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January 3, 2025
Amazon Fights Back Against Fake Reviews: How Can Retailers Prevent Fraudulent Feedback?
Fake reviews abound on online marketplaces and review aggregator platforms. This is a nigh-indisputable fact, one which nearly every consumer has encountered at one point or another when attempting to gauge the quality of an item — and the credibility of the manufacturer or vendor.
Now, according to a recent CX Dive report, it appears that one of the world’s largest retailers is rolling up its sleeves, preparing for an effort to significantly curtail the practice on its storefronts.
Amazon Reviews, an Early Example of Building Consumer Confidence via Legitimate, Accessible Feedback
Speaking to CX Dive, Rebecca Mond, head of external relations for customer trust and abuse prevention at Amazon, laid out the somewhat controversial history of the company’s forward-facing customer product reviews.
“When Amazon first pioneered customer reviews, a lot of people just didn’t understand why it is that Amazon would have reviews and potentially negative reviews next to a product that they are trying to sell,” Mond said. “But this was just important to Amazon for the long-term value for a customer. We want to make sure that customers had accurate and transparent information about what it is that they were considering buying.”
What began as a legitimate (and successful) attempt to build consumer confidence in its products and delivery practices has now become the vehicle for bad actors to squeeze their way into leveraging said legitimacy via fake reviews. Citing a Fakespot estimate, CX Dive indicated that as many as 42% of reviews on Amazon were “bogus” as of 2020.
Mond contested those figures, stating that Fakespot did not have the data nor the context from which to draw such conclusions.
Amazon Plans 4-Pronged Approach To Tackle Fake Product Reviews
In order to tackle the proliferation of false reviews on its platform, Amazon plans to initiate or strengthen several of its capabilities concerning the matter. First, strict policies on reviews will be observed, and proactive detection of fake reviews will be enhanced. Enforcement action will be ramped up, as will collaboration with other companies whenever called for.
Amazon isn’t alone in the fight against fake reviews. According to Reputation, citing Fakespot figures as well, up to 52% of Walmart product reviews on its online marketplace were deemed to be inauthentic. Review aggregators such as Tripadvisor, Yelp, and even Google Reviews are also prime targets for review scammers, according to CX Dive.
Fake reviews have become an industry all to itself, as Mond outlined — and these scammers are becoming more sophisticated in their operations.
“These are bad actors that are attempting to perpetrate this abuse at scale,” Mond said. “And so they are coordinating this activity offline because they want to try to do it away from our tools and detections. They go to social media sites, to encrypted chat services and work with grassroots networks of reviewers who are willing to write reviews for free products or for an incentive.”
Federal Trade Commission Introduces New Final Rules Concerning Fake Reviews
As the U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) Education Fund reported, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doesn’t appear to be taking the issue of fake reviews lightly.
After approving new final rules that took effect on Oct. 21, 2024, the FTC made it clear that the agency was very interested in pursuing action against review scammers of all sorts. The rules, which “prohibit illegitimate reviews, paying for positive or negative reviews, squashing negative reviews and other dishonest tactics,” per U.S. PIRG, carry a civil penalty of up to $51,744 per violation.
The news comes on the heels of a high-profile case launched against fast-fashion retailer Fashion Nova. Alleging that Fashion Nova was actively blocking legitimate negative reviews of products from appearing on its website, the FTC claimed the retailer had suppressed “hundreds of thousands of lower-starred, more negative reviews.”
As a result, Fashion Nova was required to pay $4.2 million as part of a settlement.
U.S. PIRG writer Teresa Murray outlined five distinct forms of fake reviews or review scamming, though she also indicated that there were many others:
- A strictly fake or false review, created in order to endorse a product without that endorsement coming from an authentic customer. The company itself, its employees, or friends or family members could be the culprits.
- A review offered in exchange for a free product, as a form of quid pro quo. The reviewer receives the product at no charge, and in exchange, posts a glowing review.
- Review suppression takes place when a retailer or platform suppresses negative reviews coming from verified, legitimate purchases. In Fashion Nova’s case, the FTC alleged that the company denied reviews of three stars or less from being posted.
- False negative reviews being left on a retailer’s site or other platform by a competitor or allies of said competitor.
- Review hijacking takes place when a legitimate review is repurposed from another listing in order to appear connected to a different product or service entirely — adding authenticity to a product without basis.
Discussion Questions
What can retailers do to curb the proliferation of fake reviews on their storefronts, websites, or platforms?
Will the FTC’s final rules targeting deceptive review practices, and those who engage in review scamming behavior, be successful in reducing this behavior?
How can consumers tell the difference between an authentic review of a retail product versus one which is wholly inauthentic? Are there any telltale signs?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Scott Benedict
Founder & CEO, Benedict Enterprises LLC
David Biernbaum
Founder & President, David Biernbaum & Associates LLC
John Hennessy
Retail and Brand Technology Tailor
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Brand reputation is more important than ever in driving trial in new customers, and for repeat customers to know they are seeing feedback from other legitimate customers. Retailers should consider whether their platforms reflect what everyone says, or whether feedback and content is prioritized for and driven primarily by their earned and verified customers.
