Fake reviews are a growing problem on Amazon, and they can have devastating consequences for all platform users and the marketplace itself.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of fake Amazon reviews in detail – including what Amazon’s policy is regarding them, and how you can remove negative product reviews and fake reviews from your listing.
As a seller, it is essential to comprehend what fabricated reviews are, how to identify them, and how you can secure your brand from them. With our guidance, you’ll be able to take control of your reputation on the Amazon platform so that buyers trust your products.
Table Of Contents
What Are Fake Reviews?
Fake reviews are false or misleading product reviews posted on the Amazon platform by users who have not purchased the item they are reviewing, often with the intent to manipulate potential buyers’ opinions of a product or brand.
Unfortunately, fake reviews are widespread on Amazon. A study that scrutinized over 33 million reviews of Amazon’s best selling products indicated that 43% of those reviews are phony.
However, other ecomm marketplaces are also on the same boat as far as fake reviews are concerned. And to regain control over fake reviews’ ripple effects in the ecomm space, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a proposed ruling banning fake reviews. But until that is final, marketplace users should take responsibility in spotting or avoiding fake reviews.
Impact of Fake Reviews
Now let’s break it down briefly how these fake reviews impact Amazon’s users and its marketplace in general.
Impact on Buyers:
Shoppers buying decisions are anchored on the reviews they read. Without the guidance of authentic reviews, they become prey to scammers or unethical sellers offering substandard products.
Impact on Sellers:
Fake reviews are unfair to honest sellers that provide the market top-notch products and services. Fake reviews could easily damage their brand, resulting in dwindling sales and eventual suspension of their seller account.
Impact on Amazon Marketplace:
When a marketplace is vastly taken over by fake reviews, it becomes dubious to all its users. With a tarnished reputation, enterprise brands are highly likely to cut ties with Amazon, losing huge deals to its competitors.
Why Fake Reviews Exist
Tough competition is the reason why fake reviews exist on Amazon. They are the unfair workings of unethical sellers commissioning fake review peddlers to get a slice of the sales of their competitors. On other occasions, they use fake positive reviews to bring up their overall seller rating to get in good graces of Amazon’s algorithm, pushing their ASINs up the search results pages.
How this review farming works is that fake review peddlers would recruit “reviewers” and give free products in exchange for positive reviews to boost a product, or a negative review to distort a prospective customer’s interest to buy. Reviewers, of course, hide behind sock puppet accounts so they can write as many fake reviews in return for free products.
How To Spot And Avoid Fake Reviews
Fake reviews can be difficult to spot, since they often appear genuine and contain commonly used phrases. But keep in mind that honest reviews are written in spoken language where you can actually feel the authenticity of the feedback.
So, these tell-tale signs should easily help you spot fake Amazon reviews:
- unusually high ratings for every aspect of the product
- overly promotional or discouraging language
- generic comments that lack detail (because they haven’t really tried the product)
- often contain grammatical or typo errors
- suspiciously perfect grammar
- usually written in long sentences
- they don’t make sense
But don’t just focus on the reviews you suspect are fake. Also scrutinize the buyer’s account that could very well be a sock puppet account.
- their names include a string of random letters
- their buyer profile shows a pattern of either only positive reviews or only negative reviews
- their buyer profile shows a positive review given to your competitor for the same or similar product, in contrast to the negative review you got
- their profile picture looks familiar because they often use stock or celebrity photos
Key Takeaway: Fake reviews can be a major detriment to honest sellers on Amazon as they undermine a brand’s trustworthiness and standing with shoppers. Unethical sellers posting fake reviews could land themselves in hot water with Amazon, potentially leading to suspensions. These fraudulent posts are like a double-edged sword: both damaging for sellers and hard to spot by potential buyers.
What Is Amazon’s Policy On Fake Reviews
Amazon takes a zero-tolerance stance on fake reviews. The company considers any attempt to manipulate customer reviews, including writing or buying fake reviews, as an abuse of its system and a violation of its ToS.
Amazon’s community team actively enforces its anti-manipulation policies and monitors the platform for signs of manipulation and regularly removes any suspicious content found. When sellers are caught doing the violation, they could face serious penalties and legal actions from Amazon and FTC, including a permanent block from the platform and civil and criminal penalties.
Amazon also encourages its users to support their initiatives by keeping watch of fake reviews and informing them about it.
Luckily, Amazon is now employing the use of advanced AI to enhance their fake reviews monitoring process. Through that technology, Amazon can scan, analyze, and spot fake reviews showing data anomalies.
How Can You Remove Negative and Fake Reviews From Your Listings?
Once you’ve determined the violation of the negative review on Amazon’s community guidelines, or properly identified the fake review, then waste no time in reporting it to Amazon. To report a suspected fake review to Amazon, you can use the “Report Abuse” button located next to each customer review.
When reporting, you must provide specific details about why you believe it is fraudulent or in violation of Amazon’s policies. Giving additional solid information will make Amazon react quickly and make educated decisions about the case. Thereafter, be patient enough to make regular follow ups until you get those fake reviews finally removed.
While it sounds like an easy task, removing negative and fake reviews is hard. At the very least, thousands of sellers have reported that they get no over than 1% success rate of removed reviews. That is why sellers find removing negative and fake reviews very frustrating. They feel helpless as negative reviews continue to plague their listings.
If you’re in a similar situation, consider commissioning a professional negative review removal service that has an intuitive process and expertise to successfully take over that task for you. What’s more, a high success rate in negative reviews removed will definitely help your brand regain its reputation, or push your ASINs right back up the search results pages, opening you up to more sales.
Key Takeaway: Amazon takes a hard line on fake reviews, removing any suspicious content found. Working with an experienced service provider can help protect brands from negative product reviews by providing comprehensive support throughout the process.
FAQs: Amazon Fake Reviews
Is Amazon dealing with fake reviews?
Yes, Amazon does deal with fake reviews. It is a common problem for sellers on the platform and one that can significantly impact their brand reputation. Amazon has implemented various policies to help combat this issue, such as requiring verification of customer identity before leaving a review or removing reviews that violate its guidelines. Additionally, third-party tools are available to help identify and remove fraudulent reviews from product listings.
Are fake Amazon reviews illegal?
Yes, fake Amazon reviews are illegal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared that fabricating or altering customer opinions in order to sway a purchase decision is unlawful and falls under deceptive advertising regulations. Additionally, Amazon has its own set of rules regarding reviews that it enforces through its terms of service agreement which prohibits any type of incentivized or manipulated reviews.
Violating these policies can result in serious penalties such as account suspension and fines from both the FTC and Amazon itself.
Parting Thoughts
Fake reviews can be damaging to your brand. Fortunately, you can protect and defend your brands by removing fraudulent reviews from your listings. By doing so, you allow your customer’s purchase decisions to be guided only by honest reviews about your product, enhancing their overall buying experience and benefiting your business with increased sales.
Looking for experts to take over the most complex aspects of removing negative reviews?
Contact TraceFuse today to
protect, defend & grow your brand on the Amazon marketplace.
