Bribery for Fake Review Writing
58% of Products Had Fake Reviews as of May
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Amazon's UK site is struggling with fake product reviews. Fake reviews have long been an issue on Amazon, but the problem has become more serious with the rise of contactless e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to major foreign media on the 6th (local time), Amazon UK announced that it had deleted about 20,000 fake product reviews. These reviews were written by 7 of Amazon UK's top 10 reviewers, who reportedly received money or products in exchange for posting favorable reviews.
Justin Pryor, the top reviewer who left the most product reviews on Amazon UK's site, was found to have given 5-star ratings approximately every 4 hours as of last August. Many of the products they reviewed were from lesser-known Chinese brands, and the free products obtained through fake reviews were resold on other sales sites such as eBay to generate profit.
Amazon's policy prohibits monetary compensation for reviews or reviews posted by anyone other than the actual user.
Amazon analyzes 10 million product reviews weekly using learning tools and investigation experts, and it appears that such incidents frequently occur on Amazon UK's site. Nine out of the top 10 reviewers in the UK were found to have violated Amazon's policies. The 20,000 deleted reviews were written by 7 of the top 10 reviewers.
Eventually, some companies harmed by fake reviews have even severed their business ties with Amazon.
According to Fakespot, a US startup that investigates fake product reviews, as of May this year, 58% of products on Amazon UK's site were found to have fake reviews.
Saud Khalifa, CEO of Fakespot, said, "The scale of this star rating fraud is enormous," adding, "Especially, Amazon UK has a significantly higher rate of fake reviews compared to other platforms."
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