Fake reviews continue to plague Amazon products, with “review merger”

Foreign countries have always strictly regulated comments on e-commerce platforms, and various regions have also introduced relevant policies to curb this kind of false review chaos. In addition to the most common "fake reviews", there is also the phenomenon of "irrelevant comments", where the comments below the product reviews are actually comments about unrelated products? In addition to false reviews, there are also endless problems of peer pranks.

"Irrelevant", foreign media exposes the chaos of Amazon reviews

Recently, the foreign media " Which" reported on issues related to Amazon reviews. There were a lot of irrelevant content under the reviews of certain products, and the phenomenon of "review merging" occurred .

For example, nine of the top ten headphone brands by “average customer reviews” have reviews for unrelated products, including umbrellas, jigsaw puzzles, keyboards, bowls, and more. Two of the brands have the “Amazon Choice” label.

Among these reviews, most gave it five stars, with positive comments such as "It's more like a decorative plush toy than something suitable for hugging, but it's definitely worth buying." There are also several unrelated negative reviews, such as "This extension cord is not safe, don't buy it, your house might burn down." At a glance, the reviews for this headset are filled with reviews of many other products.

Reviews are a key factor in consumers' purchasing decisions, and buyers are more likely to have a favorable impression of products with more reviews, which is why this situation has arisen. What's more, there are about 1,386 reviews about beach umbrellas for a pair of headphones , 64 of which have pictures, but very few reviews about the headphones themselves.

This phenomenon is not limited to headphones. This problem has also been found in other products such as smartphone chargers, blackhead stickers, and kitchen supplies.

In this regard, Which tried to contact the seller but received no response, and sought help from Amazon but was rejected on the grounds of privacy. According to an interview with relevant professionals, this deliberate and illegal review is a common "black hat" marketing strategy designed to game the system.

The success of this strategy is also due to the understanding of consumer psychology. Many sellers have said that most consumers do not spend too much time reading reviews, and generally only focus on the first few pages. For older reviews, they will automatically assume that they match the product they are browsing.

For testing purposes, the survey also made unrelated reviews of some products and subsequently observed whether they would be deleted by the platform. The results showed that some of them were deleted, some were displayed normally, and some were marked as "unavailable" but still visible.

Regarding the results of this investigation, Which also contacted Amazon. Amazon said that through settings, the system automatically detects irrelevant content, and most abuses can be prevented, but there will be some that slip through the net. The platform will continue to improve the process and increase supervision of this situation.

The emergence of the above situation also gives bad sellers an opportunity to take advantage of it, damaging the interests of honest sellers. Due to its large size, Amazon uses machine algorithms in many aspects. Although it saves manpower and time costs to a certain extent, it also causes many problems. Many sellers say they have been cheated by the "system".

Since last year, there have been numerous “fake” reviews on Amazon. The behavior of the parties involved has not only damaged their own reputation, but also hindered the healthy development of the industry. While fake reviews continue to appear, pranks between peers are also an existing problem within the industry that needs to be solved urgently.

Amazon strengthens platform supervision to address peer spoofs

Recently, another seller reported that he was pranked. According to the seller's description, one of his products was out of stock the day before, and the next day he found that the brand had been changed, and the main picture was changed to an unrelated product. He was then complained about and removed from the shelves, and opening a case was useless. The detail page was deleted and his editing rights were lost.

The seller immediately went to the brand team to change the brand, but the seller said that the customer service replied: the brand belongs to someone else and the brand owner must agree to change it. The seller was helpless about this, because it was obviously his own brand that was changed, and the current main picture was completely different from the product he was selling, so he couldn't explain it clearly.

The seller added that he had opened several cases and received only official responses. Not long after, the seller received an email saying that his listing had been removed. In response, the seller said that it was obvious that a competitor was targeting him. After explaining the situation to the Amazon team, the seller's listing was restored, but the brand name and image editing rights remained the same as before.

Although the seller has contacted customer service many times to resolve the problem, he said that the brand team’s response every time was to ask him to discuss with the modified brand, but he did not know who changed the brand name, so he was stuck in a cycle of how to find someone to “discuss”.

The sellers said that such an obvious action, such malicious modification of links, disrupted the order of the platform and affected the experience of buyers and sellers, but why did Amazon's customer service not take action? The sellers expressed disappointment.

The pranks between peers did not just start this year. There were many last year, and some big sellers on Amazon were also pranked. Malicious orders were placed in rival stores, and threatening to demand refunds, malicious complaints of copyright infringement, tampering with brand names ... Such behaviors made the sellers who were pranked miserable.

In response to the above-mentioned problems, Amazon is also constantly strengthening the supervision of the platform, including supervision of the abuse of reviews and suspending the sales rights of some sellers. In mid-2021, Amazon also issued information on the issue of false reviews, calling on social media to delete false reviews about products.

In recent years, Amazon has also issued compliance documents for some products, such as adult products, bamboo products, dietary products, etc. This year, Amazon removed a number of listings that did not comply with the platform's dietary product regulations .

As everyone knows, Amazon has always been strict in cracking down on violations of regulations, regardless of whether the sellers whose products are removed from the shelves or suspended are lucky or careless. It is generally more difficult to resolve pranks between peers.

These problems in the industry are actually difficult problems for both sellers and platforms. Sellers must ensure that they operate legally and in compliance with regulations while also preventing being spoofed. When platforms supervise the behavior of buyers and sellers that do not comply with policies, they must also solve the problem fairly and impartially, but the reality is often not as expected.

For the problems that need to be solved in the industry, in addition to the supervision of relevant policies and regulations, the self-discipline of the "members" at all levels of the industry is also particularly critical. Both are indispensable, and only in this way can the maximum effect of problem solving be achieved.

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