Amazon sues another fake order company, seller information may be leaked

Amazon and other overseas e-commerce platforms have always strictly prohibited fake order reviews. The large-scale screening and punishment a while ago has made people in the industry panic, but there are still sellers who are lucky enough to take advantage of loopholes. In response to this prohibited behavior, Amazon not only directly started with sellers, but also set its sights on fake order companies. After several lawsuits, another fake order company was sued recently.

Another fake order company was sued

According to foreign media reports, Amazon recently sued a fake order review company called Extreme Rebate, pointing out that the company helped sellers post misleading reviews on multiple Amazon sites in the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada.

Amazon pointed out that Extreme Rebate reached out to customers through its own website and induced them to write misleading false reviews, including at least 15 words of five-star reviews with pictures or videos . After completion, in addition to discounts or full refunds, each five-star review corresponded to a reward of US$2.5 .

Extreme Rebate says customers can get discounts on products regardless of whether they write a review, and can even write a bad review if they think the product is of poor quality.

However, by checking Extreme Rebate's official website, it can be found that the page has obvious fraudulent inducements, and the homepage propaganda column has content such as " Three steps to get free products, Amazon's highest discount 100% ". Currently, Amazon has filed lawsuits against Extreme Rebate in the United States and Germany, demanding that the company's website be shut down and relevant seller information be obtained. Sellers who participate in fraudulent orders may be subject to information leakage and be punished by the Amazon platform .

(Image source: Extreme Rebate official website)

This is not the first time that Amazon has filed a lawsuit against a fake order company. In January this year, Amazon sued three fake order companies, Fivestar Marketing, Matronex and AppSally . 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 orders .

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.

The problem of fake reviews has always existed on Amazon. In order to improve product rankings, many sellers choose to take risks. So far, Amazon has sued several fake review companies and emphasized that it will continue to track and investigate the operation methods of fake review companies. Once the evidence is collected, it will file a lawsuit against them. Targeting fake review companies can speed up the screening process of false positive reviews to a certain extent.

Despite the lessons learned from the past, it is regrettable that the practice of fake orders still continues to occur, and sellers have different opinions on this.

Some sellers are optimistic about this: Although this behavior cannot be completely curbed, Amazon is at least working on it, which is a good thing. The exposed sellers receive the punishment they deserve, which is what we small sellers want to see.

Some sellers also said: This kind of behavior is inevitable. After suing one company, new companies that fake orders will emerge. There will be a market only when there is demand. Many sellers will continue to fake orders. The difference may be the amount. When everyone is doing this, they have to follow the crowd. There is a risk of account suspension for fake orders, but at least the account can survive in the early stages.

After all, behaviors such as fake orders and reviews are not compliant operations, and Amazon has never stopped cracking down on them. "Retribution later" is not uncommon, but this kind of behavior still causes chaos in the industry.

The chaos of fake order evaluation continues, compliance is the only way to stay on the right track

It is not difficult to find that searching for words such as "Amazon fake orders, reviews" on some social software will result in a lot of related ads popping up: Amazon product reviews and recommendations, site reviews, daily sales of over 1,000 orders, no cost... Among them, there are some malicious fake order companies, even fraud companies, whose behavior has seriously affected the healthy development of the industry and has adverse effects on buyers, sellers and platforms.

Recently, some sellers said that they had never faked orders, but some fake order companies found them and said they needed to pay or they would file a complaint . The sellers were speechless, saying that they had never contacted these companies, so where did the payment come from (such incidents also occurred two years ago). However, a few sellers chose to cooperate with such companies in order to improve their store rankings, but were discovered by the platform, received evaluation warnings, and ultimately suffered "heavy losses."

While fake reviews are frequently occurring, the fake reviews caused by fake reviews have also angered many consumers. As we all know, product reviews have always been an important factor affecting whether sellers choose to buy a product. Fake reviews not only affect buyers' judgment, but also cause sellers to lose their own credibility.

There are still many fake reviews and even irrelevant reviews on Amazon and other cross-border e-commerce platforms. Not long ago, according to a survey by foreign media Which?, nine out of ten of the top-ranked headphones on Amazon received excellent reviews due to various irrelevant products, which is the best example.

Rocio Concha, Which?’s director of policy and advocacy, said: “New research has found that unscrupulous groups are still exploiting Amazon’s review system, putting customers at risk of purchasing products backed by thousands of fake five-star reviews.

He added that the Competition and Markets Authority's ongoing false review investigation must identify any unfair practices aimed at deceiving consumers and ensure consumers are protected when visiting major shopping sites.

Regulatory agencies in various countries are also ruthless about the issue of fake reviews . The US Federal Trade Commission made it clear in 2021 that it would crack down on "fraudulent behavior" by companies that use false reviews and misleading information to promote products and services. The new regulations to be issued in the UK also pointed out that it is considering making sellers' fake reviews and fake reviews a criminal offense.

As the supervision of cross-border e-commerce platforms continues to improve, Amazon and other e-commerce platforms have always maintained a zero-tolerance attitude towards related violations. Closing stores and freezing funds are often used as punishment measures. Once such penalties are implemented, the consequences for sellers are self-evident.

However, as far as the current market situation is concerned, fake orders, false evaluations, and false promotions have invisibly formed an "industry chain" and have existed in the cross-border e-commerce industry for a long time. However, compared with the past, it has been reduced under the supervision of the platform and the constraints of the sellers themselves.

The recent cases of Amazon suing fake order companies are undoubtedly another reminder to sellers: maintain compliance operations and do things down to earth. Sellers must pay attention to illegal behaviors that Amazon explicitly prohibits, such as hiring third parties to improve rankings or reviews, asking for or receiving fake orders, etc. This is not a long-term solution.

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