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Amazon Is Cracking Down Hard On Fake Reviews... !!

by CityCowboy
36 replies
Most consumers rely on Product Reviews to decide if they want to buy something, products that have a lot of positive reviews and ratings tend to appear more on Amazon results, therefore they get more sales.

... This is why people who buy fake reviews or give their friends or Email list review copies just to get positive reviews are hurting other genuine sellers.

A very famous SEO Expert called Alex Becker (It's necessary to mention his name) recently launched his Book - The 10 Pillars of Wealth

And he used his Email List to get biased positive reviews, you might think that this is fine, but it's absolutely NOT because he said in his product launch Email that he would give Many Extras Bonuses and Training to whoever buys his product and leaves a positive review while sending him a Verification Screenshot to get the Bonuses (I know this because I'm on his Mailing list)

This is very wrong on so many levels, because it leaves other genuine book sellers who aren't very tech/marketing savvy and who don't have a BIG e-mail list in Danger

This is just one example of this - other people go even further and they go to places and Networks to buy fake reviews to their products on Amazon... sometimes they even pay people to write fake negative reviews on their competitor's products.

Amazon has successfully managed to sue more than 1000 Businesses for writing or buying fake reviews to their products in the past.

What people love about Amazon is that they can get honest and unbiased reviews about products before they buy them, and Amazon is clearly taking this very seriously... but Unfortunately, they might not know anything about this
#amazon #cracking #fake #hard #reviews
  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
    Man are you wrong..

    What that guy did is not "buying fake reviews". There's nothing wrong with what he did whatsoever. It's just email marketing!

    When Amazon talks about buying fake reviews, they're talking about going on to fiverr and just paying people money to write a review. THAT is a fake review.

    Offering people on your email list incentives for buying your book, reading your book, and leaving reviews is just basic marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author salegurus
      Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post


      Offering people on your email list incentives for buying your book, reading your book, and leaving reviews is just basic marketing.

      Not if those "incentives" are subject to you leaving a positive review, that's called a bribe...
      Otherwise i agree with the rest of your post...
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

      Man are you wrong..

      What that guy did is not "buying fake reviews". There's nothing wrong with what he did whatsoever. It's just email marketing!

      When Amazon talks about buying fake reviews, they're talking about going on to fiverr and just paying people money to write a review. THAT is a fake review.

      Offering people on your email list incentives for buying your book, reading your book, and leaving reviews is just basic marketing.
      There are a lot of things wrong with what he did, and it's not "just email marketing."

      It may not result in "fake" reviews, but incentivizing reviewers to leave positive reviews is definitely less than honest.

      There's a difference between offering people incentives to buy, read and leave reviews and offering incentives based on positive reviews, with required proof. The latter is, in effect, turning otherwise honest people into shills.
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      • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        There are a lot of things wrong with what he did, and it's not "just email marketing.".
        When Amazon talks about going after fake reviews, they aren't talking about going after some guy who offers incentives to his email list to leave reviews.

        They're talking about the wholesale buying of hundreds or thousands of fake reviews from people who haven't bought the book (usually using bots to leave the reviews) in order to game the system in a fraudulent way...usually connected to fake books (themselves created in the hundreds or thousands of books) that are spun content or unreadable trash.

        So THAT is the issue here. Spammers using bots to create thousands of fake books and bots to leave thousands of fake reviews...spam.

        If you want to equate THAT, to some guy who asks his email list to buy his book and give a review in order to get something else...you really don't understand anything.
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    • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
      I'd say there's a lot of things wrong with what he did. Yes you could consider it "just email marketing" but think about this for a second.

      Let's say it wasn't information he was selling, let's say it was a physical product and let's say you wanted that physical product for your personal use.

      Of course you only want the best product and so you would browse amazon and look for some hopefully "HONEST REVIEWS" before you buy - correct?

      Now if those reviews are incentivized, my bet is that they wont be 100% honest for the mere fact that they were written in order to get a BONUS.

      However, you on the other hand as a buyer wouldn't know that and would go ahead and buy said product because the reviews wowed you. Which unfortunately they were not 100% honest.

