A big seller in the category spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to attack his peers and was caught. The seller has reported the case to the police

It’s Valentine’s Day again. What plans do you have for all the cross-border people?

Are you busy with work with only Amazon in your mind, or are you busy with dating with flowers in your hands?

But no matter what holiday it is today, what is coming always seems to come.

What should you do if your competitors keep giving you bad reviews?

What should I do if I receive eight malicious negative reviews in one day?

What should I do if I wake up one night and find a listing has more than a dozen one-star bad reviews?

…

Negative reviews like these are common, but they also cause headaches for many sellers. They work hard day after day just to ship more goods and make more money, but when traffic is increasing and the number of orders is climbing, what should they do if competitors "send" them negative reviews?

Xiao Lin, a seller of adult products in Shenzhen , was attacked by a competitor, seller H, who used a variety of tactics, such as adding banned words, filing copyright and patent complaints, posting negative reviews, and urging sellers to return products and refund them. As a result, more than 20 links on Xiao Lin's multiple sites died, and the amount of losses amounted to millions.

Malicious negative reviews come in many forms, and sellers in many categories have suffered greatly. How should sellers respond?

Multiple hot selling links were attacked, and sellers lost millions

After switching from operations to becoming a seller, Xiaolin started selling adult products on multiple Amazon sites in the United States, Germany, Canada, etc. Although Xiaolin has not been in this category for long, he has made some achievements, with many of his products ranking in the top 50 of the category; whenever a new product is launched, the product can get 4.7 stars or even 4.8 stars; product traffic is growing day by day, and the order volume is steadily climbing. Everything seems to be moving in a better direction.

But this good time didn't last long ...

Xiao Lin disclosed to Yien.com that his products were attacked by a competitor seller H, who attacked Xiao Lin by posting negative reviews, adding banned words, filing copyright and patent complaints, and demanding returns and refunds. The seller did not stop after causing huge losses. The seller also attacked multiple sellers in the adult products category. Currently, although most of Xiao Lin's products are in normal sales, sales are very low. At the same time, Xiao Lin has submitted relevant evidence to the police for investigation and handling of the incident.

"All of our products have been attacked without exception, whether they are popular or newly released," Kobayashi said.

In Xiaolin's opinion, their new products usually sell very well, and with excellent quality and good operation, the products can basically get 4.7 stars or even 4.8 stars. But all this changed after the seller H's negative review operation. Not only did the products basically drop below 4 stars, but some new product links that were expected to be pushed to the top three in the category were directly killed.

It is understood that Xiao Lin suffered the most serious losses on the German Amazon site, where more than 20 links have been killed due to negative reviews, and there are only a few links left. In addition, due to the high promotion costs of the German site, once a negative review is posted, it is impossible for the seller to return to the original star rating. Xiao Lin could only watch the sales of the product drop until the link finally died, and there was no possibility of recovery.

In contrast, the US site is relatively better. At the beginning, many products were ranked relatively high, with about three or four links in the top ten of Amazon's BSR. However, after the attack, only one link is currently in the top ten of the category BSR. "They post negative reviews based on online trends, and they can post many negative reviews a day," said Xiaolin. There are many products with high sales on the US site, so it has become the hardest hit area for their negative reviews.

According to incomplete statistics, Xiaolin received the most negative reviews from April to August 2022, especially in July, when the number of negative reviews reached hundreds. During this period, Xiaolin estimated that the monthly turnover loss was close to 1.2 million yuan, and the profit loss was about 300,000 yuan. Of course, the actual loss was far more than that. The impact of negative reviews on Xiaolin is self-evident. In the worst month, Xiaolin's turnover dropped by one-third.

Negative reviews kept popping up. At first, Xiao Lin thought it was a problem with his own product, so he started to optimize the product, collect negative reviews, and summarize them. But every time this happened, an idea would always pop up in his mind: "Why do negative reviews keep popping up? There is obviously nothing wrong with the product, and the problems mentioned in the negative reviews are impossible to occur." But the reality happened, and many people left messages, saying it was too strange.

After repeatedly comparing and checking these negative reviews, Xiao Lin admitted that these negative reviews were too obvious. First, most of the buyer profiles only had one review, and there were multiple negative reviews with the same title. Second, many addresses were obviously not normal addresses. Finally, refunds were made after the order was placed. The same person repeatedly purchased multiple products in the store, but returned them every time after purchase, placing orders and returning them repeatedly. This record was about seven or eight times for the same person in the store, and you could find clues with a little attention.

There were only a few orders, and these negative reviews were not just sporadic, but had been going on for several months without interruption. Some products even started receiving negative reviews before they even received any positive reviews.

Xiao Lin was targeted and continuously given negative reviews. He slowly began to analyze: “How many sellers are there in the same category? What is their size? Which ones are at the top? Which sellers have similar products? Are there any other sellers being attacked?” After comparing and analyzing the data, he found that all the blame was directed at seller H. Xiao Lin also discovered the fact that he was given a negative review by seller H.

