Mass Fake reviews - where do we report them?
Does anyone know where we can report a seller that has clearly been manipulating the review system? We have come across a Chinese company selling Knives via FBA (which you cant do unless youre on the knife pilot if you are UK based - total unfairness number 1) 2) they share a VAT adress with loads of other chinese sellers so highly likely its a VAT fraud in progress - Unfairness number 2). They have 63 5 star reviews in the space of a couple of months, when I know that categories number 1 seller gets around 10 per month organically. Theze reviews all tend to be from “top 1000” reviewers with pictures and videos with any negative reviews bid down, so this is clearly against the terms of service. How do we stop this blatant unfairness and fraud!
18 replies
Seller_0pkMTMROIPEmY
Email the Seller Performance Team directly seller-performance@amazon.co.uk put in the title something along the lines of "URGENT - Large scale review manipulation " They don’t normally reply but on occasions we have reported large scale fraud or listing manipluation they have replied with a simple thank you and we are investigating this issue generic response but we’ve found it gets shut down quickly
You can also raise a case via Seller Central messaging system report violation but that just gets transferred to the Seller Performance Team
Seller_0pkMTMROIPEmY
Do you have an ASIN as example I’d be interested to look at this.
Seller_y4CuiVmm4Odtw
not bad, 95 feedback’s / 124 product review
Seller_DwJtMsCpm3QDH
verified purchases - is not an indication of whether a review is fake or not.
The best way to check is to click on the reviewers name - you will be able to see all past reviews from that buyer.
We all purchase (or majority) purchase via amazon - so we can all make a calculated guess whether they are fake or not
Seller_DwJtMsCpm3QDH
Just looked at them - would say fake reviews
There is an email address - I can not find it - google review guidelines
hope this helps
Seller_QlN0mmCAFPtjZ
Not one fact in your rant . Pure speculation that you want to treat as facts .
Suggest you do a proper investigation . Than when you have the evidence . Real evidence not wild speculation . Than go about reporting to the relevant authorities .
Amazon is a global marketplace . You need to be able to compete with Global competitors .
Seems more like a case of envy and jealously .
Seller_OAEhRVrjONreG
HI, I agree. These reviews have been bought by the seller from ‘professional’ reviewers… It’s obvious that most customers don’t even leave written product reviews and they are certainly not going to take pretty pictures and videos and upload them for the sake of the seller, especially not in those proportions.
This is against Amazon policy, and deceives customers.
I bet if you look on SHUTTERSTOCK and GOOGLE IMAGES, those pictures will have been stolen from there.
Report this to Shutterstock and Google, as most pictures have copyright protection and these companies don’t take lightly to this.
I would also follow Sims, DSP and PCBuyIT’s solid advice.
This is a well known, deceptive launch strategy, to ‘sell’ products to fake reviewers (by paying them via Paypal or freebies) and gain illicit reviews, verified purchase doesn’t mean anything in these cases. Despite Amazon making it very clear that this is not allowed.
Hopefully the seller has also given out promo discount codes to the fake reviewers to purchase the item with. If so, Amazon will need no further proof.
If Amazon don’t initially taken action, then escalate it on the UK Managing Director’s email address
Good luck with it
Seller_DwJtMsCpm3QDH
I think the main reason why they deal with “reviewers” is due tot he fact that if they get a high number of purchases in a certain time frame - they have a higher search ranking within amazon… which means more genuine traffic from customers and in return higher sales…
Do not get me wrong - I agree not all chinese sellers are not bad - and not all reviewers are bad too. Many reviewers are retired and see it as a hobby to kill time, some even say they will never guarantee 5 stars. Some reviewers may as well see this as a business opportunity - and sell the “reviewed” items on.
But you have to take into consideration - that these reviewers genuinely thought of these products as 5 star too… as small as it may seem
Seller_QGyXXMeXwaudy
Just a word of advice. Make sure your shop is in order before you file a complaint. Sometimes they will examine your shop as well
