[NEWS] ➜➜ The strange world of Amazon review factories

RealDaddy

RealDaddy

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On Amazon, the name of the game is reviews. And when something is that important, people find ways to game it.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcm.wtaff.co%2Ft%2Fj-l-fiddldy-iytuguttl-k%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGimEl1iUi7QBBZvMfk7fk_aoEdVw on the vast ecosystem of Facebook groups where Amazon sellers can get reviews and increase their product search rankings.

The scheme: There are two sides to the coin. Buyers (who get to review the products) and (Amazon) sellers.

The buyer will get the product from Amazon, review it, and then receive a refund from the seller. That way, the buyer gets a free product, and the seller gets a review.

Everybody wins...well, except for Amazon, Facebook, and (ultimately) consumers.

What Amazon and Facebook are doing against this:

  • Facebook http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcm.wtaff.co%2Ft%2Fj-l-fiddldy-iytuguttl-u%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEMfRqDdfcE8mG9NkjRCrnpWGpM4Q 16,000 trading groups back in April
  • Amazon has http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcm.wtaff.co%2Ft%2Fj-l-fiddldy-iytuguttl-o%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHtnQ9NYRDe0jtUI9aAdnEqNVWF1Q down big seller accounts left and right due to bogus reviews
➜ Just because something works right now does not mean it’s a good long-term strategy. This whole reviews thing reminds us of buying links, which is ultimately a cat-and-mouse game. Do it at your own peril.
 
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Interesting. They really shouldn't be doing that as it affects not just consumers, but affiliates as well that rely on customer reviews to write honest reviews of the products they promote.
 
Lol. Amazon is paying for most of the fake reviews my friend.
 
The percent of authentic product reviews in Amazon is exactly like the percent of Natural backlinks in SEO :)
 
RealDaddy said:
On Amazon, the name of the game is reviews. And when something is that important, people find ways to game it.

CNET wrote a recent article on the vast ecosystem of Facebook groups where Amazon sellers can get reviews and increase their product search rankings.

The scheme: There are two sides to the coin. Buyers (who get to review the products) and (Amazon) sellers.

The buyer will get the product from Amazon, review it, and then receive a refund from the seller. That way, the buyer gets a free product, and the seller gets a review.

Everybody wins...well, except for Amazon, Facebook, and (ultimately) consumers.

What Amazon and Facebook are doing against this:

➜ Just because something works right now does not mean it’s a good long-term strategy. This whole reviews thing reminds us of buying links, which is ultimately a cat-and-mouse game. Do it at your own peril.
Click to expand...

Google can't ban the sale or purchase of links. The seller is using his own property to link out to another (buyer's) property. Google has no authority there. Amazon on the other hand can go after people posting fake reviews because it is on their own platform. But yes you're right, as long as something is that important, there will always be a way to game the system. An algorithm will always be subject to manipulation :)
 
Sellers constantly doing this for years, fb groups are just part of it.
 
come on.. it does not suit bhw:p

you think people have stopped buying backlink?? well i can see a screaming child selling his pbn in your signature ..lol
 
I believe that legit businesses shouldn't purchase reviews but they should earn them. You need some budget to promote your products but it's better to do this instead of spending money to game system. Moreover, some people lost their rankings due to fake reviews as Amazon algorithm is not that stupid and can recognize some fake reviews (particularly the buyers who review products like bots).
 
Cloudtail is Amazon's largest shareholder here in India and weirdly is also partly owned by Amazon as they each have a majority of each others shares.

Some very close friends are part of review groups that promote products by review dripping and guess who owns most of the products being sold. Cloudtail.

If your product does great on Amazon, they will personally contact you, buy 10X stock of your product and sell it through their seller profile. And once it is up, you suddenly see a huge number of reviews on the system.
 
So true. Even I had a couple of clients. I used to write reviews for them in exchange for a commission as well as a refund :p Amazon is doing nothing I think cause there are tons of group and the industry of review is booming. Most of the Chinese sellers are taking reviews from a different sources.
 
There have been articles about this for years.
People who were getting freebies, getting paid to leave reviews then selling the freebies.

There was an article last week where people were saying they were getting Amazon deliveries of items never ordered to their address. People were sending these to random people, just so it showed as a verified purchase.
 
MisterF said:
There have been articles about this for years.
People who were getting freebies, getting paid to leave reviews then selling the freebies.

There was an article last week where people were saying they were getting Amazon deliveries of items never ordered to their address. People were sending these to random people, just so it showed as a verified purchase.
Click to expand...
I personally have got a women's night cream for free which I happily gave to my paramour. Although amazon is simply digging its own grave by promoting this as now even Negative reviews are so widespread, in some of my wife's review groups, they are willing to pay 2 times the product cost in order to give a bad review while flagging the seller.
She actively goes out of her way to call up the target companies, warning them of such issues so they can contact Amazon in advance.
 
Even if such groups get banned, the demand for Amazon reviews will soar in upcoming years. Apart from the price hike for reviews, nothing significant won't likely happen.
 
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