Amazon sues Facebook group admins over fake reviews – TechCrunch

IfThe reviewsThe last thing that you purchased was absolutely necessary but not superfluous. Amazon looked like so much copypasta, there’s a good reason: Fake reviewsThere are many options and people can get paid to post them.

AmazonFilled a lawsuit MondayFor administrators exceeding 10,000 FacebookBuyers who post fake products to groups that coordinate cash and goods reviews. TheGlobal groups were used to recruit potential candidates fakeReviews and performed in Amazon’s online storefronts in the U.S., the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Japan Italy.

If 10,000 Facebook groups sounds like a lot, it’s apparently the sum total of groups AmazonAccording to reports, FacebookSince 2020. The company notes that past legal action it’s taken has been effective and “shut down multiple major review brokers,”Yet, here we are. They’ve been suing people for this stuff since all the way back in 2015.

TheOne company group, “Amazon Product Review,”It had more than 40,000 members as of December 31, 2007. FacebookIt was removed earlier in 2022. ThatOne evaded detection by using the AI-eluding, time-honored strategy of swapping letters in phrases that would catch it busted.

AmazonIt claims that it will make the discovery process more efficient. “identify bad actors and remove fake reviews commissioned by these fraudsters that haven’t already been detected by Amazon’s advanced technology, expert investigators, and continuous monitoring.”

The monitoring might be continuous but it’s clear that thousands and thousands of illegitimate reviews push products across the online retailer’s massive digital storefront every day, all around the world. And regulators are taking notice — something that’s bound to light a little fire under everyone’s favorite online shopping monolith.

AmazonHas been plagued by reviewsThis artificially increases product ratings for many years. A Washington PostAn investigation in 2018 revealed that clearly fake reviewsBluetooth headphones and health supplements are two of the most popular product categories.

AtThe time is PostFound a thriving cottage market selling fake reviewsOn Facebook. SellersCourt AmazonShopping at FacebookAll “dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation,”According to Post.

AmazonLast year, a blog post acknowledged the severity of the problem. “Due to our continued improvements in detection of fake reviews and connections between bad-actor buying and selling accounts, we have seen an increasing trend of bad actors attempting to solicit fake reviews outside Amazon, particularly via social media services,”The company wrote.

Amazon said that it reported more than 1,000 review selling groups to social media platforms in the first quarter of 2021 — up threefold from the same period the prior year. WhetherThis speaks to the widespread use of fake reviews or the online retailer taking the issue more seriously isn’t clear, but the company was keen to pass the blame onto social media companies for their lax enforcement of those groups whenThey violate platform rules.

Ultimately, fake reviews Aren’t the worst kind of misleading content that internet companies are failing to eradicate. But they areAnother example of this is when you have enough cash printing (or burning) internet machines, systemic problems could spiral out of control, while your head was down, making the line go up. AndSometimes these problems encourage bad or bizarre behavior. In this case: a small industry of people cashing in on making bad products look good — and once that’s all in motion, it’s difficult to untangle the mess the big money machine made.