With Hacking on the Rise, Buy Box Experts Warns Amazon Sellers to Secure Accounts

Buy Box Experts specializes in helping Amazon businesses thrive, and with hackers stepping up their attacks on Amazon sellers, the company is emphasizing the importance of safeguarding Seller Central accounts.

As a leading Amazon advertising agency, Buy Box Experts helps businesses manage their brand equity and sell more on Amazon. The company provides their clients with personalized consulting from a team of seasoned Amazon experts. They also offer proprietary software that decreases counterfeit listings, ensures competitive pricing, optimizes listings, and automates tedious processes so business owners have more time.

Buy Box has seen a marked increase of cyber attacks on third-party Amazon sellers since 2017, including what Amazon described as an “extensive fraud operation” on sellers last year. In light of this, the Buy Box Experts team is warning Amazon sellers to audit their security settings at least once a year.

Managing Partner James Thomson is spreading the word on this important process through presentations at e-commerce conventions and articles published on the company’s website — in addition to ensuring that each Buy Box Experts client is properly protected.

Thomson said that he often sees sellers becoming so caught up in the race to sell more products that they forget to attend to critical details.

“No matter how profitable a company is, if they don’t take steps to protect themselves against increasingly sophisticated hackers, they could take a massive hit,” said Thomson.

Thomson said that hackers can easily discern which seller accounts have higher revenues and are more “hack-worthy.” He has seen everything from bank account numbers being changed and wired to foreign banks to support tickets being damaged to harm the reputation of the business.

The Buy Box Experts team is advising Amazon sellers to check user permissions and ensure that access to Seller Central accounts is as restrictive as possible. That means removing permissions for former employees, contractors or anyone else who does not require access.

Thomson said that sellers should also adjust configurations to limit who can see the primary email address on the account as well as the last four digits of the credit card, both of which can be used to gain access to Seller Support services in order to change the account.

He also recommends using a very strong password that is at least 12 to 16 characters long and contains letters, numbers, and special characters. The password should be changed every three to six months.

Thomson said that the start of a new year is a great time to establish protocols for ensuring top security on Amazon.

“We are telling sellers that if they don’t have specific procedures in place for reviewing and updating account information at least once a year, now’s the time to make this a priority,” said Thomson.

As the former head of Amazon Services and Amazon’s first Fulfillment by Amazon account manager, Thomson has seen how hackers can wreak havoc for Amazon sellers.

“Hackers tend to view these accounts as ATMs that are flush with cash and easy to bleed,” said Thomson.

Thomson heads Buy Box Experts’ along with Founding Partner, Joseph Hansen, who is a veteran Amazon seller and the founder of the largest U.S.-based education conference for Amazon sellers. The company has managed $2 billion in Amazon revenue and 10,000 Amazon sellers, providing assistance with account launch, forecasting, competitor research, product research and management, channel advertising, brand protection, and more.

To learn more about Buy Box Experts’ account security recommendations or their consulting services, visit www.BuyBoxExperts.com.

About Buy Box Experts

Buy Box Experts specializes in Amazon account management, including A+ content detail pages, Amazon product SEO, and brand equity management. Amazon sales consultants and branding strategy managers at Buy Box Experts help businesses sell more on Amazon and protect their brand equity.