Amazon Deletes 20,000 Reviews After Evidence of Profits for Posts (ft.com) 34
Amazon has deleted approximately 20,000 product reviews, written by seven of its top 10 UK reviewers, following a Financial Times investigation (Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source) into suspicious activity. From a report: The FT found evidence the users were profiting from posting thousands of five-star ratings. Those who had their reviews deleted included Justin Fryer, the number one-ranked reviewer on Amazon.co.uk, who in August alone reviewed $19,000 worth of products, from smartphones to electric scooters to gym equipment, giving his five-star approval on average once every four hours. Overwhelmingly, those products were from little-known Chinese brands, who often offer to send reviewers products for free in return for positive posts. Mr Fryer then appears to have sold many of the goods on eBay, making nearly $26,500 since June.
When contacted by the FT, Mr Fryer denied posting paid-for reviews -- before deleting his review history from his Amazon profile page. Mr Fryer said the eBay listings, which described products as "unused" and "unopened", were for duplicates. At least two other top 10-ranked Amazon UK reviewers removed their history after Mr Fryer. Another prominent reviewer, outside the top 10, removed his name and reviews, and changed his profile picture to display the words "please go away". The FT's analysis suggested that nine of Amazon's current UK top 10 providers of ratings were engaged in suspicious behaviour, with huge numbers of five-star reviews of exclusively Chinese products from unknown brands and manufacturers. Many of the same items were seen by the FT in groups and forums offering free products or money in exchange for reviews.
When contacted by the FT, Mr Fryer denied posting paid-for reviews -- before deleting his review history from his Amazon profile page. Mr Fryer said the eBay listings, which described products as "unused" and "unopened", were for duplicates. At least two other top 10-ranked Amazon UK reviewers removed their history after Mr Fryer. Another prominent reviewer, outside the top 10, removed his name and reviews, and changed his profile picture to display the words "please go away". The FT's analysis suggested that nine of Amazon's current UK top 10 providers of ratings were engaged in suspicious behaviour, with huge numbers of five-star reviews of exclusively Chinese products from unknown brands and manufacturers. Many of the same items were seen by the FT in groups and forums offering free products or money in exchange for reviews.
not shocking (Score:2)
I was also offered free stuff if I agreed to rate it on Amazon. They told me if I bought it on Amazon, they would refund me on paypal so I would show up as a buyer.
I declined.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I've seen notes included in boxes I've ordered from Amazon, offering to provide a partial refund if I posted a glowing review and then contacted them afterwards so that they could link my review to my purchase. I've always declined.
Re:not shocking (Score:5, Interesting)
The interesting part is that when I've tried to add images of those notes to my reviews, those images never appear. Amazon actively defends and protects this type of fraud.
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eBay does similarly. To make a long story short, we posted negative feedback after a seller failed to send anything and then went radio silent on us. When we finally initiated a dispute, they then sent out a fraudulent shipping number as "proof" the item had arrived (never mind that we had ordered a flat packed shelf and the shipping number was for something that weighed less than half a pound and went to a different address). However, once we initiated a dispute against the seller, eBay removed our negativ
Re: (Score:2)
However, once we initiated a dispute against the seller, eBay removed our negative feedback from their page, leaving them with a spotless record, and the negative feedback was not restored when we eventually won the dispute on appeal
This sort of thing has been going on for a long time and it is why I completely stopped dealing with eBay. Their rating system is completely meaningless. If you give a negative to a seller they just complain to eBay and are able to get it removed 99% of the time, no matter how badly they screwed you.
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Ironically, I almost completely stopped dealing with eBay a couple of decades ago for the same reason even though it never happened to me personally. Word of mouth surrounding their dubious power seller ratings convinced me that it wasn't worth the risk. I'd rather pay a tiny bit extra to Amazon, knowing that if a seller screws me or if a product is defective they'll reverse the charge.
What's interesting is that because of the way Amazon handles it, I've had zero problems getting Amazon sellers to correct
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The interesting part is that when I've tried to add images of those notes to my reviews, those images never appear. Amazon actively defends and protects this type of fraud.