      Do you see what am getting at?


      Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

      Man are you wrong..

      What that guy did is not "buying fake reviews". There's nothing wrong with what he did whatsoever. It's just email marketing!

      When Amazon talks about buying fake reviews, they're talking about going on to fiverr and just paying people money to write a review. THAT is a fake review.

      Offering people on your email list incentives for buying your book, reading your book, and leaving reviews is just basic marketing.
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      • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
        Originally Posted by yesacpow View Post

        I'd say there's a lot of things wrong with what he did. Yes you could consider it "just email marketing" but think about this for a second.

        Let's say it wasn't information he was selling, let's say it was a physical product and let's say you wanted that physical product for your personal use.

        Of course you only want the best product and so you would browse amazon and look for some hopefully "HONEST REVIEWS" before you buy - correct?

        Now if those reviews are incentivized, my bet is that they wont be 100% honest for the mere fact that they were written in order to get a BONUS.

        However, you on the other hand as a buyer wouldn't know that and would go ahead and buy said product because the reviews wowed you. Which unfortunately they were not 100% honest.

        Do you see what am getting at?
        Reviews should be unbiased... if the email marketer asked for biased reviews...that's wrong. Sure. But asking for unbiased reviews is perfectly fine.
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      • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
        Originally Posted by yesacpow View Post

        I'd say there's a lot of things wrong with what he did. Yes you could consider it "just email marketing" but think about this for a second.

        Let's say it wasn't information he was selling, let's say it was a physical product and let's say you wanted that physical product for your personal use.

        Of course you only want the best product and so you would browse amazon and look for some hopefully "HONEST REVIEWS" before you buy - correct?

        Now if those reviews are incentivized, my bet is that they wont be 100% honest for the mere fact that they were written in order to get a BONUS.

        However, you on the other hand as a buyer wouldn't know that and would go ahead and buy said product because the reviews wowed you. Which unfortunately they were not 100% honest.

        Do you see what am getting at?
        Yup, this is Exactly what I'm trying to say here, It's too bad that a lot of marketers use their BIG email lists to do so many wrong things

        Considering that Alex Becker is a well-known and respected marketer, I was really disappointed of what he did.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashok Panda
    From time to time all kinds of speculations made. but it really doesnt summarize the whole picture. So Chill Guys.. Amazon is busy scaling up. standardizing logistics , handling internal operations etc etc and also competing with local partners. for examples in India there is a big competition of Amazon and Flipkart ..
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  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
    Originally Posted by salegurus View Post


    Not if those "incentives" are subject to you leaving a positive review, that's called a bribe...

    No...a bribe is illegal. Offering an incentive to purchase a product is not illegal. It's just marketing.

    Heck, flat out paying people to leave reviews is not necessarily illegal..Sure, it's against Amazon's terms and conditions and definitely not ethical...but I don't think you could call it illegal. If so, what exact law have you broken?
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    • Profile picture of the author kilgore
      Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

      Heck, flat out paying people to leave reviews is not necessarily illegal..Sure, it's against Amazon's terms and conditions and definitely not ethical...but I don't think you could call it illegal. If so, what exact law have you broken?
      You might want to read this:

      https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busi...ple-are-asking

      The upshot is that it all comes down to disclosure. You're right that it's legal to pay for a review or get paid to write one. It becomes illegal when there is no disclosure that the reviewer was compensated. Keep in mind that the reviewer doesn't necessarily have to be compensated in monetary terms: review copies for instance are also considered compensation by the FTC. For example, this is why Amazon clearly marks reviews that were made as part of its "Vine" program (i.e., they say, "Vine Customer Review of Free Product"). Also, this obviously applies far beyond reviews on Amazon.

