The gaming of Amazon search rankings with fake reviews can be big business. MatthewStieb reports on the company's efforts to crack down on the scheme
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images/Amazon Amazon has a problem: People like free stuff. For years, third-party sellers have been gaming the megaretailer’s all-important reviews section by sending complementary goods to real people in exchange for glowing write-ups — even if the thing sucks.
It may sound like a lot of money to dole out, but the gaming of Amazon reviews can be big business: According to an analysis by the e-commerce consultant Pattern, a one-star increase on an Amazon listing can pump up sales by as much as 26 percent, which is why so many sellers are juking the stats. According to the fraudulent-review-detection service Fakespot, around 42 percent of 720 million Amazon reviews assessed in 2020 were bogus.
Fraudulent reviews are hardly the only scheme on Amazon. Buyers scam sellers by claiming their package never arrived in order to receive a second item. Sellers scam competitors by leaving a bad review on their product page and upvoting the one-star review to hurt their search position.
Amazon says it is making a considerable effort to stop the fakes, which can result in people on fixed incomes who aren’t particularly computer savvy wasting money on stuff that breaks right away. According to a recent study by consultant group the Behaviouralist, fake reviews can cause online shoppers to overpay 12 cents for every dollar they spend. “We want Amazon customers to shop with confidence, knowing that the reviews they see are authentic and trustworthy,” says an Amazon spokesperson.
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