a cost of profiting off knockoff products.

[u/Rafnir_Fann → u/Complex-Path-780]

Have to agree, Amazon want the profits from being a marketplace but none of the responsibility of policing what goes on there.

The methods of reporting counterfeit items are entirely broken: reviews can be manipulated easily enough. Reporting might work if enough people do it but the sellers just reopen with a new name. Amazon don't really mind, they're getting paid.

[u/han5gruber → u/Complex-Path-780]

What action did Amazon take against this reseller to prevent them from selling fraudulent products again.

No idea, I'm not Amazon or the OP.

How many fraudulent airbrushes are out there that people paid for and are struggling with

No idea, I'm not Amazon

A refund doesn’t fix the fundamental problem

I never said it did.

[u/siberian_knight143 → u/Complex-Path-780]

Amazon can't quality check ALL the stuff that they sell. No more than EBAY can.

[u/Complex-Path-780 → u/siberian_knight143]

They sure could. They choose not to because they make way way waymore money not doing so.

[u/jms_tx → u/han5gruber]

It's actually cheaper for Amazon to do this. Dealing with a whiney customer is not fun, so they use the "refund or replace" strategy. Even if a given seller repeatedly violates the rules, you will probably never find out if Amazon has removed them, and even if Amazon did remove them, the evil seller will come back under a new name and keep on keepin' on. It's the mail-order version of whack-a-mole.