Amazon Levies Lawsuits Against Fake Review Brokers

Amazon is filing lawsuits against fake review brokers who have been orchestrating the posting of misleading product reviews in exchange for money and free products, the company announced Tuesday (Feb. 22).

There are two major brokers in question — AppSally and Rebatest — which the release claims have misled shoppers through getting members to post “fake reviews” on Amazon and other retailers.

The legal action is part of what Amazon is doing to try and make sure shopping is “safe and trustworthy.”

Amazon says it’s been looking into the review brokers, and the release notes the companies in question have gotten 900,000 members “willing to write fake reviews.”

The brokers reportedly attempt to hide their activity, with AppSally allegedly selling fake reviews for $20 and telling “bad actors” to ship empty boxes to people who will write them. Then, AppSally would have them give photos to be uploaded alongside the reviews.

Rebatest’s scheme, according to Amazon, comes in the form of paying people writing 5-star reviews after their fake reviews are approved by the bad actors mentioned before.

“Fake review brokers attempt to profit by deceiving unknowing consumers and creating an unfair competitive advantage that harms our selling partners,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide customer trust and partner support at Amazon. “We know how valuable trustworthy reviews are to our customers. That is why we are holding these review fraudsters accountable. While we prevent millions of suspicious reviews from ever appearing in our store, these lawsuits target the source.”

Last October, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said scammers had stolen around $27 million from Amazon customers between July 2020 and June 2021.

Read more: FTC: Scammers Stole $27M From Amazon Customers

There were around 96,000 such instances reported to the FTC. The reports said there had been reports of companies pretending to be Amazon — which had increased fivefold during the year.

There were also around 6,000 people who’d reported an Amazon-related scam and said they lost money because of that. The average median loss was $1,000.