Person Reveals How Amazon Sellers Scam People Using False Positive Reviews, Shows How To Avoid It
Amazon is useful but sometimes difficult to navigate – there is just too much choice and you can spend hours agonizing over the best product for your needs. That’s where product reviews come in. It can be tempting to trust the general public and go for whatever has the best Amazon reviews because hundreds of satisfied customers can’t be wrong, can they?
Well, it turns out that it’s not as simple as that. Predictably, some unscrupulous sellers have found a way around the system, and are artificially pushing up the overall review score of their products to levels much higher than they deserve.
“So yesterday I was looking to restock on some iPhone cables. As you can see, these look like a great deal! 6 of them for $16 (price obscured in the screenshot, but that’s what it is), and an average rating of 4.7 stars! Score! Out of sheer habit, I scrolled down to the reviews…”
“Wait, what? Clearly, these reviews are for the Kung Fu Panda movie and not for the iPhone charging cables. Growing suspicious, I sorted by “Most recent” and saw reviews about the actual charging cables… they weren’t good.”
“It turns out that out of the 857 listings, only 11 were for the charging cables, and the average of those was 2.5 stars. Being the ‘picky customer’ that I am, I contacted Amazon support and told them about the fake reviews. After a day, I got the following response:”
“All good, right? Well here’s the plot twist: All of the screenshots in this post were taken AFTER I received the above email. In fact, the listing full of fake Amazon reviews is probably still up as you’re reading this: https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Certified-Braided-Charging-Compatible/dp/B07R9LJ9RY What have I learned?
1. Amazon sellers can ‘re-purpose’ a listing with lots of good reviews to sell cheap junk to unsuspecting customers.
2. If you want to report a listing, apparently you can write to listings-report(at)amazon․com
3. But, EVEN AFTER REPORTING the issue to Amazon, the “appropriate action” for these Internet scams they take is…. to do nothing?
4. From this day forward I will now always sort by “Most Recent” to try and protect myself against this fraud.
Good to know, right? It always pays to look a little deeper when spending your hard-earned money, to ensure that sellers truly deserve it.
Here’s what people had to say about the scam
The reviews have since been updated by Amazon
What do you think? Do you always run Amazon reviews checker before buying? Do you put a lot of trust in them? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
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I enjoyed reading this article and all the art was creative. I would love to see more in the future! Thanks a lot BP! :D
For those who don't get the joke : It's a "re-purposed" comment.
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You can use the website fakespot.com to verify the authenticity of the reviews. There is also reviewmeta.com You insert the product link and it will tell you the rating of the item and how many reviews are authentic, how many are fake and how many have been removed
There are also fake negative reviews left by competing sellers.
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Another scam on Amazon: "If you leave us a five-star review, you will receive a [whatever] from us as thanks!" And then there are those five-star reviews from people who "received the product for free to evaluate".
First thing I bought of when Amazon reply they can't reveal the results of their investigation for "privacy reasons".
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It still shows 5 stars.
I use a plugin called FAKESPOT, what it does is show you a rating of the reviews... not the product... for example, here is Fakespots review of these reviews...
remember, this is a rating of how accurate the reviews are NOT the product itself.
so an F means the reviews are mostly fake or not for the product. Fakespot-5...fa461e.jpg 
I gave a seller a bad review once because my product showed up almost 2 weeks late. They harassed me for days, leaving me voice mails begging me to delete my review. It was a bit unsettling after a while.
when I clicked the link to the Amazon page now, it shows just the c**p reviews for this particular item. So it looks like Amazon got rid of the movie reviews. (maybe it was after this showed up here?)
The biggest scam is this tax dodging company, a real-life terminator of small, locally-owned businesses.
It's not the only way you get junk product(s) from Amazon. Sometimes the seller is real and trying to sell quality items, but the way the warehouse fulfillment works destroys a legit seller's page. During the last US total solar eclipse I spent way longer than I should researching glasses that were safe for viewing the eclipse. A few days after receiving them, I checked the Amazon listing again as I suspected the glasses were not safe. The owner of the listing was frantically responding to reviews and questions on the listing warning people to not buy as he had run out of stock weeks before and didn't understand how the listing was still showing availability and being fulfilled. I've since had 4 family members work at fulfillment centers and explained how that's completely possibly
This is a problem but I've also found an even sneakier issue with them hoisting the review scores.... If you go to some of the profiles of the people that are doing the reviews you will see a bunch of them are dumping a huge amount of reviews all on the same day and all on the same assortment of products. What are the odds of 10 or more (usually much much higher number of people) posting reviews the exact same products as each other all on the same day? I used to like ordering off Amazon but it's getting harder to find anything that isn't just trash products anymore.
fakespot.com is helpful in determining whether an Amazon listing is legitimate.
