Amazon ‘Flooded’ with Fake Reviews

In news that maybe should be surprising, but really kind of isn’t, a research firm in the UK has found an overwhelming number of fake customer reviews on Amazon.

As reported by Yahoo! Finance, the investigation was conducted by a consumer group called Which?, and determined that “Amazon is flooded with ‘fake’ five-star reviews of popular products,” most notably in the tech vertical.

As the story explained, the research “found little-known brands dominated search results for several popular tech products including cameras, headphones and smart watches, often thanks to reviews regarded as suspicious by Which?.” And, those reviews play a significant role in the placement of products on search pages.

So what, according to Which?, makes a review suspicious? Either because it comes from an unverified account, or, from an account that hasn’t purchased the item it’s reviewing. (Think Twitter reactions to headlines, but for consumer products.)

And, per the story, the fake reviews appear to be a pretty well organized operation. Which? “found hundreds of unverified accounts left top reviews on tech products in a single day” and “more than 10,000 reviews from unverified users on just 24 pairs of headphones in a couple of hours.”

While Amazon claims that it invests “significant” resources in “weeding out fake reviews,” and that they’ll take “action against firms and individuals suspected of using them,” the existing evidence seems to indicate they don’t fully have a grasp on the situation.

You can read more about it at Yahoo! Finance.

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