

Investigating fraud on Amazon - dredmorbius
http://imgur.com/gallery/OmIsA

======
nkurz
Expanding on the point that this isn't just limited to dietary supplements, I
ran into what I'm pretty sure is another example of this today. I was looking
on Amazon for an inexpensive Android tablet, and came across a brand I'd never
heard of: [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_pc?ie=UTF8&field-
brandtext...](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_pc?ie=UTF8&field-
brandtextbin=Dragon+Touch&node=541966)

Lots of products with vast numbers of great reviews, interspersed by
occasional individuals pointing out seemingly fundamental flaws. There wasn't
much mention of the company other than on Amazon, Ebay, and their own site. I
did come across one seemingly reputable review by the WSJ:
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/finally-a-100-tablet-worth-
buyin...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/finally-a-100-tablet-worth-
buying-1412700029)

They gave it their lowest rating in every category they considered: battery
life, camera, screen, and speaker. Not only this, but they also rated it as
worse than each of the 3 other tablets they considered in each of these
categories.

While I suppose they could be a great tablet at a great price with lots of
excited fans, it seems odd that the only major media reviewer I could find
came to a totally opposite conclusion. Eventually I came across a 1 star
Amazon review that seemed to explain the discrepancy:

 _Terrible product, even for the price. I can only think the positive reviews
are due to the extra offer that came with the tablet for positive reviews._

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R2QZCEUWC4MQKB/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R2QZCEUWC4MQKB/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00ORFSSQM&channel=detail-
glance&nodeID=541966)

While it would be interesting to know exactly what that offer was, it removed
my interest in researching them any further.

~~~
t0
> the company offers a protective case with the completion of a review

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZIC24LFDBD1D/ref=cm_srch_res_...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZIC24LFDBD1D/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_6)

> comes with a FREE case if i write a review!

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JNOKKTR5XM7B/ref=cm_srch_res_...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JNOKKTR5XM7B/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_3)

> there is a slip that comes with the item offering a case free giveaway all
> you do is review your purchase and rated then copy the review and send it in
> email with your order number n in seven days u will get your case I did it n
> nothing so far only a email asking for screenshot did it n still nothing
> anyone else is having the same issue

[http://www.amazon.com/review/RI65M4YHQAC8N/ref=cm_srch_res_r...](http://www.amazon.com/review/RI65M4YHQAC8N/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_9)

~~~
nkurz
It may go beyond a free case. One of the 5 star reviews says:

"Disclosure - I received this product in exchange for an honest review."

[http://www.amazon.com/review/RGESQVR7NTLPX](http://www.amazon.com/review/RGESQVR7NTLPX)

One wonders if there might be other reviewers who also received the product in
return for a "honest review" but failed to include such a disclosure. The
problem, of course, is that if you give an honest but negative review, you are
unlikely to continue to receive free things to review.

------
paulhauggis
I'm surprised at this because of my experience as a seller.

A couple of years ago, I was an Amazon seller. Amazon essentially saw that I
was making money and started directly competing with me and undercutting all
of my prices.

Soon after this, I was banned completely with almost no explanation. When I
asked why, they told me that the information is proprietary to their business
and I would not get a reason. After this canned response email, they ignored
all of my emails. In any other industry, they would be investigated by the
government.

My money was also held for 90 days, which nearly put me out of business.

~~~
novaleaf
so, what were you selling?

------
jacquesm
I've had nothing but bad experiences with Amazon re-sellers and I avoid them
completely.

~~~
nraynaud
Do you care to explain? I have had only good ones, I mostly bought strange
cheap stuff from China like vacuum pumps, endmills and the like (they are
often the same sellers than on ebay). But I don't buy in competitive markets
(dietary supplement, electronics, photo).

~~~
jacquesm
I bought a bunch of books from different resellers (biology text books that I
could not buy new) and none save one arrived.

Amazon was pretty good about it even though it took months to resolve.

~~~
hga
Yikes!

Almost all the books I buy are used, through resellers, and I ... buy a lot!
Maybe not quite 100 per year, but tens and tens, and at one point I got a
somewhat up to date but still used set of first year and a bit beyond college
textbooks. And I can't recall a single one not arriving (the condition it was
in, that can be another story). Ah! And I had to replace on the order of 50 of
them after a tornado trashed my apartment, but fortunately only a small
fraction of my books.

So I guess this must be a regional thing.

------
WA
I'd imagine that it can't be too hard on Amazon's side to predict whether a
product receives a lot of fake reviews or not. Just checking if the reviewer
has other reviews would be a simple first step to grab the low-hanging fruit.

Amazon is a huge search engine. They should act like one and prevent attempts
of gaming the system.

~~~
dredmorbius
I'll just note that other search engines have been waging a ~15 year war
against deceptive content, fake links, and other shenanigans. It's a war of
attrition and whack-a-mole, not something you can straight-out win.

That said, if Amazon incentivized private fraud-busters like amazonthrowaway
here, that might be a Good Thing.

Faith in the site itself, reviews, and products should matter to Amazon, after
all.

------
notlisted
I have proof of similar fraud. My wife ordered a premium-priced hardware item
which was completely sub-par and nothing like the 5* reviews suggested. The
product description was purposely misleading (which is how they fooled my
wife). She mentioned the many 5 star reviews.

Checked out the reviews, noticed a similar U-shape review distribution.
Checked out the reviewers and a multitude of them reviewed the same or similar
products (e.g. supplements) and many showed a very "random" set of previous
purchases, ie nothing seemed related, everything was cheap, one-liner reviews.
Reported to Amazon, no action taken.

PS I love the convenience of Amazon, but never buy from third parties.

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ruckykat
The album got deleted because dox, can anybody reupload with censor bars?

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sidcool
These kinds of practices would be commonplace. The only thing to ensure is its
scale.

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brogue
job well done sherlock!!