Soooo... they used reviews for Kung Fu Panda 3? Well, that’s just not right!
I just can't see any reason to allow a listing to be re-used. You'd think for consumer protection that a new listing would be required for any new product. They could allow the seller to copy the details to save time (but not the reviews, of course). I'm less and less impressed with Amazon.
Pretty sure they've been less than above board since day one. Predominately use it for books. Lost track of the number of times I ordered a book, got a notice that it would arrive by a certain date, date comes and goes... no book. Get repeated notices of arrival date changes, then, after an absurd amount of time get a notice saying they don't know when book will be back in stock and are cancelling my order. When I recheck my Amazon wishlist, the book is still listed... only at a much higher price and by a third party. Amazon could use Nordstrom-style customer service. Get that book from the third party, take a loss, and fulfill my order. Amazon's book dept operated at a loss from 1994 until just a few years ago. If they could do that for that long, they can afford to do this.
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I read the negative reviews first more because I want to know what, if any, problems to expect. If everyone agrees that they are DOA or a knockoff or anything else, it's hard to say they're all lying about the same issue.
Clicked the link and it only had 14 crappy reviews. Maybe don't expect Amazon customer service to double as IT and be able to change the page immediately.
If you click the link to the product now, there are no reviews at all.
I always read the least positive reviews. When I was shopping for a new bagless vacuum cleaner, I found a moderately priced one with a really low customer rating. The one star reviews were stuff like: "Terrible design. The cord wouldn't reach across across my whole house. I had to keep unplugging it, and plugging in again for every room! Unacceptable!!!!” and, my favorite: "It doesn't say anywhere on the website that you have to empty the canister. It caught on fire after three months and customer service tried to tell me it was my fault because I had never cleaned it out. They just want to make money. They don't care about their customers at all! Now my house is filled with smoke and I have to replace my carpet. Thanks a lot!" (FYI: The website, and users manual, did say you should empty the canister after every use. Plus, that should just be common sense. Did they think the dust and debris magically disappear after you vacuum it up?)
Nope, Amazon doesn’t give a flying f**k about scam sellers. Amazon has turned their site into a c**p shoot. If you know to only order products sold by and shipped by Amazon, you’ll be generally okay, but they don’t make this an obvious issue. The “marketplace” doesn’t f*****g belong there.
A lot of critical thinking is involved in navigating reviews, honestly. I've found that for items that don't have this problem, where a lot of the reviews are for a totally different product, looking at what people in the 2-star reviews have to say is the most helpful. A lot of people who give an item 1-star do so because the packaging was bad, or it took a long time to arrive, neither of which are relevant to the quality of the actual item. 4-star reviews also often have people who were dissatisfied with something irrelevant. I've only encountered one item personally that was a clear scam; every single one of the 100+ reviews had the same post date. But it's also confusing how many items there are that use basically the same stock image and item description, with brand names no one's ever heard of. Amazon really needs to increase regulations with listings, IMO.
Few days ago i searched for 'ph meter for hydroponics'. Every one with 4+ stars had bogus reviews. One's reviews were actually for an apparently very good bug killer. Another- an excellent saw. I stopped looking after #5 or 6.
There are only 14 reviews and a score of 2/5 now. Guess you needed to be a little more patient while Amazon dealt with it.
I shop a little too regularly on Amazon and rarely get fooled into buying something so crappy. I am careful. First, unless I am buying something that is a known brand (like Sony, Samsung, Bose, etc), I will review the worst ratings first. I look for trending issues. For example, if there is a repeated occurrence of the LCD going blank for no reason, or the battery door breaking off too easily. Next, I work my way up to the two and three star reviews looking for more of the same trends. I also look at how recent those trends are. Sometimes, manufacturers will resolve an issue in a new batch of production. If I don't see anything that says "don't buy this" I will give it a shot, even from a no-name brand. If it is a used item, I use the same system but focus on the seller.
