When it comes to Amazon reviews, let's not forget some of the older examples of them being gamed. Before the internet 'services' and spammers offering to make f

When it comes to Amazon reviews, let's not forget some of the older examples of them being gamed. Before the internet 'services' and spammers offering to make fake reviews, the same thing was being done by notorious dodgy authors and creators on a more manual level. Like Robert Stanek, a notorious self published fantasy author who posted thousands of fake reviews of his books (and probably still does): http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/gaming-the-amazon-system/ http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/gaming-the-amazon-... For example, his books sold maybe ten copies a week, yet somehow got hundreds of glowing and suspiciously worded reviews on Amazon. Got to the point other sites (and Wikipedia) basically put up warning signs. So yeah, even before the current crop of reviewer sellers started popping up, this system was being gamed by the authors and creators themselves using sockpuppets to flood it with fake reviews for their work.