Amazon is Suing 1114 ‘Fake Reviewers’

Amazon has filed a lawsuit in Seattle, Washington to tackle a number of “false, misleading and inauthentic” reviews. The reviews in question are paid for by sellers to make their products look more appetizing. According to Amazon, the 1,114 defendants, referred to as “John Does” provides a false review service for as little as $5 (£3.24) on the website Fiverr.com, Once payment has been made, products will receive fake 5 star ratings.

Clearly, this skews the genuine reception of each product and hurts the consumer. As a result, Amazon has made this their top priority and said:

“While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon, which in turn tarnishes Amazon’s brand,”

“Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping defendants and uprooting the ecosystem in which they participate,”

This kind of fraudulent activity could increase the sales of poor value products, and deceive customers. Therefore, once the item arrives and is of a disappointing quality, Amazon has to deal with the returns process. This can be a costly endeavor and also discourages people from purchasing items in the near future.

Have you encountered any problems when buying products from Amazon sellers?