      As to your other points about Amazon's TOS and ethics, I'll leave you to make your own business calculations and to examine your own conscience. But while skirting rules and ethics might make for some short-term gains, to me business is more like a marathon than a sprint. And I genuinely believe that even if all you care about is the amount of money you make, in the long run, businesses generally do better when they follow rules and are ethical.
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      • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
        Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

        You might want to read this:

        https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busi...ple-are-asking

        The upshot is that it all comes down to disclosure. You're right that it's legal to pay for a review or get paid to write one. It becomes illegal when there is no disclosure that the reviewer was compensated. Keep in mind that the reviewer doesn't necessarily have to be compensated in monetary terms: review copies for instance are also considered compensation by the FTC. For example, this is why Amazon clearly marks reviews that were made as part of its "Vine" program (i.e., they say, "Vine Customer Review of Free Product"). Also, this obviously applies far beyond reviews on Amazon.
        So if I ask my list to leave a review and promise to give them something if they do...isn't the illegality in the person who leaves the review not disclosing that I gave them something in exchange for the review? Not in me asking them to do it...

        And I'm not endorsing this, I said it's against their terms and unethical. I'm just trying to say that these are two separate issues (email marketing vs automated spam networks).
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        • Profile picture of the author kilgore
          Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

          So if I ask my list to leave a review and promise to give them something if they do...isn't the illegality in the person who leaves the review not disclosing that I gave them something in exchange for the review? Not in me asking them to do it...

          And I'm not endorsing this, I said it's against their terms and unethical. I'm just trying to say that these are two separate issues (email marketing vs automated spam networks).
          You're right that it would absolutely be illegal for the reviewers you encouraged.

          As to whether it would be illegal for you as the one paying for these reviews... (1) I'm by no means a legal expert and (2) I think there's a bit of gray area that would likely depend on what exactly you told your list.

          Aiding, abetting and conspiring with others to break the law are certainly punishable offenses. Does what your describing fall into any of these categories? My not-very-expert opinion is a resounding........... Maybe.

          For instance, are you instructing your list not to disclose that they were compensated or even telling them that they won't be compensated if they do disclose they were compensated? Those seem likely to fall into the realm of illegality.

          On the other hand, if you remind them that they need to disclose their compensation, but they either forget or refuse to do so, that seems pretty clearly to be not an illegal act -- at least on your end.

          These, of course, are just the obvious examples. What if you don't mention disclosure one way or the other? I really dont know.
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  • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
    If you want to equate THAT, to some guy who asks his email list to buy his book and give a review in order to get something else...you really don't understand anything.
    It's against Amazon's terms of service to offer an incentive for a positive review. See this page:

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=200414320

    And this is what the original post described.

    Marcia Yudkin
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
      Originally Posted by marciayudkin View Post

      It's against Amazon's terms of service to offer an incentive for a positive review. See this page:

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=200414320

      And this is what the original post described.

      Marcia Yudkin
      Yes, that's as may be...but you can't equate that to the massive automated spam going on at Amazon right now. The two are completely separate. There's not an author alive who hasn't asked friends for reviews of their book...and if you offer an incentive to your email list, it should absolutely be for an unbiased review. If some people get carried away and ask for biased reviews...sure that's bad, but that's not what's causing all the problems at Amazon right now.
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      • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
        Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

        Yes, that's as may be...but you can't equate that to the massive automated spam going on at Amazon right now. The two are completely separate. There's not an author alive who hasn't asked friends for reviews of their book...and if you offer an incentive to your email list, it should absolutely be for an unbiased review. If some people get carried away and ask for biased reviews...sure that's bad, but that's not what's causing all the problems at Amazon right now.
        In relation to my OP - Mr. Alex Becker offered Extra Bonuses and Training to people on his Mailing list when they buy his Book... So basically, they will be getting the Book and the Extras BONUSES for the same price...

        ... So, what about other people who are NOT on his Mailing list?

        They will get his Book for the same price but they will NOT get the extra bonuses because they are NOT on his mailing list!!

        It doesn't make sense, and it's far from being honest, this is called Deceptive Marketing or Dirty Marketing Tricks
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        • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
          Originally Posted by CityCowboy View Post

          In relation to my OP - Mr. Alex Becker offered Extra Bonuses and Training to people on his Mailing list when they buy his Book... So basically, they will be getting the Book and the Extras BONUSES for the same price...

          ... So, what about other people who are NOT on his Mailing list?

