Amazon sued the owners of more than 10,000 Facebook groups that provide rewards or products in exchange for fake product reviews. The Facebook groups operated in Amazon’s online storefronts to recruit potential fake reviewers.
These groups recruit people willing to make paid and false reviews on Amazon’s products listed online. The groups were actively operating in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, and Italy.
How fake reviews harm your shopping experience
In this instance, individuals from Facebook Groups are profiting from making mediocre things appear wonderful. And this leads to consumers having absolutely no clarity about a particular product. These fake reviewers are a key reason if you see a mediocre product receive superb reviews.
How do paid reviews on amazon work?
Facebook has failed to stop the growing number of fake product review factories that constantly deceive customers. Furthermore, despite receiving criticism for it in the past, it is still swamped with fake review groups.
These reviews often play a huge role in search rank algorithms; Business Harvard Review claims they have a considerable effect on the visibility and sales of the product. Furthermore, these systems frequently give merchants strong incentives to manipulate the rankings of their products by posting fake reviews.
While such groups are certainly a menace, Facebook ads have also been recently highlighted for all the wrong reasons. The company failed to moderate experimental and even misguiding cancer treatment ads on the platform, which cost its users a ton of money.
Amazon has had enough.
Now, Amazon is taking strict action against the groups and organizations that conduct them. And Facebook groups are the legal target. According to TechCrunch, the company claims that its prior legal actions have successfully shut down numerous significant review brokers. However, the problem isn’t solved yet.
One group named “Amazon Product Review” had almost 40,000 members before Facebook banned it early in 2022. As per Techcrunch, The group avoided detection by employing the tried-and-true tactic of changing a few characters in phrases that would flag it for detection by AI.
However, Amazon has a plan for fraudulent groups that have escaped its radar. Amazon has stated that it will use the information obtained throughout its legal action to expose bad actors and eliminate the fake reviews it commissioned. Although there may be constant monitoring, fraudulent product reviews are still prevalent.
