26 April 2016, USA :
Amazon is suing five more sites in its ongoing legal campaign against fake product reviews — this time targeting the alleged operators of “Amazon Verified Reviews,” “Buy Amazon Reviews,” “Paid Book Reviews” and other online sites that Amazon sellers can pay to post positive reviews of their products.
“A very small minority of sellers and manufacturers attempt to gain an unfair competitive advantage by creating false, misleading, and inauthentic customer reviews for their products on Amazon.com,” the suit says. “While small in number, these reviews threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon’s brand.”
Amazon declined to comment on the active litigation, but a spokeswoman said in a statement that the company has filed suit against more than 1,000 defendants for “reviews abuse” since the beginning of last year.
“Through these efforts we have obtained data allowing us to take enforcement action against parties not directly involved in the lawsuits, including banning sellers and reviewers,” the spokeswoman said. “To help eliminate the incentives to engage in reviews abuse, we will continue to pursue legal action against the root cause of reviews abuse – the sellers and manufacturers who create the demand for fraudulent reviews – as well as the ecosystem of individuals and organizations who supply fraudulent reviews in exchange for compensation.”
Reviewing products on Amazon is a hobby a large number of people enjoy, and there are ways to do it honestly. First, never taken payment for the review. Make sure the seller is giving you a promo code and not a gift card code. When you paste the code into the checkout to purchase the item, it should tell you whether it was a promotion or a gift card. If it is a gift card, you should not make the purchase, as this can get your account in trouble. Purchasing an item with a gift card and then leaving a review is the same as being paid to leave a review in the eyes of Amazon’s terms of usage regarding creating reviews on the products.
It was exactly a year ago in April of 2015 when Amazon filed its first lawsuit against reviewers leaving fake reviews on the website. This was the first time the company had taken legal action against this practice.
Image : geekwire.com