Best-selling products and brands on Amazon Marketplace display reviews from buyers saying they have been offered vouchers, freebies and money in exchange for posting five-star reviews and removing negative ones as the tech giant fails to adequately protect shoppers from fake and incentivised review practices, a Which? investigation has revealed.
The consumer champion looked at dozens of popular products and brands on Amazon Marketplace and by using search terms such as ‘bribe’ and ‘incentive’ found repeated evidence of customers reporting that sellers had approached them with a view to manipulating the rating they left for the product.
Ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2021 (21 and 22 June), when many subscribers will be looking to grab themselves a bargain in the sales, Which? looked at Amazon ‘Best Sellers’ – lists of the most popular products based on sales – on the online marketplace’s website.
Five of the nine Amazon Best Sellers product categories that Which? analysed showed repeated evidence of incentivisation – smartwatches, dash cams, Bluetooth speakers, in-ear headphones and surveillance video equipment.
Twelve products (24%) across the top 10 best sellers in those five categories had reviews from customers stating they were being asked to post five-star reviews or alter or remove their negative feedback. Several reported being chased via email to do so, while others said they were sent cards alongside their products requesting positive reviews in exchange for vouchers or free gifts. Seven (58%) of those items were Amazon’s Choice listings – the platform’s coveted recommendation label that is influenced by high ratings.
One customer told Which? he could not believe the persistence of one seller in trying to get his negative product review on Amazon changed or deleted – suggesting it is highly lucrative for sellers to do so.
Tim Winkle, 64, purchased a Teaisiy USB webcam last year and gave it a two-star review due to its poor quality. The third-party seller behind the product then emailed him asking him to alter or delete his negative review in return for a £10 gift voucher. After he refused, he then received a series of other offers by email over three months, reaching a peak of £50.
Which? also dug deeper into the brands whose listings included accusations of incentivised reviews and found 12 ‘repeat offenders’ where sellers were called out for using similar manipulative tactics across other products in their ranges. It was not clear in some cases whether these sellers were acting independently or on behalf of the brand.
The problem was reported most prominently on Victure products, with 11 of its 29 (38%) product listings containing accusations of incentivisation tactics. These items included a baby monitor, wi-fi booster and wireless security cameras.
Victure, alongside Enacfire, are two brands that have also featured in previous Which? investigations as a result of suspicious review activity, and it is concerning that the brands are appearing repeatedly, despite Which? reporting its findings to Amazon.
This latest investigation comes after reports in May 2021 that Amazon had taken action to suspend the selling privileges of major tech suppliers Aukey and Mpow.
Which? found numerous examples of people writing negative reviews on Amazon to shine a light on unscrupulous behaviour from sellers. Three Peztio webcam buyers stated that the seller had offered them £40 to delete their negative reports of the product, which had an overall rating of 4.2 out of five stars. One Peztio customer said they thought the seller was “clearly more interested in editing the public record than … improving their product.”
Many other customers gave five-star reviews alongside confessions about their motivation for doing so. One ASWEE listing for a smartwatch had two reviews from people stating they had been sent a prompt to write a great review in exchange for a £15 voucher. One went as far as to say: “the only reason I have posted five stars is because I want my £15 voucher as compensation.”
A number of Victure customers said that they had been offered complimentary gifts in exchange for five-star reviews, including an SD card.
Misleading reviews are a big problem on many of the world’s biggest platforms and Which? has also previously uncovered evidence of fake and suspicious review activity on eBay, Facebook and Google. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its investigation into major websites that host reviews in May 2020. Yet more than a year on it appears Amazon is still falling at the first hurdle by failing to stop review manipulation on some of its best-selling products.
Amazon has a specific Anti-Manipulation policy for customer reviews stating that any attempts to manipulate reviews, including by directly or indirectly contributing false, misleading or inauthentic content, is “strictly prohibited.” The platform said that if it determines a seller or brand has attempted to manipulate reviews, it may immediately “suspend or terminate your Amazon privileges, remove reviews, and delist related products.”
Which? believes that stronger action is needed to address the ongoing problems caused by misleading reviews on online marketplaces and other platforms.
The consumer champion is calling for the CMA’s investigation to quickly get to the bottom of the problem of fake and misleading reviews. If it finds that sites that host reviews are not doing enough to detect and prevent misleading reviews, then strong action must be taken to prevent increasing numbers of consumers from being misled.
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which?, said:
“It’s really concerning that consumers are raising the alarm on misleading tactics by sellers being used on best-selling Amazon products – particularly at a time when more people are shopping online than ever before because of the pandemic.
“Amazon must, as an absolute minimum, do more to enforce its own policies – especially when evidence of manipulation is hidden in plain sight in its Best Sellers lists.
“The CMA needs to urgently get to the bottom of the problem of misleading and fake reviews and be prepared to take strong action to ensure consumers can trust the reviews that influence billions of pounds of spending every year.”
