Fake Amazon Reviews!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my
channel I just wanted to share an
article with you that I found on
BuzzFeed news and it’s about Amazon
reviews now I don’t know about any of
you but Amazon is my life I buy things
on Amazon constantly not just books not
just fun stuff I buy household items
things that I would normally go to
Target or Walmart for but that I can get
very easily and for the same price or
less I will buy on Amazon and I will buy
gifts on Amazon I mean you name it I am
buying it on Amazon I do use Amazon
Prime multiple times a week and I don’t
consider it extra because as I said
there you know me buying on Amazon saves
me a trip to Target or Walmart because I
buy kind of those sorts of items on
Amazon instead I get my dog food on
Amazon I buy tea on Amazon just all
sorts of things you can’t even imagine
in addition to things like books I often
rely on Amazon reviews though to help me
to hone in on which product is best and
I do realize that there are paid reviews
out there and I know that Amazon for a
while was doing something where they
would put verified purchase on top of a
review so that you could feel

better
knowing that person who made the review
actually purchased the item and actually
did use it see it hold it feel it and
are giving an accurate review but this
article from BuzzFeed makes me realize
that even if it says verified purchase
you cannot necessarily trust that you
are not reading a paid review and I will
read the article so that you can all
know why okay so the article is called
her Amazon purchases are real
okay so somebody could make a verified
purchase and they really did purchase
the item her Amazon purchases are real
the reviews are fake earlier this year
one woman stumbled into a side hustle
that’s resulted in hundreds of free
Amazon products worth tens of thousands
of dollars might buy Nicole the guy in I
hope I didn’t butcher her name I posted
on November 20th 2019 from BuzzFeed this
is Jessica and notice how they’re hiding
her face receiving Amazon packages on
November 9th Jessica not her real name
has spent well over fifteen thousand
dollars in Amazon this year buying
everything from Halloween decorations to
a queen-size inflatable mattress she’s
purchased over 700 products including
three vacuum cleaners six desk chairs
and no fewer than twenty six pairs of
earbuds and even though most of the
products are cheaply made she’s given
each a five-star review the
twenty-something who lives on the East
Coast isn’t a bad judge of quality the
companies that sell these products in
Amazon reimburse her for the purchases
although the loot may be free to her
Jessica’s habit does come with a cost if
you’ve considered buying an instant pot
recently her five-star review complete
with photos and a video might have
nudged you towards a knockoff instead of
the real thing it’s entirely fake but
Jessica told BuzzFeed news she doesn’t
think she’s gaming the system she’s
trying to help brands grow their
businesses and Amazon’s massive
marketplace I’m just a pawn in their
marketing scheme she said third-party
sellers know what it takes to make it on
Amazon get good reviews in a high
searched drinking but attracting genuine
customers is tough so some sellers use a
reliable cheap bribes because of
Amazon’s fast scale and suitable
algorithms and capricious enforcement of
its own rules
unscrupulous sellers and paid shells
largely get away with it Amazon has
banned giving away free products in
exchange for reviews so Jessica
requested anonymity out of fear that the
company would suspend her account
sellers reach out to Jessica through
targeted Facebook ads touting free items
or dedicated review groups with
thousands of members and give her a
specific set of instructions
purchase their products in Amazon after
she leaves a five-star review the
sellers reimburse her via PayPal or an
Amazon gift card and let her keep the
item she reviews
Jessica’s activity as far as Amazon is
concerned looks legitimate she makes
purchases from her own Amazon account
and credit card so her reviews are
labeled as a verified purchase after the
sellers confirm Jessica’s left a
five-star review the payment is made out
of Amazon’s view the credit card and
Amazon branded rewards card gives
Jessica an extra bonus for the purchase
in other words third-party sellers
aren’t the only ones paying her to leave
fake reviews and superficially boost
sales Amazon is – BuzzFeed news and
Amazon a detailed list of questions
about how it police’s inauthentic
reviews a company spokesperson responded
with the same statement it provided for
October 14th report on Amazon sellers
using facebook chat box to cheat its
review system the statement noted that
the site had prevented more than 13
million attempts to post inauthentic
reviews and that it took action against
more than 5 million sellers accounts for
review manipulation but consultants who
work with Amazon’s third-party sellers
say that the bad actors continue to
exploit blind spots in the system and do
so without virtually any consequences
meanwhile Jessica and many reviewers
