In an unprecedented move never seen or heard within the online world, Amazon has decided to declare all out war against fake reviewers. In a decision which would be hailed as path breaking, and revolutionary, Amazon has filed a lawsuit against 1114 sellers on Fiverr.com, who claim to offer fake reviews for various products sold on Amazon.
The lawsuit against 1114 sellers on Fiverr has been filed at a court in Seattle, USA, wherein Amazon has said that their brand image is hurt due to such “false, misleading and inauthentic” reviews.
The law suit has been filed against 1114 such sellers, who have been named ‘John Doe’ in the lawsuit, as Amazon doesn’t know the real named of these sellers. ‘John Doe’ is a term used to file legal cases against defendants, whose name is not known by the party.
Fiverr is a micro-job portal, where any anonymous user can create an account and start selling their services for as low as $5 (Rs 320). The payment once received by Fiverr is transferred to user’s Paypal account, thereby avoiding any real name or address within the whole process. On one hand, this anonymity is good, as the users can provide their services flawlessly, and without any identity leak.
But on the other hand, some shrewd sellers use the same anonymity to provide several ‘out of the box’ and unethical services like fake Amazon reviews.
Here are some fake review services, still available on Fiverr. As we discovered, each of these ‘gigs’ have received an average of 50+ feedback comments, thereby signaling how Amazon sellers are trying to fake the authenticity of their products using such fake reviews, and thereby fooling the innocent customer.
In the lawsuit, Amazon has said, ““While small in number, these reviews threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon’s brand.”
In the lawsuit, Amazon has provided some specific examples of such fake reviews. For example, for a USB Cable, a fake reviewer has posted: “This has lit up my life”; another fake comment said, “Definitely buying more … I was impressed with how bright the lights on the cable are,”
Fiverr Responds
Interesting thing is, Amazon hasn’t filed the lawsuit against Fiverr, as their terms and conditions forbid their sellers from offering fake review service. However, in the absence of manual checking, such gigs do exist, as we have shown above.
Fiverr is cooperating with Amazon, and they are removing these listings from their platform.
In a statement, Fiverr said, “As Amazon noted, we have worked closely together to remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content,”
Why Fake Reviews Should Be Handled Seriously
Within the ecommerce world, reviews play an important part in influencing a customer’s decision to buy a product. A recent study in UK found out that 54% of all ecommerce buyers depend on reviews to buy a particular product. This means close to £23 billion worth of ecommerce transactions every year depends on reviews.
And the numbers won’t be much lower in other major markets such as US and Europe.
The lawsuit against such unethical practices is the right move, as it gives a strong signal to all wrong doers.
How much importance does reviews hold in your shopping decision? Do you support Amazon’s move against fake reviewers? Share your feedback and ‘review’ by commenting right here!
