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Amazon Sues To Block Fake Reviews
An anonymous reader writes Amazon has filed suit against operators of sites that offer Amazon sellers the ability to purchase fake 4 and 5 star customer reviews. The suit is the first of its kind and was filed in King County Superior Court against a California man, Jay Gentile, identified in Amazon's filings as the operator of buyazonreviews.com. The site also targets unidentified "John Does" who operate similar sites: buyreviewsnow.com, bayreviews.net, and buyamazonreviews.com. From the article: "The site buyazonreviews.com, which the suit claims is run by Gentile, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Mark Collins, the owner of buyamazonreviews.com, denied Amazon's claims. In an email interview, Collins said the site simply offers to help Amazon's third-party sellers get reviews. 'We are not selling fake reviews. however we do provide Unbiased and Honest reviews on all the products,' Collins wrote. 'And this is not illegal at all.'"
I ignore reviews on Amazon because the majority of them are already fake. I've purchased items on Amazon only to receive promotional material with them offering coupons and gift cards in exchange for writing a 5-star review.
I do not trust the system at all.
"We are not selling fake reviews. however we do provide Unbiased and Honest reviews on all the products"
Wow, that's priceless. Oh, wait, no, it does have a price. Want to know how this works? From the site itself:
A purchase of your product is not required for us to post a review. If you would like a verified purchase review however we can buy your product first. If the cost is $2.00 or less we will cover the price. If it is more than this you will need to make arrangements with us to reimburse the cost. We are only accepting very limited amounts of verified purchase reviews, please contact us before ordering if you are interested in these.
Price List:
3 Reviews $74.26!
5 Reviews (Reg: $124.50, w/ 20% $99.60!)
10 Reviews (Reg: $249.50, w/ 20% $199.60!)
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.
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200 Reviews (Reg: $4887.50, w/ 30% $3421.60)
I can see why Amazon wants to shut this down. It completely undermines the legitimacy of their user ratings system. Not a big surprise, of course, as just about any system will be gamed if at all possible when there's money involved.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
There are the retarded reviews too:
I just got it! It looks great! - 5 stars.
I haven't finished the book yet, but 5 stars.
Then there are the 5 star reviews by folks who come across as the author's pals or sycophants.
And the ALL TIME champ for shit reviews (1 stars) is Pickety's "Capital in the 21st Century".
Everyone who calls him a Communist obviously didn't read the book because for those of who did - or at least the introduction - would know what he thinks of Communism.
" every reviewer would state their skillset and experience with similar products"
That's often evident from the reviews. 2-4 star reviews tend to be the most helpful, and there are often good points made in them. Expecting all of them to be useful or applicable to your situation would be like expecting all the /. story comments to be insightful, or to have a MS or Apple thread without trolls and fanbois in the mix. It just ain't gonna happen.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Interesting, how would you prove a review is fake, written with no experience of the product?
Doesn't really matter if it is fake or not if it is paid. If the review is a paid review then it is by definition written with at least a secondary motive and therefore by definition cannot be considered unbiased. Buying reviews arguably harms the reputation of Amazon and could affect their sales and thus would potentially constitute tortious interference with their business.