like her benefit from the sellers
willingness to cheat a table in the back
corner of the dining room of Jessica’s
new family home is buried under a
mountain of clutter a faux leather purse
a vacuum a salad spinner a foot spa and
kids toys bits of miscellany are
haphazardly sorted in big plastic bins
underneath the rummage the items on top
of Amazon our Amazon products jessica
hasn’t reviewed yet the items below the
table have already been refunded and are
up for grabs by family and friends
almost everyday Jessica’s boyfriend of
eight years but grudgingly hauls Amazon
packages in from the porch he hates it
she told BuzzFeed news but Jessica
proudly points to all the items she’s
acquired for their new house I got her
new showerhead shower organizer side
tables coat rack coat hangers we would
have had to pay for all that stuff after
her boyfriend brings the man Jessica
opens the boxes removes products when
their packaging assembles them and takes
photographs later she’ll write reviews
while she and her boyfriend watch TV
I told BuzzFeed news she tries to be
thoughtful about what she writes
although never mentions outright that a
product is bad but no matter what she
says each review receives the same
rating five stars it’s allowed to keep
track of Jessica’s constantly brokering
deals with sellers and occasionally
hounding them for payment through email
whatsapp and facebook messenger many
sellers tell her the exact keywords to
search for an Amazon to more closely
simulate an actual Amazon purchase the
method searching for a keyword and
adding the item to a shopping cart also
elevates the products profile in search
results
sellers instruct Jessica not to review
products for at least five to six days
after receiving the item to make the
review appear more authentic she
meticulously records into an Excel
spreadsheet each product its target
review date the items livery date
whether she’s taken a photo or submitted
a review what she paid the reimbursement
paid by the seller and the amount she
lost or made in the transaction among
other pieces of information the
spreadsheet helps Jessica make sure
she’s on top of due dates and getting
paid on time BuzzFeed news reviewed the
document which showed 117 open orders
that hadn’t been refunded yet a column
titled total currently out of pocket or
what she still owed amounted to two
thousand two hundred and eighty two
dollars in one sent an Amazon
third-party sellers looking for any
advantage they can get and by enlisting
customers like Jessica they can generate
seemingly authentic sales and reviews
fast most of the products in the Amazon
aren’t sold by Amazon itself millions of
independent third-party sellers use the
platform to distribute their wares look
on any product page and somewhere below
the price you’re likely see sold by
store name and fulfilled by Amazon these
merchandisers get access to Amazon’s
customers in turn the company gets a cut
of their sales Amazon reported that in
2018 customers spent 160 billion dollars
on items from third-party sellers 58
percent of all sales on the site more
than 1 million sellers joined Amazon
market places around the world that year
according to the e-commerce data from
Marketplace pulse and this year’s
shareholder letter Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
wrote third-party sellers are kicking
our first party but badly with thousands
of new sellers signing up every day
there is a live competition much of
which comes from China a Wall Street
Journal story
that 2018 a new product from China was
uploaded every 150th of a second that’s
why some third-party sellers are willing
to give away products for free their
hope is that in doing so they’ll gain a
competitive edge that will attract more
customers what Jessica does help sellers
in two ways first it bolsters the
reviews which convince customers to buy
it also inflates another consequential
Amazon metric an item sales rank which
represents a product’s number of sales
compared to similar listings the scheme
according to Ryan Flanagan the CEO of
nuance media a consultancy firm for
independent sellers on Amazon is
designed to dupe the site’s algorithm by
creating the illusion that a product is
flying off the shelves as people
purchase more the listing becomes more
visible to customers in a search sales
velocity gives the product that flywheel
effect Flanagan explained and Amazon
spokesperson said customer reviews do
not have a consequential impact on
search ranking adding that availability
and the frequency of sales are also
factors the cheapest easiest way to make
money is to cheat well that may be true
reviews have a huge impact on sales
which do affect search ranking according
to John LeBaron chief revenue officer of
pattern and e-commerce consulting firm a
study by the firm found that a one-star
increase in a product’s average rating
led to a 26% jump in sales LeBaron said
that a high ranking in a search can be
worth tens of thousands of dollars in
monthly revenue a pattern analysis found
that for the search term men sunglasses
the top five vendors each rake in
$60,000 per month on average the top ten