Ranking verified customer reviews in tiers above unverified or questionable users is an additional step even the largest retailers like Amazon can take action on now. For smaller to medium sized retailers, loyalty platforms are available now to create further ownership of reviews.
The FTC rules add the seriousness this offense requires – it’s fraudulent. But it’s challenging to keep up, and these agencies are often under-funded/resourced and consequently even tough rules can’t be enforced. There needs to be a way to include all, but only verified purchase reviews. I appreciate that this too could be overcome by sophisticated operators, but I suspect that it would be harder for people who profit from doing this. Without some proactive and coordinated measures on the part of the government and retailers/brands, consumers can’t tell the difference – especially not in the age of Gen AI. Ultimately, consumers need to be cautious of any claims before they buy.
I dislike fake reviews for more than a million reasons, however, Amazon does fine with the verified purchases, and government doesn’t need to police private sector reviews.
I agree with David-this is not an area for Government to “add value”.
I’m one of those people who won’t purchase a product when there’s no customer review. It’s difficult to police this, but it’s essential.
The prevalence of fraudulent reviews is testimony to their effectiveness. Any actions to verify reviews and keep reviews open is welcome. I am typically against government regulation, but the added sales from false reviews is so enticing to multiple parties, it’s hard to rely solely on self-policing.
Reviews form an important part of buying decisions, as do star ratings. This is especially so when buying from unknown vendors and brands online. Amazon generally does an excellent job with reviews, including providing AI generated summaries and supplementing them with other information such as warnings around frequently returned products. Fake reviews are an issue for many platforms, but I think it is in the interest of companies to self-police this. Failure to do so leads to customer frustration and disappointment which will, eventually, cost in terms of lost sales and high return rates.
Review Authenticity is a topic I have grown to passionately support as crucial for both retailers and consumer brands, as it builds (or potentially destroys) consumer confidence in making a purchase decision, a brand’s credibility in the marketplace, and impacts the extraordinary business value of user-generated content.
Amazon was a leader in creating and bolstering the utilization of #ugc in its business from the early days. Respectfully, however, I believe they have lagged in putting in place the needed guardrails in their UGC platform that they are now putting into practice.
I remain of the review that UGC is an under-utilized asset in omnichannel retail still to this day, but putting into place guidelines that support review authenticity is an important and vital step in that journey.
Consumers make buying decisions based on reviews and ratings. The FTC’s effort will keep companies from gaming the system, provided it’s enforced.
One way to thwart fake reviews is only allow “verified sale” reviews, which some brands are already doing.
I just received a postcard from a company that sells through the Amazon marketplace. They asked me to leave a five-star review. The instructions were to send them a link or screenshot of the review, and they would send a $20 Amazon gift card or funds directly to my PayPal account. I didn’t need the bribe. The product is good, and I’d leave a positive review without the incentive. Now, I won’t.
Verified reviews are a step in the right direction, but they don’t fully solve the issue. Even with verification, brands and sellers could still exploit the system – whether through suppressing negative feedback or incentivizing fake reviews.
Here’s a real life example of the core problem that NONE of this fixes. My friend Janice, who lives in Washington and is an occasional Amazon customer started receiving products without ordering them. Not expensive…but a LOT of stuff. I can’t remember if they had order numbers on them or not, but she was unable to return them, for sure.
So, what these actors were doing (and the actors were the marketplace sellers), was sending her unsolicited product, calling her a “verified purchaser” and writing a glowing review. This is the downside of marketplaces. The ability to control the sellers is hard. I had a hellacious experience buying a TV from Walmart’s marketplace as well. I can’t say it was Walmart’s fault, although when I asked a friend in the town where the appliance store actually was about the seller, she said it was a sleazy place. I eventually returned the product and Walmart was good about it, but it took forever. That’s why I was sending it back in the first place. It was a 65 inch TV that they would only agree to put on the porch. Seriously?
Anyway, long story short is I believe companies should do more due diligence on the companies that are selling or even advertising on their sites. Facebook is LOADED with fake sites that are running ads (and no doubt paying for the ads).
As Cathy said, reviews are a must. But they have to be credible.
Oh yeah, and due diligence BEFORE they’re selling on the site is inadequate. It has to be continual.
Retailers can take some smart steps to curb fake reviews. One way is by requiring proof of purchase before a review can be posted, making sure only verified buyers can leave feedback. However, if retailers make it too difficult to post a review, most consumers probably won’t bother. AI tools are also super helpful here—these tools can track suspicious patterns like an unusual spike in reviews or repeated phrases across different accounts. They can even analyze reviewer profiles to spot fake accounts or bots. The FTC’s new rules are a good start, but they’ll only work if there’s proper enforcement.