An Upsurge in Fake Amazon.com Reviews Hurts Everyone



Buyers typically rely on Amazon product reviews when it comes time to make a purchase. And as with most internet sites, those items boasting a surplus of four and five star reviews receive the most attention from the average consumer. But what happens when the seller solicits positive reviews as a way to boost sales and pad overall ratings? Usually … nothing good.

Up until late 2016, there was nothing prohibiting sellers from entering into quid pro quo-type arrangements with customers. Reviews in exchange for free products. The understanding, of course, was that said reviews would be “honest and unbiased.”  But Amazon then changed their policy regarding incentivized reviews and many buyers, who were profiting royally from the former arrangement, took the practice  underground. (There is speculation that Amazon only cracked down once customers started noticing a trend of reviews that were rated highly but were quite general in content.)

This brings us to present day where some buyers continue to masterfully work the system, obfuscating the playing field with unscrupulous tactics that catapult their own businesses and hurt their more honest-leaning competitors. Often times the only way to sniff out fake reviews is to watch out for top-heavy ones that are devoid of actual content. Otherwise, the bulk of them continue to populate as “verified purchases” because they are; they’ve just been reviews funded by the seller or bought as an Amazon gift voucher … or something else along those lines.

Unfortunately, the lure to follow suit using this unscrupulous practice is understandable. Why shouldn’t more sellers profit? The answer is simple: even though Amazon doesn’t have a surefire way of cracking down on fake and incentivized reviews now doesn’t mean it won’t — sometime very soon — in the future.

What might happen? Amazon tracks you down and suspends your account for “review manipulation.” Or the reviews are removed entirely. At the end of the day there is nothing protecting your account from suspension or even complete removal.

It goes without saying that false or incentivized (unhonest) reviews hurt Amazon at its core. A buyer’s loss of faith can be hard to recover and there’s no easy solution to the problem at hand. It’s important for the honest seller to take the high road and advocate for themselves should they find themselves coming up short due to not enough reviews; or even if they should become the target of unwarranted negative reviews.

Any seller worth their salt should play the game — yes, strategically — but most importantly, with integrity. Your customers are depending on it.

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