Amazon will sue 1,100 fake reviewers

It never ceases to amaze me how IM product owners think they can get away with paying a Fiverr guy $5 to read a pre-written script and just slap it up on You Tube.

I mean, EVERYONE in IM knows about Fiverr these days and there are a handful of fake Fiverr review faces I see fairly frequently in You Tube reviews.

So with that being said, I for one am not surprised Amazon is attemting to crack down on these fake reviews to try and protect the integrity of their brand.

I understood the article but I'm left wondering what the fallout from something like this might be.

I'm also wondering why they chose to go after the people who were paid to write the review and not just go after the person who was paying them.

The reason I say that is because there are a lot of people who belong to websites where they get paid very little to perform certain tasks. I guess they call them microjobs maybe?

The thing is, often these people don't know any better. They are simply responding to a post to complete a job. Many times these are people who are living in conditions of poverty and they are just trying to scratch together some extra money to improve their living conditions.

I guess it still doesn't make the fact that they wrote fake reviews right, but maybe they figured since it was offered as a job it was legit. Let's face it, a lot of people simply don't know any better.

I'm not saying that's what happened since I don't know the details of the lawsuit. These are just some of the questions that are bouncing around inside my head.

I'm struggling to see how your post has any relevance to this thread whatsoever.

I'm beginning to think maybe Freelancer should just eliminate forum sigs from the WF altogether. That would eliminate all of the people who post nonsense just to rack up their post count.

Maybe then we could get back to good, educational posts and threads and have interesting discussions about IM and it won't just be all about people trying to get their sigs seen.

Maybe having a sig should become a paid option like the War Room.

Wow. So it is as I speculated in my post earlier. They are basically going after the Fiverr sellers who posted the Gigs offering fake reviews. Damn. I'll bet there are a few Warriors who are going to get caught up in this.

This is only the beginning, too. The article states that Amazon may be able to compel the Fiverr sellers as well as Fiverr to give them a listing of the people who ordered the Gigs.

I get where Amazon is coming from. I really do. It's a shady practice.

However, I kind of feel bad for the Fiverr sellers too. I mean, somebody who is trying to make $4 by selling a review on Fiverr obviously isn't somebody who's got money to burn. In fact, if you think about it, it could have been any newbie that maybe purchased some kind of a product instructing them to do something like that.

I think maybe Amazon should focus on going after the Amazon sellers who bought the reviews and maybe Fiverr itself for facilitating the process, but not the little guy who is trying to make $4 selling them.

I guess this goes to show you that times are indeed changing on the World Wide Web. The Wild West days of just about anything goes are quickly becoming a thing of the past. That's a good thing for the most part, I think.

Also, from the way I understand it, Amazon is not going after people who own affiliate sites that include reviews - yet. If I was an owner of any Amazon affiliate sites, though, I think I'd be going over each and ever post with a fine-toothed comb right about now just to be on the safe side. Will Amazon decide to go after website owners who happened to unknowingly post some of those fake reviews on their websites? How about all of those plugins that pull reviews and other product info right from Amazon? Will Amazon decide to hold the plugin creators liable for helping to pull the fake reviews?

Am I reaching here? I'm not trying to create fear, but you have to admit, those things might not be outside the realm of possibility if they would go after Fiverr sellers.

I don't do anything with Amazon, and after this any thoughts I may have had about creating affiliate sites with Amazon products have magically disappeared from my mind. I always try to do things right, and I never post reviews about any products that I don't own. However, after this I think I'll just steer clear of Amazon entirely.

Because the Amazon could remove sellers' authority of selling on amazon, or other punishments to avoid illegal actions. But the Amaozn have much less power to their customers.

I appreciate your opinion, but you can hardly fault a person for wanting to start their own business. Usually people that have no right being in business don't have any idea that's the case.

I'm not saying ignorance is a defense for breaking the law. In this case, though, I don't think any real laws were broken, just Amazon's TOS.

