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Amazon alleges Facebook groups incentivize fake reviews in new lawsuit

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By Kendra Barnett, Associate Editor

July 19, 2022 | 5 min read

Amazon is suing the leaders of thousands of Facebook groups over allegations that these groups facilitated or promoted fake product review schemes. Reviews are a critical component of the success of buyers, sellers and the platform itself, according to experts.

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Amazon has a fake review problem / Adobe Stock

Amazon announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the leaders of more than 10,000 unique Facebook groups for allegedly posting fraudulent reviews on its ecommerce site “in exchange for money or free products,” per the release.

The retail giant claims that Facebook groups published misleading reviews on Amazon stores in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Japan.

“Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they’re ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice-president of selling partner services, in a statement shared with The Drum. “Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable.”

The bad actors behind some online groups solicit fake product reviews, often in an attempt to bolster a company’s ratings to create a false air of trustworthiness and clout or, on the other end of the spectrum, to take aim at competitors.

And reviews impact the success of all the players within Amazon’s ecosystem. “Amazon is uniquely dependent upon the validity of its reviews, both for sellers and buyers,” explains Brady Donnelly, managing director of marketing agency Sela. “For sellers, a product's rating and review volume play a major role in search ranking, and for buyers, the accuracy of reviews is obviously directly tied to building the trust needed to make a purchase online.” Manipulating product reviews, he says, can create something of a domino effect: “Gaming the system means a poor consumer experience and, in time, fewer buyers, which means fewer sellers, and so on. The system services both sides, and the platform essentially depends upon it.”

And of course shoppers care about the validity and trustworthiness of the reviews they read online. Recent research from Uberall, a customer experience platform servicing both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar retail, found that 66% of consumers believe fake reviews are a “growing problem” or a “major problem.” Nearly nine in 10 consumers surveyed claimed they sometimes consult multiple review sites to hedge their bets against fake reviews on any one site.

Buyers, on the other hand, are invested in the trustworthiness of reviews because they know that strong reviews drive brand visibility, trust and sales. The same Uberall study found that even a minor percentage increase in ratings can lift customer engagement by up to 25%.

Amazon strictly prohibits fake reviews and employs more than 12,000 staff members globally to combat fraud and abuse on the platform. Within this group is a dedicated segment that investigates fake review schemes, many of which stem from social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The company claims that since 2020, it’s reported over 10,000 fake review groups to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Of these reported groups, Meta has booted over half from its platforms.

The social media titan claims that it remains staunch in its stance. "Groups that solicit or encourage fake reviews violate our policies and are removed,” says Dani Lever, a communications manager at Facebook. “We are working with Amazon on this matter and will continue to partner across the industry to address spam and fake reviews.”

While Meta’s Community Standards — which apply to activity in both private and public groups across Meta properties — prohibit fraud and deception, the social giant has for years seen issues with fraud and fake review groups on its site. The company actively works to eliminate content that engages in or promotes fake product reviews, using AI, machine learning and computer vision. Last month, Meta updated its Community Feedback Policy to crack down on businesses abusing its own user reviews system.

Amazon has been plagued by fake reviews for years and has been put under pressure by the US Federal Trade Commission to stem the issue, per reporting by Vox.

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