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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.'"
My brother plays in a band and they signed with an indie label, aside from airplay they also said they would get them advertising and reviews on popular websites and in magazines that they normally wouldn't be able to get. Some of the reviews were good, most were mediocre, and one very bad. The worst review started with the reviewer saying this isn't the style music he liked and went on to bash the entire genre. Reading other reviews on the site most by the same reviewer it became clear that this website was for a very different genre and they shouldn't have sent it there to begin with. The best reviews came from sites for the genre they played and the mediocre reviews where from hard rock websites.