Just like most if not all marketplaces, products on sale on Amazon rely on user reviews for popularity.
Too many people know this. And this is why there are many bad actors with ill intention on the web who try to convince buyers to buy something, or not buy something, by manipulating the algorithms, or the public perception about that thing.
Amazon seems to have enough, and has taken a legal action against more than 10,000 Facebook groups that were organizing Fake Reviews on Amazon and platforms including TikTok and Instagram.
One of the groups identified in the lawsuit is "Amazon Product Review," which had more than 43,000 members until Meta, which owns Facebook, took the group down earlier this 2022.
The lawsuit from the U.S. giant retailer claims that the Facebook groups were created specifically to artificially inflate or deflate product ratings, and therefore increase of decrease their likelihood of being purchased by Amazon customers.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon accused the the Facebook groups were set up to purposefully recruit individuals willing to post incentivized and misleading reviews on Amazon's online stores in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.
Amazon strictly prohibits fake reviews, and has already deployed teams consisting of more than 12,000 employees around the world dedicated to protecting its stores from fraud and abuse, including fake reviews.
The company found that on social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, found that users on the said platforms regularly post misleading information about Amazon products.
The investigation by Amazon also revealed that those people running the schemes attempt to hide their activity and evade Facebook's detection, in part by obfuscating letters from problematic phrases.
With proof at hand, Amazon said that it wants to use the information in the legal action to identify the bad actors, and force them to remove fake reviews commissioned by the fraudsters.
Ultimately, Amazon wants the people behind this operation accountable.
The reviews that shall be removed are be ones that have not already been detected by Amazon's advanced technology, expert investigators, and continuous monitoring.
Amazon goes to great length to track down these people because fake reviews can boost sales of unsafe products and hurt business for legitimate sellers, causing huge brands to sever ties with Amazon.
As more shoppers stay home and turn online to buy things, thanks to COVID-19', Amazon needs to be really on its toes.
According to Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon's vice president of selling partner services:
It's worth noting that in two years time, Amazon has reported more than 10,000 fake review groups to Meta.
In response, Meta has taken down more than half of the groups for policy violations and continues to investigate others.
But things are more than what it seemed, and this is the reason why Amazon is filing the lawsuit.
It's also worth noting that the 10,000 Facebook groups is apparently the sum total of groups Amazon has reported to Facebook since 2020.
The company noted that past legal actions were effective and have managed to “shut down multiple major review brokers."
