More than 900,000 comment accounts were dug out, and two more fake order companies were sued!

Amazon sues two fake order companies again

According to foreign media reports, Amazon has filed a lawsuit against AppSally and Rebatest , claiming that the two companies used website members to attract members in exchange for free products or other discounts, and asked them to leave positive reviews on Amazon. Such reviews are misleading and fraudulent to consumers.

It is understood that AppSally sells fake reviews for as low as $20 and asks sellers to deliver empty boxes to members who make fake orders, asking them to post fake reviews and upload product photos. Many sellers are willing to pay for this service, and AppSally also promises sellers that they can "surpass their competitors in the bedroom," which has attracted many sellers to join.

Similarly, Rebatest provides sellers with a large number of reviews and other services to manipulate their product rankings. Brushers will order products on Amazon and leave reviews. Rebatest allegedly refunds the items purchased by brushers through services such as PayPal.

The two companies also posted misleading or fake reviews not only on Amazon, but also on multiple online stores such as eBay, Walmart and Etsy. According to estimates, the two companies have a total of more than 900,000 website members willing to write fake reviews.

Amazon's lawsuit, filed after a thorough investigation, seeks an injunction against the two companies, prohibiting them from selling or facilitating the sale of Amazon reviews. The two companies have not responded to the lawsuit.

Amazon is not limited to these two companies in its crackdown on fake orders and false reviews. Just in the past two weeks, Amazon also filed a lawsuit against fake order agencies led by AMZTigers and TesterJob for creating fake reviews and helping sellers improve product rankings and conversion rates. This series of actions by Amazon represents its efforts to eradicate fake reviews in the huge third-party market.

Although the third-party market currently accounts for two-thirds of e-commerce sales and has set a new revenue record for Amazon, it turns out that fake reviews, which are mainly concentrated in the third-party market, are a thorny problem for Amazon. Because millions of third-party sellers have gradually become a huge group, if they are not managed, they will have a great impact on the reputation and development of the platform in the future.

On the other hand, for sellers, actions such as brushing orders and posting good reviews can only allow the seller's store to maintain a short-term "superficial luster", and hidden dangers may be traffic restrictions or even account suspension.

Some sellers have said that they have received a penalty notice from Amazon regarding fake reviews. The notice stated that the platform will take measures such as limiting the flow of users for manipulating reviews and other behaviors. According to reports, similar warning notices were also sent to all accounts that follow the corresponding ASIN, not just accounts that made false reviews. Therefore, some sellers will take risks to conduct fake order activities. However, if they are really discovered, it is very likely that all their efforts will be ruined.

One seller said: "The most terrifying thing is the store traffic limit, which shows that Amazon is really getting tighter and tighter on fake orders and false reviews. "

Industry insiders believe that although Amazon usually closes illegal accounts, its recent frequent crackdowns on illegal activities such as fake orders is also a reminder to those sellers who are "dancing in the minefield."

Compliance management is the general trend

In fact, as early as 2016, Amazon formulated a policy to prohibit incentivized reviews. Now we open Amazon's Seller Center and can see in the Amazon Sales Policy and Seller Code of Conduct that Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy for all violations of manipulating buyer reviews. If any seller is found to have attempted to manipulate buyer reviews, immediate action will be taken.

These actions include: immediate and permanent revocation of the seller’s selling privileges on Amazon and withholding of funds, permanent removal of products from Amazon, taking legal action against the seller (including litigation and referral to civil and criminal law enforcement agencies), and public disclosure of the seller’s name and other relevant information.

In 2020, Amazon blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews before customers saw them. Currently, Amazon has about 10,000 employees worldwide monitoring store behavior. In addition to manual labor, Amazon has been innovating and deploying technology to monitor fake reviews over the years.

Fake reviews have boosted the sales of substandard products and damaged the interests of some sellers. Some sellers may argue that they are not selling inferior products, but they have no choice but to follow the crowd in an environment where "fake orders are everywhere". However, judging from Amazon's actions over the past year, from arresting fake order sellers to suing fake order agencies, it is very likely that it wants to eradicate this "gray chain" by the roots.

This has to sound the alarm for sellers again. So, without "brushing orders", how should sellers promote their products in compliance with regulations?

There is no doubt that Amazon's in-site advertising has become the choice of many sellers. However, it is not easy to do in-site promotion now. The pool is so small. After so many sellers have taken root in in-site promotion, the traffic they get will become less and the price will be expensive. According to Marketplace Pulse data, the cost per click of Amazon CPC advertising was nearly $1.2 in June last year, a 30% increase from the beginning of last year.

In addition, there is the Amazon Vine program. Sellers participating in the program can provide products for free so that Amazon can carefully select Vine spokespersons to post buyer reviews for the products (what we often call green label reviews).

According to Amazon, this program is a shortcut for sellers to quickly obtain high-quality reviews for new products. However, this program is aimed at brand sellers. And some sellers said that the weight of green label reviews is very low now, and they are basically ranked at the back.

However, "Leave a Review" does not emphasize leaving a positive review, and Vine spokespersons may also leave a negative review. Therefore, product quality itself is particularly important.

Some time ago, Amazon also launched a new feature to send marketing emails directly to customers. Participation conditions are brand registered sellers, registered brands with Amazon brand flagship store pages (followed by buyers). The marketing targets are followers of the brand flagship store (the main source is to attract brand attention by creating posts).

As for off-site promotion, it is also commonly used by sellers. However, Amazon now controls off-site promotion more strictly than before. If sellers artificially improve rankings during promotion, this is also a violation of Amazon's code of conduct.

However, Amazon does not discourage off-site promotion, it just requires compliance. It has also launched a brand traffic reward program.

The Brand Traffic Incentive Program is aimed at brand sellers to encourage these sellers to drive traffic to their listings through off-site channels and reward sellers with a commission of 10% of the average product sales. Specifically, products promoted by sellers through off-site channels (such as Facebook groups, Deal channels, blogs, etc.) must be provided through links on the Amazon platform, and promotions must be consistent with Amazon store promotions, otherwise it will be considered a violation of the Amazon Seller Code of Conduct.

Currently, compliant operations have become the general trend. If sellers want to continue to work on Amazon, the best strategy is not to cross the red line.

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