I'm no lawyer, but I see no real repercussions coming from this as it pertains to those who were selling reviews. I think the end result is that Amazon is going to achieve what it set out to achieve and that is they will be sending a clear message that fake reviews are not a joke and could get you in legal trouble.

However, for the sellers purchasing the reviews, and especially for affiliates who purchase fake reviews to post on their websites, there may be FTC violations. That's who I think needs to be worried the most.

I get that selling reviews is shady, but I still think that someone with no idea what they were doing as it pertains to running an online business could easily purchase a product from a "guru" or "coach" and follow it thinking that if it is sold on a reputable marketplace that it must be a viable and legitimate strategy.

We all know that there are lots of shady products out there that are being sold on completely reputable platforms. I know from personal experience that I've purchased quite a few products that had me completely floored after going through.

Most of them are harmless and simply result in the buyer losing one of their accounts at Adsense, etc,. but some of them are downright dangerous.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they did it. This protects everyone and most of all protects us as consumers. People spend a lot of money on Amazon. Imagine spending hundreds of dollars on a product based on the reviews you've read only to receive the product and have the product be junk because none of the positive reviews you read were real? I'd be pretty upset. I think that Amazon, being as successful as they are, gets the fact that an incident like that is enough to drive a person from never purchasing from their site again.

It really is a very serious issue. I think another good thing that will come of it is it will help drive away the "fake it til you make it" type of marketers, and that's always a good thing.

My previous "nonsense" post above was about to say this following...

I apology for my English.

I consider it fraudulent. It's more than "pushing a product by using false reviews" - it is deception of the buying public and that can, if carried far enough, fun afoul of federal and state laws meant to protect consumers.

There have been marketers who went to jail for lying about a product, guaranteeing income, cookie stuffing, etc. It seems like a small problem right up until a lawsuit is filed...then it gets big fast.

"I didn't know", "I didn't read the terms", "I thought they would give me a warning before doing anything" and the favorite "other people said it was OK" just don't hold up in court. Even if you feel you did nothing wrong - it costs a lot of money to defend yourself once you are a target.

There is no one who can argue they believed writing a false review in order to convince people to buy a product...is an ethical business. Those who do it assume they won't be caught or there won't be consequences. Those who hired them on Fiverr assume the same. I'd be happy to see them ALL taken down.

What you're missing from the big picture is that the previous week the same newspaper carried an expose of how they could get a rubbishy book written by a ghost writer in the philippines for a few dollars, and then get it to top of one of the kindle categories using fake reviews from fiverr for just a few dollars more.

I think many here would agree that such practices are unethical, and when exposed, undermine people's confidence in amazon's rating systems.

I dont know how vigorously amazon will pursue these lawsuits, but i dont think it unreasonable to think that perhaps the original newspaper story was part of the motivation for the lawsuits.

If you read the article - it's about an Amazon Kindle scam that has been happening....

I don't know it if was in this thread or another thread - or if thread still exists - but someone had posted the exact method for scamming in this way....

I think it's aimed at everyone involved the scams - if you aren't cheating you don't have anything to worry about. I think the investigation was a wakeup call for Amazon and honest sellers and affiliates should be happy to see it.

Considering your signature -

And your gig -

I'm thinking you didn't understand the initial post.

Seriously? Did you read even one post in this thread? Maybe you should go back and at least read the first post in the thread.

I'm not sure if you realize this but your sig link goes to a Fiverr Gig in which you are offering to do exactly what Amazon hates.

This is from your Gig description:


So you are offering to allow the seller to provide you with a review of their own product and then you will post it wherever they want you to? Is that a fair assumption?

Let me ask you this, then. If the buyer of your Gig provided you with a review for their new Kindle listing and wanted you to post it on Amazon for them, would you do it?

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for this answer.

Well, it is fair. For example, if you want to buy a watch on Amazon, and you read someone fake review, you bought the item, you receive the item which is not as reviewed. This way, it is more like a scam. Amazon done something right!

They should. IMO that's worse than buying fake reviews for your own products.

Amazon made the listing public.

See "exhibit A" in the following document:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/285431272...view-Complaint