          They will get his Book for the same price but they will NOT get the extra bonuses because they are NOT on his mailing list!!

          It doesn't make sense, and it's far from being honest, this is called Deceptive Marketing or Dirty Marketing Tricks
          You know, I bought a case of pepsi from the grocery store yesterday. When I got home, I found a coupon for $2 off that same case in the newspaper. No one is going to suggest that pepsi is acting illegally by offering incentives to some people but not others.
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  • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
    I recently ran across an advertisement in Craigslist offering payments of $8 for book reviews. The company advertising is dog-eared-reviews and they are charging authors $70 for one review, $229 for 5 reviews, and $399 for 10 reviews. Quite apart from the legality of their "service", it seems they are ripping off reviewers big time paying them just $8

    I reported them to Amazon at the beginning of June, but they continue to advertise and Amazon didn't even bother to reply to me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Fool
      Originally Posted by AnniePot View Post

      I recently ran across an advertisement in Craigslist offering payments of $8 for book reviews. The company advertising is dog-eared-reviews and they are charging authors $70 for one review, $229 for 5 reviews, and $399 for 10 reviews. Quite apart from the legality of their "service", it seems they are ripping off reviewers big time paying them just $8

      I reported them to Amazon at the beginning of June, but they continue to advertise and Amazon didn't even bother to reply to me.
      Yeah, that sort of thing is absolutely wrong...that is definitely review spam, plain and simple. And Amazon will rightfully go after those guys eventually. But that's not the same as asking people on your email list to leave good reviews...it's just not.
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  • Profile picture of the author kazimuhith
    Amazon should go after fake and biased reviews more. Such reviews are completely unfair.
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  • Profile picture of the author bmcgehee
    As an amazon FBA private label seller, I've had run in the community with amazon putting down the ban hammer many times. In my opinion it usually is because the vendor tried to take short cuts. As with most things it takes a little time to build momentum and some people aren't willing to wait. Shortcuts usually land you into trouble.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by Marketing Fool View Post

    If you want to equate THAT, to some guy who asks his email list to buy his book and give a review in order to get something else...you really don't understand anything.
    Funny how one word makes such a big difference. In the OP, the incentive was for leaving, and providing proof of, a positive review. Let me make it clear - I have absolutely no problem with offering list members an incentive to leave honest, unbiased reviews. None.

    As for equating incentivized positive reviews with using bots to leave positive reviews, the only real difference is scale. Some psycho rigs his ex-wife's gas stove to blow up and kills her, it's murder. A different psycho opens fire on a crowd and kills multiple people (or, taking guns out of the discussion, runs his car into a crowd), it's still murder, on a bigger scale. [Before anyone gets into hysterics, I'm NOT equating phony reviews with murder.)

    Cheating the law is cheating the law. (Since Mr. Becker is voluntarily operating within Amazon's ecosystem, I'm not differentiating between Amazon's TOS and the legal code.)

    Originally Posted by CityCowboy View Post

    In relation to my OP - Mr. Alex Becker offered Extra Bonuses and Training to people on his Mailing list when they buy his Book... So basically, they will be getting the Book and the Extras BONUSES for the same price...

    ... So, what about other people who are NOT on his Mailing list?

    They will get his Book for the same price but they will NOT get the extra bonuses because they are NOT on his mailing list!!

    It doesn't make sense, and it's far from being honest, this is called Deceptive Marketing or Dirty Marketing Tricks
    Cowboy, I'm glad you added the 'confused' smilie. it's obvious that you are.

    Is it also a deceptive, dirty marketing trick to offer a discount to people on your mailing list? How about printing coupons in the newspaper, since not everyone will have access to that paper? Or how about offers of recipe books when certain foods are bought?

    The problem isn't with offering incentives to subscribers to get them to pull the trigger. It's with qualifying that offer to exclude neutral or negative reviews.
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    • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      I have absolutely no problem with offering list members an incentive to leave honest, unbiased reviews. None.

