Amazon takes new action against fake orders

As we all know, Amazon has always cracked down on third-party sellers’ fake orders.

In response to the expressly prohibited practice of fake orders, Amazon not only conducted large-scale screening of sellers , but also turned its attention to fake order companies .

Amazon sues fake order company again

Recently, Amazon continued to strike hard and filed lawsuits against several order-padding companies in the United States, Italy and Spain.

The Amazon.com site has always been a hotbed for fake reviews, and Amazon has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against fake reviews in the United States.

Amazon also issued a warning to five websites headquartered in Germany to suspend operations and rectify operations, requiring these websites to immediately stop hiring consumers to post fake five-star reviews.

It is worth noting that Amazon has filed a lawsuit against fake reviews in Italy for the first time. It is understood that this is the first lawsuit against fake reviews in Europe. The organization sued by Amazon set up a website to attract consumers to shop on the Amazon platform and fill in five-star reviews in order to make profits. After these consumers complete the shopping process, the organization will provide them with a full refund and other compensation.

Amazon has made it clear that this type of order-padding behavior is illegal, and the organization and consumers involved in it may be sentenced to imprisonment and face fines.

At the same time, Amazon also filed a civil lawsuit against Agencia Reviews , a local fake order company in Spain , accusing the company of frequently using consumers to give fake reviews to sellers. In order to evade Amazon's system tracking, the company also communicated with illegal sellers through the overseas chat software Telegram . Amazon found in its investigation that once a consumer completed the entire shopping process and posted a fake five-star review, the company would provide a full refund to the consumer through Telegram , and these consumers who participated in the fake order would get the faked goods for free.

Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon's global sales partner services, believes that the main purpose of Amazon's large-scale lawsuit is to prevent the platform from serious fake order behavior. Currently, these illegal organizations have operated more than 11,000 fake order websites and communities. They make profits by calling on consumers to post five-star reviews on Amazon and other online platforms. Usually, some consumers will post fake five-star reviews on the platform for temporary benefits. Little do they know that these behaviors are illegal.

Dharmesh Mehta also said that in order to ensure that users have a good consumption experience, Amazon will intensify its crackdown on fake orders in the future. In the future, Amazon will improve detection technology to promptly detect those who violate the law, such as fake orders, and they will not be able to escape legal sanctions.

The rampant practice of fake orders not only infringes on consumers’ right to know, but also damages the credibility of e-commerce platforms, disrupts the normal Internet business order, and directly harms the rights and interests of consumers .

It is understood that this is not the first time that Amazon has filed a lawsuit against a fake order company . In January this year , Amazon sued Fivestar Marketing, Matronex and AppSally, three fake order companies. Their fraud targets were mainly Amazon users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, with more than 350,000 people involved in fake order .

Of the three companies sued above, Matronex's website has been shut down, and another company agreed to share relevant seller information to facilitate Amazon's tracking and investigation as part of a settlement.

In May of this year , Amazon also sued a fake order and review company called Extreme Rebate, which helped sellers post misleading reviews on multiple Amazon sites in the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada.

"Five-star reviews" are not credible! Fake orders have become an "industrial chain"

What is "brushing orders" ? Generally speaking , it refers to the behavior of hiring a group of consumers to buy goods from online stores that have fake orders to increase sales and credit, and fill in false positive reviews.

As far as the current market situation is concerned, fake order evaluation has invisibly formed an " industrial chain" .

There are many fake order companies in the domestic market, and many sellers of popular products are highly dependent on fake orders.

The editor consulted a "brushing" agent and learned that the current market price of brushing orders is: 20 yuan per free review, 30 yuan per star, and 50 yuan per review. However, the principal needs to be returned after the brushing is completed, and the real-time exchange rate needs to be increased by 0.3.

These fake order companies usually set up a large number of evaluation groups, which are basically composed of international students.

The fake order companies often send the seller's link to the review group, and then arrange for these international students to place orders. After these international students receive the products and give them five-star reviews, the sellers will return the money to them. These international students who participated in the review are equivalent to getting these products for free. Some reviews also give consumers who place orders a certain commission, and the sellers will ship the goods themselves and send empty packages.

Generally speaking, FBA merchants are more willing to post good reviews , because after the goods arrive at the warehouse , if they do not post good reviews to increase traffic , they will often continue to consume costs such as warehouse storage fees . FBM merchants basically rely on natural traffic to place orders, but they are also accustomed to putting a good review cashback card in the package to increase the store's good reviews to a certain extent.

Many sellers will choose to take risks in order to increase store traffic, but the consequences are also very serious.

Because this kind of behavior of brushing positive reviews seriously violates the rules of Amazon's search ranking, it has been severely cracked down by Amazon. Last year, the data leakage of the order-brushing company that caused a sensation in the cross-border circle triggered Amazon to close its stores. The incident in which many top Chinese sellers were affected has left many sellers with lingering fears.

Regulatory agencies in various countries are also ruthless towards the practice of fake positive reviews . In 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission made it clear that it would crack down on "fraudulent behavior" by companies that use false reviews and misleading information to promote products and services.

In November 2021, Spain's "False Reviews Control Act" officially came into effect. According to relevant regulations, Spanish e-commerce companies are obliged to ensure the rationality and authenticity of reviews of their products and services. Companies that violate this regulation will be fined up to 1 million euros .

In April this year , the British government also issued new regulations. If e-commerce platform sellers’ stores have false reviews and bad business practices, they will be fined 10% of their global annual turnover . For individuals, the maximum fine will be 300,000 pounds.

The series of actions taken by Amazon and regulators in various countries are beneficial to sellers who operate legally and in compliance with regulations, but for those sellers who frequently cross the red line, life is getting harder and harder. At present, a large number of sellers are still entering the market, and the competition in the circle is becoming increasingly fierce. This year will be a difficult year for both new and old sellers.

The editor here reminds all sellers that in the daily operation process, they should always be vigilant and operate in compliance, and do not touch the red line of the platform. Do not take the chance to test the law, otherwise it is very likely to lose both the wife and the army.

Fake orders

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