Online shopping is hotter than ever, especially this time of year, with Cyber Monday spending setting all-time records. Amazon in particular saw record-breaking sales over the five-day shopping period that began Thanksgiving day and ended on Cyber Monday, which the company called its "biggest ever."
Many people like to see what kind of customer reviews the products they're shopping for are getting, and a new report suggests that nearly half of those reviews are fake, according to a Connecticut lawmaker.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal cited a report from Fakespot, a service that detects fraudulent consumer reviews online. Fakespot found that out of 720 million Amazon reviews in 2020, a whopping 42 percent were phony.
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The company found some of the fake reviews come from online bots the sellers use in order to influence a product rating. In other scenarios, the third-party Amazon sellers will boost their reviews by essentially bribing customers, offering gifts or even cash in exchange for a good review.
There is now pressure from the federal government to crack down on the fake reviews. Citing the study, Blumenthal said there are hundreds of millions of phony ratings on the site, and provided an example of how a product can get a fake review.
"It is a letter to the purchaser of these earbuds, offering a $15 gift card for a favorable review," he said.
Blumenthal wrote to Amazon, saying that while it "has taken steps to curb these false reviews, it is abundantly clear that the company is not doing enough," and that "as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the practice has become ever more rampant."
Amazon told NBC New York that it uses industry-leading tools to detect and block fake reviews, and that the company "proactively stopped more than 200 million suspected fake reviews in 2020 alone...however, the nefarious business of brokering fake reviews remains an industry-wide problem."
Amazon said its policies prohibit abuse among reviews, including offering incentives like gift cards for a positive review. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission has a few tips for spotting fake reviews.
They FTC recommends looking for information about a product from a variety of sources. Also, keep an eye out for sudden bursts of reviews — which can be a tell-tale sign of fraud.
Also important to remember: A negative review could also be fake, posted in order to harm a competitor. Those who spot a fake review should use the “report” link on a product page so the team at Amazon can investigate.
