Amazon cracks down on fake 5-star reviewers

In the online shopping world, one of the most important currencies these days happens to be the review rating. The trend of crowdsourcing the experience of a product has proved to be hugely influential when it comes to potential online shoppers eventually making buying decisions. Which is why companies like Amazon are dead serious about the authenticity of the reviews on their site.

In an effort to curb the menace of misleading reviews, Amazon recently announced their going after 1,114 ‘John Does’ (a name that alludes to an anonymous online user), who were found to be selling 5-star reviews. These fake reviews have been traced to an online service--Fiverr--on which it was discovered that individuals were selling fake review writing service for as little as $5. From an investigation conducted by Amazon, these review writers were even found to be using methods to thwart detection, such as utilizing multiple IP addresses to avoid detection.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has gone after the issue of fake reviews on their website: earlier this year in April--as reported by Gimodo--the e-commerce site had pursued legal action against websites that were found to be offering fake review writing services. This time around it is notable that they are actually going after the individual reviewers themselves and not just the websites.