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Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

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Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#171

Post by eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 »

projectileboy wrote: post #158
ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

Also just anecdata, but I’m the same way. I don’t mind buying commodity goods off of Amazon, but if I need to know that I’m truly getting product X of brand Y, I now typically go elsewhere, because I just cannot trust that I’m not going to get a counterfeit product. Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. That may not seem overwhelming, but it’s enough to break…

> Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon.

What I've been ALWAYS wondering when people say such things:

Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself as vendor or are you conveniently leaving out the fact that you bought from some random company which uses the Amazon marketplace?

Because I really cannot believe that something as big as Amazon would be dumb enough to sell counterfeit goods under their own name, and people usually don't mention if they bought from Amazon or not when they say such things.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#172

Post by teraku »

Wasn't there an app to remove those?

Also, I just stopped buying from Amazon a couple of years back. Only purchase in my history for the past 3 years is an Apple charger since when I changed from Android to iOS they didn't deliver them with the device anymore and Amazon had the cheapest price from the actual Apple distributor (no re-distributor).

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#174

Post by cobookman »

ianmcgowan wrote: post #117
harry8 wrote: post #30

Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. The more it looks like people buying stuff using amazon are happy, the better that marketing is for Amazon. Look at all these people who are so happy to be buying stuff on Amazon, so much better than the alternatives. Amazon could clean this up and then watch the average drop. From the removal of the fake fives but also it makes it look more "socially accpetable"…

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

This attitude comes from a place of privilege. You can afford a brand-name coffee maker, many can't.

If you look at the median Westerner, most don't have that kind of disposable income to afford those kinds of goods. Amazon offers a cheaper (commodity) price, which drives overall increase in sales.

Amazon is going after Walmart, the lower-end market at the cost of loosing parts of the niche higher-end market.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#175

Post by thetinguy »

eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote: post #171
projectileboy wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also just anecdata, but I’m the same way. I don’t mind buying commodity goods off of Amazon, but if I need to know that I’m truly getting product X of brand Y, I now typically go elsewhere, because I just cannot trust that I’m not going to get a counterfeit product. Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. That may not seem overwhelming, but it’s enough to break…

> Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. What I've been ALWAYS wondering when people say such things: Did you seriously get them when buying from Amazon itself as vendor or are you conveniently leaving out the fact that you bought from some random company which uses the Amazon marketplace? Because I really cannot believe that something as big as Amazon would b…

Amazon.com and marketplace inventory commingle. Pickers don’t care which box seemingly identical products come from.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#176

Post by waynesonfire »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #98
waynesonfire wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will that help? The seller can still influence and finance the buyers. It may be more expensive but I'm certain the seller will do what is necessary for those high rankings. The stakes are that high.

Perhaps, but how? If Amazon sells 10,000 Acme Widgets and sends an email to just 1% of those customers asking for a review. How is Acme going to game that? Pay all 10,000 purchasers of their product so that the 1% that get the Golden Ticket to write a review give them 5 stars? The problem seems to me to be that the reviewer gets to decide to post a review. Turn it around and have Amazon select reviewers at random and…

If it's an "expensive" product, you ask people to buy your product and have them send it back to you for a reward. If it's cheap, the reviewer can keep the item in exchange for a desirable review. The sample rate is irrelevant.. you just need enough reviews to out rank your competitors.

I'm not in the industry but I'm willing to bet there are flourishing communities that participate in this type of trade. And it's as sophisticated as it needs to be to get around Amazons countermeasures.

How else are we seeing so many corrupt reviews? Not like Amazon is just passively watching this happen. This is a huge issue for them since it's a bad user experience and Jeff Bezos is obsessed with satisfying customers.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#177

Post by dheera »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #151
ibraheemdev wrote: post #15

I recently got an email offering 50% off a seller's products if I left a good review. This is happening on all marketplaces, not just Amazon. The only way I see to truly solve the problem is only allowing verified buyers to leave a review.

I received an Instagram ad offering reimbursement to buy a company's product on Amazon. I signed up with a throwaway e-mail account. They sent a step-by-step guide to go to Amazon, enter a specific search term, scroll until I found their product, purchase it, and then send them the receipt for reimbursement. They didn't ask me to write a review. They only wanted to generate the appearance of organic search traffic to…

The problem really is us, the buyers, who won't purchase something that has zero reviews or only a few reviews.

So in order to even make the first few sales they need to generate a bunch of fake reviews.

This is extremely well known phenomenon especially in the Chinese market where it is also extremely standard to get a bunch of fake reviews to get the ball rolling on sales. Guess what, it happens in the US too.

I don't endorse it, but the sellers are just doing what the buyers incentivize them to do.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#178

Post by throwaway_1301 »

oauea wrote: post #121
throwaway_1301 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I feel more comfortable commenting on this vs such posts about Google (my employer) because I don't have to worry about leaking anything important but this is absolutely not a piece of cake. Anyone who has worked on planet scale anti-abuse systems knows this is a very tough and never ending problem. You think there are obvious signals for good or bad - the 0.01% cases where this does not hold up turns to 20 m…

You think working for Google is a net positive for society?

In my opinion it is a huge net positive. Its not the popular opinion on HN but I do think it is.

Its personally been instrumental for me. Coming from a solidly lower middle class background in a developing country - Google was the only reason I could get better at my work and eventually do well financially. It gave me access to information that I could not afford otherwise, books were too expensive for my families income.

Even now I see how much services like search and Youtube help people learn. Youtube created a vibrant community of content in a local language that has helped many of my friends learn things. I recently spoke to a teenager who learnt to repair household electronics by watching tutorials on Youtube - in our local language.

Google has a lot of problems. I mean a lot. But its certainly a net positive in my opinion. While its fun to participate in (legitimate) first world discussions on web standards being killed by Google, it has undoubtedly improved the lives of millions of people from my home country.

Just like people, companies have the ability to do good and bad at the same time. For me the scale for Google is pretty heavily towards good.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#179

Post by Meekro »

alasdair_ wrote: post #137
Meekro wrote: post #104

I'm just spitballing, but what do you guys think about this as a fake-resistant review system? To list your product on Amazon as a seller, you pay $500 per year as a "review incentivization fee." The algorithm randomly selects buyers and emails them 1 month after their purchase. They are offered $10 to write a review. The chance of being randomly selected as a reviewer auto-adjusts to target a goal of 50 reviews per…

Many Amazon sellers openly solicit good reviews with a card included with the purchase promising discounts or gifts for good reviews. This method would just increase that. "We'll pay you $100 if you get chosen and write us a 5-star review" would be a reasonable offer for both buyer and seller.

If I got that offer I would post the 5-star review, claim the $100, and then edit my review to say "They tried to bribe me. 1 star. Photos attached as proof."

But you're right, I think that's a legitimate issue. I'm not saying my plan is perfect, but I'm pretty sure it improves on the status quo.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#180

Post by sn41 »

throwawayboise wrote: post #71
ibraheemdev wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how exactly does that solve the problem?

Because the truth is that the reviews are probably almost all fake. Who the f**k IRL takes the time to log back in and leave a product review when the product arrives? I've never done it, and I used to buy from Amazon quite a lot.

This is somewhat true. I review only when am highly impressed or thoroughly disgusted with a product. So-so products where I got more or less what I hoped for, and which is not too highly differentiated from alternatives, I don't bother with reviewing them.
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