To attack a rival site, seller H spent 50,000

August 22 was a turning point. As the cooperative relationship between the service provider and the upstream seller H broke down, the service provider began to contact the sellers who had been given bad reviews by them, trying to get some money from these victimized sellers. During the communication process with Xiaolin, the service provider also revealed a lot of key information, and more truth gradually surfaced.

"A seller asked me to give you a bad review. If you want to delete the bad review, please contact me," Xiao Lin received such an in-site message. It is reported that many sellers who have been badly reviewed by seller H have received such messages. From May to July 2022, the service provider also contacted Xiao Lin many times. At that time, Xiao Lin thought it was normal to occasionally receive one or two bad reviews in the industry, so he did not take it seriously.

After Xiao Lin added the service provider on WeChat, the service provider sent a lot of order and review links. Xiao Lin was also sure that the previous negative reviews were from the service provider. At the same time, the service provider offered 750 yuan to delete a negative review. Due to too many negative reviews, Xiao Lin abandoned some links and products that did not work, and selectively asked the service provider to delete some negative reviews. In total, he spent about 30,000 yuan, but only deleted some of the negative reviews.

At the same time, Xiao Lin also found clues in the screenshots of products that the service provider sent that were negatively reviewed by some sellers, because many of the screenshots sent by the service provider were his own. After informing the service provider of this fact, the service provider responded, “ These pictures were sent to me by one person. Do you have a grudge against this seller ? ”

But the reality is that Xiaolin and seller H have no grudges against each other. The service provider speculated that it might be because Xiaolin's products were selling well, and seller H was worried that Xiaolin's products would rise too quickly, affecting the sales or ranking of its own products. At the same time, in the conversation with the service provider, Xiaolin also learned that seller H's attack on Xiaolin was mainly aimed at the US and European sites, and it cost a lot of money . The German site alone cost 50,000 yuan. Together with the US and Canadian sites, it cost more than 100,000 yuan .

"He can directly spend hundreds of thousands of yuan to give other people bad reviews." The service provider speculated that the seller H might be an operations manager of the company, or even that this person holds a higher position in the company, so he can manipulate such a large amount of money to give bad reviews to other companies, because ordinary operators cannot have such a lot of power.

At the same time, the service provider also said that he had a very good relationship with seller H and had cooperated with him for many years. He also said that seller H had sent him all the ASINs sent by Xiaolin. The service provider asked Xiaolin to give her some money and she would be the blender of the two companies, and promised Xiaolin that seller H would no longer sell Xiaolin's products.

To prove the relationship, the service provider also exposed screenshots of chats with seller H, including "These ASINs, each ASIN has five negative reviews", "This has many reviews, add three more negative reviews", "Change tactics, get ten buyers' complaints", "This link is a bot, is there a monthly subscription? If there is a monthly subscription, I will give you 20 at a time", and even the service provider asked seller H for commission for negative reviews. These screenshots also prove the fact that seller H has given negative reviews to multiple sellers.

But Xiao Lin could not believe this way of reconciliation and did not accept it. According to Xiao Lin, at first, the association where seller H belonged attacked Xiao Lin by slandering him and asking him to give them bad reviews, requiring the product similarity to be no more than 30%, and cutting off Xiao Lin's cooperation with suppliers, which had a significant impact on Xiao Lin at the time. At the same time, seller H also went directly to the supplier to develop a set of products that were exactly the same as Xiao Lin's, and only changed the color of the liner after it was put on the shelves.

In early August, after Xiaolin determined through multiple pieces of evidence that the target of the attack was seller H, he tried to communicate with the company's boss, but to no avail. During the conversation between the two parties, seller H also asked Xiaolin if he had any evidence, and if so, he would let Xiaolin take legal action.

Since Xiaolin reported the case in August, seller H has continued to give Xiaolin bad reviews. Although Xiaolin had experienced this kind of negative reviews from competitors when he was doing operations, he could not accept such continuous malicious negative reviews, because this kind of chaos in the industry is a disaster, not a blessing for sellers. At the same time, when Xiaolin's product traffic and sales both declined, this seller rose rapidly within half a year and became larger and larger.

From August to October 2022, Xiao Lin also found that there were multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms that promoted Xiao Lin's products, which would run away after finding customers to review them. Xiao Lin pretended to be a buyer and chatted with them. After purchasing the products, these accounts did not reply to messages or refund the money.

Not only that, Xiao Lin also found that multiple real buyer accounts gave seller H good reviews and left bad reviews for Xiao Lin. Initially, seller H did not admit it and said it was done by the service provider. However, when Xiao Lin asked, seller H quickly sent Xiao Lin's buyer's Twitter and PayPal account, asked Xiao Lin to find the buyer, and gave him $500 to delete the bad review.

At the same time, Xiao Lin also found that on Twitter, some accounts were linked to seller H's previous brands, which had a large number of followers and brought their own traffic. Some were linked to competitors' brands, but from these posts and product pictures, it was obvious that other sellers could be excluded and seller H could be targeted.

