Amazon ‘deletes 20,000 fake reviews after users rake in £20,000 from five-star posts’
AMAZON has reportedly deleted 20,000 reviews after users allegedly raked in thousands of pounds posting fake five-star write-ups.
One of the UK's top reviewers is said to have made almost £20,000 since June selling items sent to him by manufacturers.
Analysis by the suggested suspicious behaviour on the part of nine of the UK site's top 10 reviewers.
The users were reportedly posting thousands of five-star reviews, many of them on products made in China by otherwise unknown manufacturers.
Some of the same items were then found on websites advertising free goods or cash in exchange for positive write-ups.
Among those users was the top reviewer on the site, named as Justin Fryer, who at times was reportedly posting an average of one five-star review every four hours.
Reviews posted by users on Amazon are considered a significant factor in a seller's chances of increasing their sales on the platform.
Positive ratings typically make customers more likely to make a purchase, but they also influence factors like how prominently the item is displayed on certain listings.
While journalists or bloggers will often be sent free items to review, Amazon's guidelines forbid users from "posting content in exchange for compensation of any kind (including free or discounted products)".
The items reviewed by Mr Fryer this year include three gazebos, ten laptops, and at least a dozen hoovers, all manufactured by Chinese companies.
In August alone, he reviewed goods with a combined value of approximately £15,000, and at around the same time appeared to advertise the same products for sale on eBay.
Since June, he has reportedly sold items worth almost £20,000 on the site.
Approached by the Financial Times, Mr Fryer said that claims he had been given free items in exchange for positive reviews were "false";, adding that he had paid for a "large majority" of the products himself.
“I have relationships with and I know some of the sellers,” he said.
“My partner’s Chinese and I know a lot of the businesses over there. I just review.”
A number of the site's top reviewers, included Mr Fryer, deleted their reviews from their own profiles following the Financial Times story, and on Friday Amazon responded by removing around 20,000 reviews from its product pages.
The company deleted all posts written by seven of its top ten reviewers.
Amazon told the Financial Times is would use legal action and other measures against anyone found to be flouting its guidelines.
“We want Amazon customers to shop with confidence knowing that the reviews they read are authentic and relevant,” it said.
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The revelations come after TripAdvisor last year removed hundreds of fake hotel reviews following an investigation by the Which? consumer magazine.
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The magazine said up to one in seven of the site's top-rated hotels were being boosted by fake reviews.
The Competition and Markets Authority, the UK government body responsible for monitoring business competition, estimates that dishonest reviews influence around £23billion of online retail in the UK annually.