Strict investigation underway! A group of sellers have been banned by Amazon

Amazon has always had a "zero tolerance" policy and has banned any and all fake reviews and orders, especially as Prime Day is in the countdown. While the platform is busy preheating its activities, it is also keeping a closer eye on such illegal operations. Some sellers are already facing store closures due to an inconspicuous little action.

A number of sellers have been banned by Amazon due to strict inspection before PD

Recently , Amazon filed lawsuits against four fake order companies: Nice Discount, Littlesmm, MangoCity and Reddit Marketing Pro.

According to Amazon , the four companies involved in the fraudulent review incident contacted reviewers through their own websites, video chat software, social media platforms and emails , soliciting them to write five-star reviews or leave bad reviews for competitors, and provide fake Q&As in exchange for money, free products or other rewards.

These actors will leave a pre-specified number of positive reviews on a seller’s product listing , or maliciously leave negative reviews on their competitor’s products .

While cracking down on review-brushing companies, Amazon may be preparing for Prime Day and has also been keeping a closer eye on the comments under sellers’ listings. As a result, many sellers are facing the risk of having their stores closed.

In early June, Clara ’s Amazon store suddenly received a warning about fake orders, and the store’s account status rating dropped directly to 0 .

“ I received an email when I opened the backend in the morning. I was so panicked! ” Clara told Een.com.

According to him, the store in question has been operating on Amazon for many years and is the oldest store he manages .

"I registered this store in 2016. At that time, Amazon was not as strict as it is now. It was very common and 'blatant' to fake orders for sales. But after the account closure in 2019, three of our stores died. This store was the only 'survivor'. Since then, I dare not fake orders anymore."

According to Clara , it has never engaged in false orders, but why is it still facing the risk of store closure?

After receiving the warning letter, Clara only had 72 hours to file an appeal, otherwise her store would be completely closed by Amazon. Therefore, Clara immediately communicated with the official team and asked them to help investigate.

After some operations, Clara found out that the store closure warning was caused by a simple reply on the website.

Clara said that she contacted buyers on the site to review the products, but the Amazon system considered it misleading and issued a warning to her store.

“I can only say that when replying to backend emails, be sure not to mention anything that might be related to the review , otherwise you will be caught right away. ”

Shortly thereafter, Clara 's other two stores also received warning letters for fake orders. "These two stores didn't even respond to messages on the site, didn't take any actions that might violate the rules, and there was nothing unusual in the reviews . I'm busy filing a complaint now, which is quite annoying. "

It's not just Clara . Many sellers told Yien.com that they were "accidentally killed" by Amazon's system recently. "If I had faked orders and reviews and still had this sales performance, I would have quit the service provider long ago! I dared not move, but was still accused of fake orders."

Yien.com learned that the current cost of brushing reviews in the industry is 30-80 yuan per review, and the price of deleting negative reviews is generally 680 yuan per review. Some service providers said that they would not accept such business recently, " PD is very strict, and ordinary VPs are not recommended to do it. "

Of course, some sellers did not die in vain . "I just posted two reviews at the beginning, just two reviews. I finally passed the 'verification' and was ready to make a small profit on PD. I didn't expect that my store would be gone, and now my appeal has not been approved."

Amazon is ruthless in cracking down on "water army" companies around the world

The above sellers said that Amazon’s recent stricter crackdown on fake orders is due to Prime Day, and this factor may indeed have an impact. However, Amazon has always had a “zero tolerance” policy for fake orders and fake reviews.

Yien.com has compiled 10 companies that Amazon has sued for allegedly faking reviews and orders this year, eight of which are:

Nice Discount : Providing false reviews through a so-called "product testing club , " Case No. 232-10603-2 SEA.

Littlesmm : Its business includes fake review packages on Amazon’s US, Canadian , and Australian sites , with prices ranging from US$20 to US$440 . Its case number is 232-10452-8 SEA.

MangoCity : $50-$4,000 for false reviews , case number 232-11278-4 SEA.

Reddit Marketing Pro : From $99 for 5 fake reviews to $6,999 for 500 fake reviews , case number 232-11265-2 SEA .

Amazon Feedback : A website based in Estonia, run by two people, claims to have 5,000 reviewers available to provide review services at $5 per review , case number: 23-2-03320-5 SEA.

AMZ Trusted Review : The company paid more than 2,500 reviewers to post fake reviews on Amazon in the U.S. and hired more than 2,000 reviewers to post fake reviews on Amazon in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Canada, and India. Case number: 23-2-03317-5 SEA .

Blue Marple : Prices range from $135 for 3 reviews to $900 for 20 reviews , case number: 23-2-03325-6 SEA.

Woorke : A UK private limited company, $99-110 per positive review , case number: 23-2-03323-0 SEA .

These are just some of the companies that Amazon has sued for false orders and reviews this year.

According to incomplete statistics from Een.com, Amazon initiated nearly 10 lawsuits against different order-padding practices in 2022. The companies involved were located in Spain, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Hong Kong, China, involving dozens of companies .

In 2022 alone , Amazon blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews. This shows that the platform has a very firm "zero tolerance" attitude towards fake orders and fake reviews , and has not relaxed its crackdown. It also stated that it will continue to closely monitor such behavior and maintain a good platform ecology.

But even though they know this, sellers still have a lucky mentality, thinking " faking orders is a death sentence, not faking orders is a death sentence, it 's death anyway, so give it a try. "

For sellers, when a new review is published, the rating of the corresponding product listing will change, which in turn affects the ranking of the listing. In order to gain higher exposure among similar products and get the "traffic preference" of the platform , some sellers take risks and fake orders and reviews.

But what’s fake cannot be real. Amazon has been constantly updating its review policy to deal with the endless stream of “gray operations”. In the past two years alone, the platform has changed its review policy five times.

For sellers caught committing fraud, Amazon may delete their reviews and remove their listing rankings at the very least, or even have their accounts and stores cancelled and their funds frozen at the worst.

"Amazon blocks every account it catches. Although there is really no sales now, it is still better not to fake orders. It is too difficult to apply for a store, and verification is also very time-consuming. These difficulties have not been easy to overcome. Don't take the initiative to step into the trap again. There is no luck on Amazon!"

Amazon

Closure of shop