      As for equating incentivized positive reviews with using bots to leave positive reviews, the only real difference is scale. Some psycho rigs his ex-wife's gas stove to blow up and kills her, it's murder. A different psycho opens fire on a crowd and kills multipl



      Cowboy, I'm glad you added the 'confused' smilie. it's obvious that you are.

      Is it also a deceptive, dirty marketing trick to offer a discount to people on your mailing list? .
      you are free to do what you want with your Subscribers, and I have no problem with making your subscribers to buy from you and to give you reviews - but that needs to be their own decision to leave a review - wether it would be a postive or negative review...

      The problem with what so many people do and that's why Amazon don't like this - is that they push their subscribers into giving them positve reviews by giving them Incentives and Extra bonuses other than the Product itself, so that when you go to buy the Product from Amazon and when you scroll down to the reviews section - you only see positive reviews, mostly from those incentivised subscribers of the product owner

      If everyone start to do this more, then Consumers will no longer start to trust these Reviews and therefore it will no longer have an impact on the buyers decision.

      Currently, Data Reveals that 67% of Consumers are Influenced by Online Reviews. (Source: https://moz.com/blog/new-data-reveal...online-reviews)

      Online reviews are one of the most powerful factors that influences the buyers decision into buying a particular product, and when you fake this reviews, you are increasing your sales profit in a unethical and illegal way
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by CityCowboy View Post

        Online reviews are one of the most powerful factors that influences the buyers decision into buying a particular product, and when you fake this reviews, you are increasing your sales profit in a unethical and illegal way
        Maybe there's a language barrier here, but I challenge you to show me anywhere I said anything about faked reviews.

        Let me ask you this...

        Are you okay with offering an incentive to opt into your list, or do you think that's a dirty marketing trick, too?

        People often need a nudge to actually take action. As long as that nudge is for the action (leave a review) and not for the content (leave a positive review), I don't see the objection.

        On the other hand, if your book is good, people should want the extra bonus. If it's bad, why would they want more bad content? And if the book really is good, should it sink into the mass because readers were too lazy to leave reviews, or planned to just "do it later"?

        Again, in English as plain as I can make it:

        I have no problem with an author offering added content or bonuses to list members in exchange for honest, unbiased reviews. Requiring those reviews to be positive is crossing the line, and should not be tolerated.
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        • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          Maybe there's a language barrier here, but I challenge you to show me anywhere I said anything about faked reviews.

          I have no problem with an author offering added content or bonuses to list members in exchange for honest, unbiased reviews. Requiring those reviews to be positive is crossing the line, and should not be tolerated.
          I see what you mean, and NO there's no language barrier. we both agree on one thing, and that you shouldn't push your readers, subscribers to give you a positive review, that needs to be their own choice...

          Mr. Becker also said something similar to this in plain English on his launch day - (If you bought my book on Amazon, I will send you Extra bonuses - Facebook Advertising Course,... but first, you need to leave a nice review and send me a screenshot of your review to this Email so that my team will verify and give you your Bonuses).

          Do you think Mr. Becker would have given the extra Bonuses to one of his subscribers if he had left a NOT so nice review?

          I witnessed everything on his Book launch day, I went to Amazon to see his book, and it has already had more than 70 positive reviews (probably the bribed subscribers), the book has 200 pages -

          But Wait, Did they read That 200 pages Book in that very same day??

          Probably NOT,

          Now, I believe this is something wrong and unethical, and you should too... just click this link and go to Amazon and see all the positive biased reviews for yourself

          And, Let me know what you think

          NOTE: you will find this shocking and unbelievably biased rating... Wow, his book must be perfect - It's his first book so it's probably not...
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    I agree with the posters above who said that it's not unethical/illegal to offer an incentive to buy a product and leave a review. The grey area is when the condition of a positive review is placed on receiving the incentive.

    This is a tough one for Amazon to handle. A product owner/creator shouldn't be punished for creating a following of people who want/like their products. A person with such a following should be able to utilize that to further promote their business. However, it does cross a line when you specifically request and require positive reviews. But how does Amazon police that? I'm not sure that they can.