dollars earned 53 thousand and products
on the first page make forty two
thousand that’s what makes spending
money on free products worth it for
these black hat sellers LeBaron said
attracting genuine customers to a
listing is expensive and doesn’t
guarantee good reviews the cheapest
easiest way to make money is to cheat
unless Amazon takes an aggressive
approach it’s gonna continue to flourish
Seth LeBaron it’s really detrimental
people playing by the rules Jessica
doesn’t have many vices she doesn’t
drink or smoke in her spare time she
goes out to trivia nights watches movies
with friends and reads her childhood
best friend Christina described his very
outgoing and sweet her review habits
started with a Facebook ad a common
marketing method for sellers fake review
program she said the ad which was for
free measuring spoons included a link
the open facebook messenger she clicked
and started
chatting with the seller after she
received the spoons and wrote a review
this law promptly sent her a PayPal
refund and she was hooked after that the
ads for free stuff just multiplied
tenfold she said seller started inviting
Jessica to private Facebook groups with
names like secret rebate club and AMC
freebies one of the groups has nearly
30,000 members she now participates in
dozens of groups from other members who
are reviewers themselves Jessica learned
about websites like Hudson Hudson vine
and a more selective referral only
program called fully rebate both of
which she now participates in I like
getting stuff Jessica said the majority
of songs she messages with her Chinese
they respond to messages only between 9
p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern Time which are
working hours 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
on Beijing time during gold Golden Week
eight Chinese holiday the administrators
of multiple Facebook pages noted that
refunds would not be issued and
representatives would not be available
to respond to inquiries while they
observe the National days of rest
Facebook is technically blocked in China
sellers accessed the site using a
virtual private network occasionally
sellers will go dark for a few days
because of issues with their VPN since
we’re viewing the measuring spoon set
just cos written about hundreds of
products I like getting stuff it’s like
Christmas every day here she explained
just because upstairs neighbor recently
complimented her new cat water fountain
she responded no problem I’ll get you
one Jessica gives away many of the items
she reviews and she’s made about $150 by
selling products on Facebook marketplace
she’s donated clothes that don’t fit and
hand it off the rest of family members
or friends I like being able to give my
friends things without breaking the bank
she said the reviewing allows her to
regularly treat the people in her life
she hasn’t had to buy a birthday gift
all year as an Amazon Prime member with
an Amazon Chase credit card just because
ironically rewarded for exploiting the
company’s blind spots she’s made
hundreds of dollars to the Amazon cards
cashback benefit as a result of the
purchases which come at nearly no cost
to her she receives about $100 in cash
rewards every month she could make more
but some items for review are purchased
with Amazon gift cards which don’t count
towards rewards
Jessica piles that money right back in
to Amazon for her own purchases
typically Kindle books and most recently
an instant pop pressure cooker not the
off-brand version she got for free I
really don’t think I’m making money on
it at all I’m pretty sure I’m losing
money
Jessica said while looking over her
spreadsheet I’m pretty sure I’m about it
at a 10% loss but I’m okay with it
because I’ve gotten a whole bunch of new
stuff
Jessica’s rated almost every item she’s
been commissioned five stars except for
one a cross body purse that shipped with
a broken magnet she rated the purse
three stars and received a $20 refund
from the south anyway but just Jessica
is conflicted on the one hand she sees
the Chinese sellers as small business
owners who are doing what they have to
do to make it on the platform and chats
reviewed by BuzzFeed news the sellers
use language like this will help our
small business out a lot and for a small
family business song on Amazon is an
appeal to reviewers according to Jessica
a number of the off-brand products that
she has reviewed especially items like
clothes and home goods are perfectly
adequate it’s their way of marketing she
said adding that the products aren’t
necessarily worse than something you’d
buy with a name-brand on it but
sometimes the products are worse and
Jessica still rates them five stars I
haven’t found a thermometer by doing
this that works correctly they all give
me different readings she said just cuz
afraid to use the electronic appliances
she receives which often come with
incomprehensible instructions written in
both English and Chinese she took photos
for one product a foot spot without
adding water or plugging it in Jessica
also doesn’t trust health and beauty
products on the site because of her
boyfriend a chemist who’s found toxic