In Xiaolin's opinion, seller H, as a top seller in the adult products category, has been in the industry for a long time and does have a greater voice, but their unfair competition behavior has indeed affected the bad atmosphere in the industry. It is reported that seller H joined an association established by several top sellers in the same category and signed a gentleman's agreement with each other. However, as long as there are new sellers outside the association, he will instigate individual sellers to jointly exert pressure and deal a devastating blow to the new sellers from various dimensions such as supply chain, products and operations. Not only Xiaolin, but other sellers in the same category, including members within the association, have also been attacked by seller H in secret. This category is also called "the category with the most intense competition" by industry insiders.

Over time, a very common chaos has formed in the industry, that is, one seller gives a bad review to other sellers, and the victimized seller will spend more money to delete the bad review. Some people give bad reviews, and some people delete them. This has fattened the service providers, but at the same time also spoiled a group of sellers, which has done more harm than good to the development of the industry.

In fact, it is not just the category that Xiaolin is in, but also categories including garden, pets, and beauty that have also been subject to negative reviews. However, some are relatively lucky, as there are relatively few Chinese sellers in their sub-categories, so they quickly identified their competitors, and their products were not greatly affected. They reached a settlement and finally returned to their respective tracks.

However, in the current highly competitive cross-border e-commerce environment, it is not ruled out that some sellers like Xiaolin will suffer from bad reviews.

Malicious negative reviews continue, with one seller receiving 8 negative reviews in one day

I woke up one night and logged into the backend, only to find that I had been left with several negative reviews. I believe many sellers have had this experience.

If we type in "malicious negative reviews" on some social platforms , we will find that there are many related posts. Earlier survey data shows that nearly 80% of sellers in the cross-border circle have encountered malicious negative reviews, and the methods of malicious negative reviews are varied. Some sellers saw their products being reviewed on FB, some professional negative reviewers specifically write negative reviews, and some peers specifically buy products and then write real negative reviews.

At the same time, we can also see that many sellers are complaining about malicious negative reviews ↓

Seller A: What should I do if I receive malicious negative reviews from competitors after 2 months of listing? My product has been listed for 2 months and has a score of 4.7. I have asked friends and family to give me a lot of positive reviews before, but this week I received two negative reviews with text, and the score dropped to 4.4. I also received a product complaint this week. What should I do?

Seller B: I received 8 negative reviews in one day. Reporting abuse and opening a case are useless. I can't handle it with just the stars. The accounts that left the reviews are either brand new or have negative reviews. The ratings dropped a lot in one day. What should I do?

Seller C: I am a shop owner who sells high-quality products. The negative review rate of one of my well-selling products has been very abnormal in the past two months. I often receive inexplicable negative reviews, and the weights of these buyer accounts are very low. Some sellers even start commenting before receiving the goods. How should I protect myself and identify my competitors?

In fact, in the cross-border circle, such malicious negative reviews are very common. Many sellers have been spoofed by others, but some sellers spoof others in order to grab rankings. There are even sellers who say that doing business on Amazon now is either fighting others or being fought by others.

This is indeed the case with the current situation on Amazon. It is very difficult for small sellers to enter a new category because they have to seize the market resources and market share of big sellers. In the eyes of some competitors, they will not allow their market share to be divided. In order to squeeze out other sellers in the same industry, maliciously posting bad reviews has become a means for these sellers to maintain their market position.

Even in some groups, there are sellers who specifically look for service providers to give bad reviews. There are only two reasons why these sellers want to give bad reviews: either they have been tricked by their competitors and they can’t swallow this anger and want to fight back; or they are jealous of their competitors’ good sales and feel that it has affected their own sales and rankings, so they want to bring them down by giving bad reviews.

It is precisely because of this business carried out by some service providers that some sellers have found a new channel to maintain their rankings, that is, to spend a lot of money to give bad reviews to their competitors. A seller in the pet category launched a new product at the end of last year, but it was very similar to a competitor's product, and the seller's pricing was relatively low, which resulted in higher sales.

But then, he was given dozens of negative reviews. The seller noticed this and found out that it was his competitor who did it. So he started asking around for service providers who could give him negative reviews, hoping to “fight fire with fire.” The final result was obvious: the seller spent a lot of money to give his competitor a lot of negative reviews.

Some sellers strongly agree with the actions of the above sellers, saying: "If you are maliciously given a bad review, fight back immediately and let him know that you are not someone to be trifled with." In their opinion, a simple warning will not stop these sellers, unless you come up with a way to fight back against the bad review, otherwise you can only swallow your anger.

However, some sellers also said that they can first target competitors, then find their contact information and warn them, but be careful not to use the email or phone number associated with their own store, and do not display their own store and any product information. Appropriate counterattacks will also have a certain effect. If it doesn’t work, think of other ways.

Malicious negative reviews are very harmful to people. There are many such cases in the cross-border circle. They use rough methods to kill a large number of peers, but at the same time, they also destroy the cross-border e-commerce environment. The editor also hopes that the majority of cross-border sellers can stick to their original intentions and jointly maintain a blue sky in the industry.

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