Additional notes: I never read the 4 and 5 star ratings. They don't really tell you much other than "I love this product!" I am always suspicious of ratings that do not show any 1 or 2 star ratings. Mainly because the lack of bad ones usually means the seller is manipulating data. Especially if there are 30 or more reviews, there will always be at least one 2 star or lower rating. If not, it's a lie or they got really lucky and I don't want to play the odds there. And third, I will use independent reviews wherever possible, from other sources to see if they match. So, I google the product name/model number and look for reviews outside of Amazon.
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I have never seen this any where on amazon on any product. The notion that reviews or product can be moved for false rating is not good however.
Wow, a local really did discover the secret to skin care, and doctors are worried.
This is good to know. On Amazon there's this little mind control drone-ish thing that I want. It has good ratings but it's only $25
I once was looking for foot peel masks and scanned through one review under a 4.5 star rating item commenting about oysters. Did not read carefully at that time but my first impression was the reviewer had a stinky feet but good sense humor to self mock... of course did not buy the product.
I’ve literally lost 3 minutes of my life reading this rubbish. Ugh
I enjoyed reading this article and all the art was creative. I would love to see more in the future! Thanks a lot BP! :D
For those who don't get the joke : It's a "re-purposed" comment.
Load More Replies... You can use the website fakespot.com to verify the authenticity of the reviews. There is also reviewmeta.com You insert the product link and it will tell you the rating of the item and how many reviews are authentic, how many are fake and how many have been removed
There are also fake negative reviews left by competing sellers.
Load More Replies... Another scam on Amazon: "If you leave us a five-star review, you will receive a [whatever] from us as thanks!" And then there are those five-star reviews from people who "received the product for free to evaluate".
First thing I bought of when Amazon reply they can't reveal the results of their investigation for "privacy reasons".
Load More Replies... It still shows 5 stars.
I use a plugin called FAKESPOT, what it does is show you a rating of the reviews... not the product... for example, here is Fakespots review of these reviews...
remember, this is a rating of how accurate the reviews are NOT the product itself.
so an F means the reviews are mostly fake or not for the product. Fakespot-5...fa461e.jpg
I gave a seller a bad review once because my product showed up almost 2 weeks late. They harassed me for days, leaving me voice mails begging me to delete my review. It was a bit unsettling after a while.
when I clicked the link to the Amazon page now, it shows just the c**p reviews for this particular item. So it looks like Amazon got rid of the movie reviews. (maybe it was after this showed up here?)
The biggest scam is this tax dodging company, a real-life terminator of small, locally-owned businesses.
It's not the only way you get junk product(s) from Amazon. Sometimes the seller is real and trying to sell quality items, but the way the warehouse fulfillment works destroys a legit seller's page. During the last US total solar eclipse I spent way longer than I should researching glasses that were safe for viewing the eclipse. A few days after receiving them, I checked the Amazon listing again as I suspected the glasses were not safe. The owner of the listing was frantically responding to reviews and questions on the listing warning people to not buy as he had run out of stock weeks before and didn't understand how the listing was still showing availability and being fulfilled. I've since had 4 family members work at fulfillment centers and explained how that's completely possibly
This is a problem but I've also found an even sneakier issue with them hoisting the review scores.... If you go to some of the profiles of the people that are doing the reviews you will see a bunch of them are dumping a huge amount of reviews all on the same day and all on the same assortment of products. What are the odds of 10 or more (usually much much higher number of people) posting reviews the exact same products as each other all on the same day? I used to like ordering off Amazon but it's getting harder to find anything that isn't just trash products anymore.
fakespot.com is helpful in determining whether an Amazon listing is legitimate.
Soooo... they used reviews for Kung Fu Panda 3? Well, that’s just not right!
I just can't see any reason to allow a listing to be re-used. You'd think for consumer protection that a new listing would be required for any new product. They could allow the seller to copy the details to save time (but not the reviews, of course). I'm less and less impressed with Amazon.
Pretty sure they've been less than above board since day one. Predominately use it for books. Lost track of the number of times I ordered a book, got a notice that it would arrive by a certain date, date comes and goes... no book. Get repeated notices of arrival date changes, then, after an absurd amount of time get a notice saying they don't know when book will be back in stock and are cancelling my order. When I recheck my Amazon wishlist, the book is still listed... only at a much higher price and by a third party. Amazon could use Nordstrom-style customer service. Get that book from the third party, take a loss, and fulfill my order. Amazon's book dept operated at a loss from 1994 until just a few years ago. If they could do that for that long, they can afford to do this.