ingredients and analysis of unregulated
products a co-worker at Jessica’s day
job once asked her about a keratin hair
mask she has seen Jessica review but
Jessica hadn’t actually used the mask
and explained how the Hustle really
works
she was noticeably disappointed that she
trusted the review and I felt really bad
Jessica said she offered the co-worker
her unused bottle I definitely feel like
I have to keep the reviewing a secret
from people who have strong morals
Jessica at it but reviewing is becoming
too time-consuming and risky sometimes
sellers will disappear without sending
her the promised money so Jessica’s
starting to find freebies through other
channels rather than dealing with
sellers on the ad-hoc basis herself she
now refers to go through rebate
platforms like rebate key even if it
means waiting for longer periods of time
past the return window for her money
rebate websites offer Amazon products at
deep discounts or for free and
streamline the process for giveaway
seekers like Jessica the fake purchases
increased the item sales rank which can
help attract more genuine sales to
receive a full refund she agrees to buy
the item on Amazon within a certain time
period submits her order number to the
sellers proof of purchase and most
importantly promises
not to return the item the websites wait
35 days after Amazon’s return window
closes to refund just to cut through
PayPal and don’t require a review an
Amazon spokesperson declined to comment
on the company stance and rebate sites
but Chris McKay a former Amazon employee
turned consultant for sellers said it’s
against the company seller code of
conduct mccabe knows this his clients
have had their accounts frozen after
using the sites to manipulate an item
sales ranked the suspended solids are
required to name the rebate site they
used as a part of Amazon’s reinstatement
process he said for honest brands the
rebate sites are devastating loophole
commented James Thompson another former
Amazon employee who is now with buy box
experts a consultancy for sellers even
if she’s caught jessica said at least
she’ll still be able to shop if they
catch me I’ve heard from other people
that they wipe your review history but
they don’t disable your account Jessica
thinks it’s worth the risk she loves
getting free stuff even when it turns
out to be junk it’s mostly for the
thrill of buying I haven’t had the need
to do any retail therapy all year
through the reviewing herself Jessica
knows that many Amazon reviews are
inauthentic despite that she pays for
$119 annual Prime membership and uses a
site for personal purchases separate
from her fake reviews but she doesn’t
consider reviews while browsing when I
see an off-brand product that’s Amazon
choice that label doesn’t mean anything
to me anymore she said everyday
customers on Amazon are being shown
things that aren’t true but reviews are
meaningful to many Amazon shoppers
despite the company’s claims of policing
millions of bogus reviews the
persistence of Facebook groups dedicated
to generating a legitimate reviews of
products the rebate sites and people
like Jessica suggest that many many more
are posted every day even savvy
customers love trouble discerning
genuine reviews from commissioned ones
and unsuspecting patrons will be duped
into buying cheap products with inflated
ratings fake reviews and sales
immediately penalize honest businesses
but they ultimately hurt the site’s
shoppers Thompson said everyday
customers on Amazon are being shown
things that aren’t true they’ll lose
their trust in the site short of
shutting down the rebate website
Thompson thinks that sellers who flopped
the rules with impunity should be kicked
off for breaking the rules but the
Amazon also needs to penalize customers
like Jessica Amazon needs to suffocate
the consumer demand for free stuff
alright that was a long article but what
do you all
think of that now I know that I can’t
trust Amazon reviews and so how in the
world do you determine what is actually
a decent product to buy and what isn’t
especially when so many similar products
are being sold by so many different
sellers for basically the same price so
how do you distinguish between them when
you can’t really count on the reviews so
what do you guys think about all of this
have you ever been paid to give a review
would you ever consider getting stuff
for free in exchange for a five-star
review how do you shop on Amazon and
determine what’s good and what isn’t if
you can’t count on the reviews to be
honest so let me know what you think
about this whole review scheme that
amazon has going and how you can trust
anything on that website and make a
decision about which product is best
anyway have a wonderful day have a very
very happy and healthy New Year and hope
every year is happy and healthy for all
of you if I don’t get to speak to you
before 2020 have a good one everybody
and thinking of everybody out there
especially those of you in the hospital
of course sending you strength hope love
and a giant hug Happy Happy New Year
happy 2020 everybody bye

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