    This makes me wonder about the Amazon groups which give away free products in return for reviews. It goes without saying that if you leave a negative review that you'll get kicked out of the group and stop receiving free products. So, is that something that Amazon can and will crack down on? To my knowledge, most of these groups work by giving out coupons which the groups users redeem for a free product, thus they buy directly from Amazon (for free) and then leave a review. This seems like something Amazon will have a better chance of stopping.
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  • Profile picture of the author MValmont
    Unfortunately there are many ways to get hundreds of these reviews without Amazon ever knowing.

    There is absolutely nothing they can do about it. There are ways to hire people that use VPN and have hundreds of accounts and there is no way amazon can track them...
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  • Profile picture of the author bikramksingh
    Originally Posted by CityCowboy View Post


    And he used his Email List to get biased positive reviews, you might think that this is fine, but it's absolutely NOT because he said in his product launch Email that he would give Many Extras Bonuses and Training to whoever buys his product and leaves a positive review while sending him a Verification Screenshot to get the Bonuses (I know this because I'm on his Mailing list)
    Bribing people to write positive review not only cheat people (like us) as consumer, who consider Amazon reviews before making a purchase; I'd so far as say that Amazon reviews, in many cases, are the reason behind the purchase decision, but it also robs honest affiliate marketers of the trust that their readers show in them by purchasing a poor-quality product following the marketers' recommendation, who got swayed by those fake reviews in the first place. This is unacceptable and Amazon should quash these.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gambino
      Originally Posted by bikramksingh View Post

      it also robs honest affiliate marketers of the trust that their readers show in them by purchasing a poor-quality product following the marketers' recommendation, who got swayed by those fake reviews in the first place. This is unacceptable and Amazon should quash these.
      If the affiliate marketer is ethical themselves, wouldn't they use or try the product before recommending it to people who trust their recommendation?
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        If you're an ethical affiliate, wrote the review after using it but half of the reviews were written by dishonest people, how does the prospective buyer know that?

        If I'm about to buy a marketing course on amazon.com and there are two competing options one with 8 reviews, all written by honest affiliates, and one with 8 reviews, 6 of which written by dishonest affiliates and if

        the one with the honest affiliates has 4 stars and the one with dishonest ones has 4.92%, which one do you think I'll likely buy?

        Originally Posted by Gambino View Post

        If the affiliate marketer is ethical themselves, wouldn't they use or try the product before recommending it to people who trust their recommendation?
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        • Profile picture of the author Gambino
          Originally Posted by DABK View Post

          If you're an ethical affiliate, wrote the review after using it but half of the reviews were written by dishonest people, how does the prospective buyer know that?

          If I'm about to buy a marketing course on amazon.com and there are two competing options one with 8 reviews, all written by honest affiliates, and one with 8 reviews, 6 of which written by dishonest affiliates and if

          the one with the honest affiliates has 4 stars and the one with dishonest ones has 4.92%, which one do you think I'll likely buy?
          You didn't follow.

          I replied to a comment suggesting that an affiliate marketer was suggesting products to his/her list based on Amazon reviews even though they did not use or judge the product for themselves.

          Your comment is based on an affiliate leaving a review on the product, not promoting the product. Apples and oranges.
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by DABK View Post

          If you're an ethical affiliate, wrote the review after using it but half of the reviews were written by dishonest people, how does the prospective buyer know that?

          If I'm about to buy a marketing course on amazon.com and there are two competing options one with 8 reviews, all written by honest affiliates, and one with 8 reviews, 6 of which written by dishonest affiliates and if

          the one with the honest affiliates has 4 stars and the one with dishonest ones has 4.92%, which one do you think I'll likely buy?
          I don't know about you, but I'm going to read the reviews on both courses before deciding. Same as I would when looking for a hotel on TripAdvisor or a restaurant on Yelp or an ebook on Amazon.

          Read enough reviews, and the phony ones start to stick out - they're vague and they all sound the same.

          Truth be told, I discount all reviews by affiliates. Even scrupulously honest affiliates have a subconscious bias which may come out.

