Squawk on the Street CNBC Special Report: How Walmart Marketplace’s Rapid Growth Came With Fakes And Scams 9/19/25
8 snips
Sep 19, 2025 Gabrielle Von Roosch, a CNBC reporter known for her investigative work, dives into Walmart Marketplace's troubling rise in counterfeit and fraudulent products. She uncovers how third-party sellers are impersonating legitimate businesses to sell fake beauty items, raising safety concerns. Gabrielle also discusses the lapses in Walmart's seller vetting process and the regulatory push efforts like the Shop Safe Act to combat this issue. Her insights shed light on the darker side of Walmart's digital expansion.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Local Business Identity Stolen For Fakes
- Demos Pizza's name and address were stolen to create a Walmart seller account that sold Lancome cream at 91% off.
- Lab testing confirmed the cream was counterfeit, and the restaurant owner said he had no control over the listings.
Pattern Of Imposter Seller Accounts
- CNBC found at least 43 instances where real businesses' names and addresses were stolen to make Walmart seller accounts.
- Multiple lab tests confirmed many of the deeply discounted beauty products sold by those impostor accounts were counterfeit.
Lab Tests Confirm Purchased Fakes
- Reporters purchased six highly rated, deeply discounted beauty items from impostor sellers and had them tested.
- All six tested items were confirmed fake by St. John's University or the brands' labs.