Load More Replies... I read the negative reviews first more because I want to know what, if any, problems to expect. If everyone agrees that they are DOA or a knockoff or anything else, it's hard to say they're all lying about the same issue.
Clicked the link and it only had 14 crappy reviews. Maybe don't expect Amazon customer service to double as IT and be able to change the page immediately.
If you click the link to the product now, there are no reviews at all.
I always read the least positive reviews. When I was shopping for a new bagless vacuum cleaner, I found a moderately priced one with a really low customer rating. The one star reviews were stuff like: "Terrible design. The cord wouldn't reach across across my whole house. I had to keep unplugging it, and plugging in again for every room! Unacceptable!!!!” and, my favorite: "It doesn't say anywhere on the website that you have to empty the canister. It caught on fire after three months and customer service tried to tell me it was my fault because I had never cleaned it out. They just want to make money. They don't care about their customers at all! Now my house is filled with smoke and I have to replace my carpet. Thanks a lot!" (FYI: The website, and users manual, did say you should empty the canister after every use. Plus, that should just be common sense. Did they think the dust and debris magically disappear after you vacuum it up?)
Nope, Amazon doesn’t give a flying f**k about scam sellers. Amazon has turned their site into a c**p shoot. If you know to only order products sold by and shipped by Amazon, you’ll be generally okay, but they don’t make this an obvious issue. The “marketplace” doesn’t f*****g belong there.
A lot of critical thinking is involved in navigating reviews, honestly. I've found that for items that don't have this problem, where a lot of the reviews are for a totally different product, looking at what people in the 2-star reviews have to say is the most helpful. A lot of people who give an item 1-star do so because the packaging was bad, or it took a long time to arrive, neither of which are relevant to the quality of the actual item. 4-star reviews also often have people who were dissatisfied with something irrelevant. I've only encountered one item personally that was a clear scam; every single one of the 100+ reviews had the same post date. But it's also confusing how many items there are that use basically the same stock image and item description, with brand names no one's ever heard of. Amazon really needs to increase regulations with listings, IMO.
Few days ago i searched for 'ph meter for hydroponics'. Every one with 4+ stars had bogus reviews. One's reviews were actually for an apparently very good bug killer. Another- an excellent saw. I stopped looking after #5 or 6.
There are only 14 reviews and a score of 2/5 now. Guess you needed to be a little more patient while Amazon dealt with it.
I shop a little too regularly on Amazon and rarely get fooled into buying something so crappy. I am careful. First, unless I am buying something that is a known brand (like Sony, Samsung, Bose, etc), I will review the worst ratings first. I look for trending issues. For example, if there is a repeated occurrence of the LCD going blank for no reason, or the battery door breaking off too easily. Next, I work my way up to the two and three star reviews looking for more of the same trends. I also look at how recent those trends are. Sometimes, manufacturers will resolve an issue in a new batch of production. If I don't see anything that says "don't buy this" I will give it a shot, even from a no-name brand. If it is a used item, I use the same system but focus on the seller.
Additional notes: I never read the 4 and 5 star ratings. They don't really tell you much other than "I love this product!" I am always suspicious of ratings that do not show any 1 or 2 star ratings. Mainly because the lack of bad ones usually means the seller is manipulating data. Especially if there are 30 or more reviews, there will always be at least one 2 star or lower rating. If not, it's a lie or they got really lucky and I don't want to play the odds there. And third, I will use independent reviews wherever possible, from other sources to see if they match. So, I google the product name/model number and look for reviews outside of Amazon.
Load More Replies... I have never seen this any where on amazon on any product. The notion that reviews or product can be moved for false rating is not good however.
Wow, a local really did discover the secret to skin care, and doctors are worried.
This is good to know. On Amazon there's this little mind control drone-ish thing that I want. It has good ratings but it's only $25
I once was looking for foot peel masks and scanned through one review under a 4.5 star rating item commenting about oysters. Did not read carefully at that time but my first impression was the reviewer had a stinky feet but good sense humor to self mock... of course did not buy the product.
I’ve literally lost 3 minutes of my life reading this rubbish. Ugh
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