They aren't defending it. TFA article makes it clear they are trying to stop it. They just don't want your help.
Amazon reviews are always worthless (Score:3)
Mostly complementing you on your relevant FP and encouraging you to fill in the picture. I can think of a couple of questions to encourage you:
Were you recruited because you are an influencer?
If not as an influencer, why do you think they recruited you?
Did you do anything to encourage such recruitment? For example, have you claimed in public to be an influencer? Were you approached based on your prior reviews, either on Amazon or elsewhere?
I'm also considering more esoteric possibilities. For example, it mi
Re: (Score:2)
Fair questions.
I do not claim to be an influencer and at the time I didn't even have a twitter account. I rate things from time to time if I either really like them or really hate them but I'm not as prolific as others. I did buy a wifi controlled plug from them and a year or so later they offered me the next version up for free if I bought it and sent them a link to my rating.
It felt shady
As for avoiding Amazon, many other places use Amazon logistics for their shipping so they are hard to avoid.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the answers. Also worth noting that AWS is even harder to avoid than Amazon's logistics division. Amazon is a highly metastatic cancer.
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Amazon has deleted approximately 20,000 product reviews, written by seven of its top 10 UK reviewers
If seven people have written 20,000 reviews, that alone is a huge red flag that something is wrong. Once again, Amazon does nothing about corruption and dishonesty until they get caught.
Multiple accounts? (Score:1)
Re: Multiple accounts? (Score:1)
Amazon finally caught a few of the rookies... The pros are still undetected.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, the corporations that get their own employees to buy products, return them to the corporation for a refund and write reviews. They are much cheaper and of course run multiple accounts. Why pay someone to buy and review your product when you can do it in house.
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So what about all the other fake reviews? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon's actions don't even begin to touch the fake review problem. There are hundreds of product categories where the bad has completely driven out the good on Amazon. For example, try to find a decent battery for a laptop computer. Everything in that category is low-priced or counterfeit junk, yet you'll see products with hundreds or thousands of five-star reviews that are blatantly fake.
This is mainly driven by no-name Chinese vendors trying to push off the cheapest merchandise at the lowest possible price. In many cases you'll see a dozen different vendors clearly selling exactly the same item. I just had one Chinese seller offer me a $15 gift card to give a five-star review after I purchased a $25 USB-C adapter, and I'm just some random buyer. Imagine how much worse it is with the "professional" reviewers. Try reporting this abuse to Amazon, and absolutely nothing happens. I'm frankly amazed they took this action.
This is what will ultimately cripple Amazon, where people lose all faith in their product ratings or the quality of the product. When I need a Dell or Apple laptop battery nowadays, I go to Batteries Plus. I'll pay 2X or 3X what I would pay on Amazon, but at least I'll get something that works.
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Basically the same analysis as in my earlier longer comment, and I wish I had a mod point for you. However you apparently haven't reached my conclusion and you are still shopping on Amazon?
Now I think I should have titled my comment "Amazon reviews are worth even less than you paid for them" (but that would have been too long).
Solutions for the Amazon problem are difficult because the shortest path (for delivery) tends to be a kind of natural monopoly. Further complicated by the monopsonist aspects, especia
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However you apparently haven't reached my conclusion and you are still shopping on Amazon?
Me, yes. And 99% of the time I'm satisfied with the product. If folks weren't satisfied it wouldn't be a 100 zillion dollar company.
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Meanwhile legit customers, such as myself, are banned from reviewing. An irreversible decision based on an unspecified guideline.
I like Amazon as a store, but I would never go by their reviews.
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Amazon only acted because a major national newspaper exposed them.
On the other hand you can use this to get free stuff. I ordered a phone battery many years ago and it was fake, so under UK law the seller has to pay for the return shipping. Better yet I can discard all the packaging, I only need to return the battery, so throw out the box to make sure they can't re-sell it as "genuine in official packaging".
But instead of paying for the return they just said keep it and refunded. So I got a somewhat dubious
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20,000 bribes is just a drop in the bucket (Score:3)
And 5-star reviews are worthless to me anyway. If you can't find something wrong with the product, you more than likely are not trying hard enough. Or maybe the product was so cheap that you overlooked its flaws, and now the seller can raise their price and keep their 5-star reviews.