          Cowboy, if you're truly offended by Becker's actions and want to clean up the marketplace, a quick email to Amazon with a copy of the email offering the incentive based on proof of a positive review, and he will vanish quickly and quietly from the Kindle marketplace. Pissing and moaning about it here won't change diddly.
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          • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
            Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

            I don't know about you, but I'm going to read the reviews on both courses before deciding. Same as I would when looking for a hotel on TripAdvisor or a restaurant on Yelp or an ebook on Amazon.

            Read enough reviews, and the phony ones start to stick out - they're vague and they all sound the same.

            Truth be told, I discount all reviews by affiliates. Even scrupulously honest affiliates have a subconscious bias which may come out.

            Cowboy, if you're truly offended by Becker's actions and want to clean up the marketplace, a quick email to Amazon with a copy of the email offering the incentive based on proof of a positive review, and he will vanish quickly and quietly from the Kindle marketplace. Pissing and moaning about it here won't change diddly.
            Amazon is a giant company, they get thousands, if not millions of messages and emails everyday -

            my message will just get lost with those, plus that Email of Becker is more than 2 weeks old,

            I don't really want to report him or anything - I honestly always liked what he does, he gives TONS of value to his subscribers, he is a really nice and helpful guy

            But I never expected him to do anything like this, I was shocked...

            I hope he sees this WF Thread and reconsiders his actions and admits that what he has done is wrong
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      • Profile picture of the author bikramksingh
        Originally Posted by Gambino View Post

        If the affiliate marketer is ethical themselves, wouldn't they use or try the product before recommending it to people who trust their recommendation?
        I do not think it is practically possible to try all the products before recommending it to others, and even when done that way there is a problem of small sample size of 1 (or say personal bias), which can only be neutralized by taking into consideration experience of other users of the products. This is what we expect from a review, an honest assessment of how the product functioned for the reviewer.

        It could be unethical for an affiliate marketer if you see his role solely as a reviewer. He, at times, shows consumers different ways of looking at the product they are considering, aggregates for them positive and negative aspects of the product from various people's recommendations thus save their time, brings alternative products within their compass.

        What's your thought?
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      • Profile picture of the author celente
        Originally Posted by Gambino View Post

        If the affiliate marketer is ethical themselves, wouldn't they use or try the product before recommending it to people who trust their recommendation?
        actually done some videos on this on youtube, of me using the product.....while I do not do that anymore, I remember they use to work well. As the user gets a birds eye view of exactly what is on offer.

        I guess its not going to work for everyone, and every time, but you have to put your shoes on the companies, that sell stuff, and offer affiliate programs.

        They are trying to turn people on, not spam peoples ass away.

        so the fake reviews, will still last for a time, but they have the IP address recorded, they are not stupid, that people use fiverr or microturk sites, and all that. Its a matter of time before they hammer comes down, but already sounds like it is.....hmmmmm
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    • Profile picture of the author CityCowboy
      Originally Posted by bikramksingh View Post

      Bribing people to write positive review not only cheat people (like us) as consumer, who consider Amazon reviews before making a purchase; I'd so far as say that Amazon reviews, in many cases, are the reason behind the purchase decision, but it also robs honest affiliate marketers of the trust that their readers show in them by purchasing a poor-quality product following the marketers' recommendation, who got swayed by those fake reviews in the first place. This is unacceptable and Amazon should quash these.
      Thank you Bikramksingh for your honest opinion on this,

      you really understood what I was trying to say this whole time and that is Most people consider Amazon reviews before making a purchase, one of the first things every consumer does before buying a product or servuce online is to see what other people who have tried that product have to say about it's effectiveness, legitimacy and usefulness.

      And when people like Mr. Becker fake this reviews, then it's not really a good thing to consider reviews before buying anything online -

      We will have to look for other factors of legitimacy and effectiveness of a product or service other than The Fake Reviews before attempting to buy anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    Stupid is amazon. Those mental pygmies did remove a three star review. Book is 4.6 rating, but those morons think that a three star review is not genuine. OK so the lady reviewer talked at length about my book, so I know it is not counterfeit, but Jeffy boy is dumber than a box of rocks! Frankly, I would not let him drive for UBER!

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