No, what I really want to know is, if products A and B were the same price, which would you choose? Completely ignore price because that's already a separate data point I can use to decide which one to purchase.
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When comparing products, I basically do the following:
If there aren't enough interesting one-star reviews, I'll read the two-star reviews, and occasionally the three-star reviews. Rare is the product that has so few reviews that I make it up to the four-star reviews.
An actual trawling spam (Score:3)
I've sent a few hundred of these to abuse@amazon.com and they've never done anything, even though the Chinese sellers' account names are usually in the screenshots:
Hello Friend
Would you like to get free product on Amazon
just you have to return me honest review on my product
Let me know if you are interested
Please confirm with me before placing the order
Policy
1.Make sure that your review can be published Refund after review ,Paypal transfer, cover Paypal fee,The transfer is usually completed within 1-3 days, excluding weekends
When the review is publishedNot just submitted, Need to confirm that it has been published, need to send me
1order number ( type)
2review screenshot or review link
3paypal email account (Not accept paypal link)
To ensure fast processing
2.If the review fails, you need to return the product so that you can get a refund
3.Only one product can be selected in the same store, and there is no limit on the number of different stores.
For example, if you have already purchased a product in this store, you cannot choose again, and you cannot review two products in the same store.
4.You can introduce Reviewer to me, unlimited number, permanent validity.
Friendly reminder:In order to ensure your account security and long-term cooperation, please do not choose too many products at once, and do not review too quickly, please master it yourself.
Regards
Patrick
Other ones have pics (never a link because Amazon will catch them that way). All of it is shit from Chinese marketplace sellers.
Amazon (Score:2)
Ok .. so shouldnâ(TM)t Amazon delete itself for profiting too?
Amazon legally co-conspirator in fraud (Score:1)
If Amazon doesn't turn over the evidence to police and support fraud investigation and prosecution, then Amazon should be legally and civilly liable as a co-conspirator in fraud. For every one of the fraudulent 'purchases' and 'reviews' and then subsequent viewing of fraudulent-reviews and sale of the products is a separate legal charge.
While it is great Amazon is dabbing up drops of fraud AFTER the fact, it would have been obvious to any impartial person way way sooner that fraud was taking place.
Odd reviews on Amazon (Score:2)
I am not sure what to make of customer reviews on Amazon. Do they actually mean anything? Negative reviews might be nothing to do with the product, but due to some problem with the service. Positive reviews could be just people being nice because they were happy with what they bought.
I recently bought a philosophy/economics book from Amazon: The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. The price was really good for a specialist work. There is a system that Amazon have where the book you order is printed on demand,
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Proper reviewing is actually quite a skilled job.
I almost always do a review, and I do my best to be objective and fair in my reviews. I try to list pros and cons, good/bad/weird features, and describe its overall quality and construction or efficacy. I frequently rely on reviews when I select a product, and so I want reviews to be legit.
I've had a few offers to "get stuff" in return for a good review but I won't do it, period.
20,000 out of 5,000,000 (Score:2)
Yeah, removing 20,000 of the 5,000,000 fake reviews is going to solve everything.
Rest easy, Prime Citizen, Supreme Commander Bezos will protect you from the problem he created!
Review? What review? (Score:1)
A number of years ago I bought a SSD from a vendor on Amazon. It had abysmal write performance, decent read performance. I wrote a review giving the measured numbers.
The seller contacted me and offered me £5 if I would delete my review.
This made me aware that reviews on Amazon are of no value at all.
The SSD ended up being used with EWF on an XP machine that was used as a media player. It worked well in this setup.
Re: Review? What review? (Score:1)
I had a similar experience on eBay. Wrote a 3 star review because the item was in much worse condition than advertised. Seller wrote back and offered a partial refund. I said "that's awful nice of you, thanks!" thinking I might edit my review to at least compliment their honesty. Seller wrote back saying "ok, please change your review to 5 stars and we will immediately issue partial refund".
So I dropped the review to 1 star and edited it to include the attempted bribery. eBay, of course, doesn't give a