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It's worst than that. As someone already pointed out, buying software on Amazon is down-right dangerous. And Amazon does not care. Yet, beyond that, counterfe

It's worst than that. As someone already pointed out, buying software on Amazon is down-right dangerous. And Amazon does not care. Yet, beyond that, counterfeits and scams are rampant on the platform. Scammers take advantage of genuine seller's good rank, insert themselves at lower prices, destroy the genuine seller's revenue stream and deliver cheap knock-offs or even dangerous products to unsuspecting buyers. And past that, Amazon does something really crazy. They allow anyone to leave reviews on any product, whether they purchased the product or not. All you need is an Amazon account. You don't even need to have ever purchased anything at all. You don't even need to have a verified credit card on file. And so, what happens is that there are scammers using fake bad reviews as weapons of war to knock good sellers down in ranking and capture what would have been their sales. And, again, Amazon does not care. On Amazon's advertising platform there's a similar issue. They will charge sellers for any click on ads. This means you don't even need to be a verified active Amazon user to click on ads and burn seller's advertising budget with zero ROI. Amazon does not qualify any click on their ads. Logic would say a seller is only interested in genuine Amazon users. A simple definition of this might be someone who has had an Amazon account for N months, has purchased an average of N items per year/month, has a credit card on file and has had product successfully delivered to their address. Seller's are not interested on clicks from someone in China hired to burn through their ad budget. Again, Amazon does not care. Not sure where this mess is headed but these issues need to be addressed or it will get really ugly.

Neliquat 10y ago
They penalize and hide non verified reviews mostly now unless super helpful.
- scurvy 10y ago
  "Helpful" is easy to game with enough fraudulent upvotes.
  - jrnichols 10y ago
    but lousy broken English still (fortunately) gives away these reviews as false. As bad as it sounds, I dismiss most reviews unless the punctuation and grammar is correct.
- rebootthesystem 10y ago
  The issue is that reviews affect ranking. And ranking can have a huge impact on sales. Attackers only have to get through a few times to create enough damage to require hundreds or thousands of 5 star reviews to fix. It's a matter of very simple math. The only reviews that should be permitted should be from actual Amazon customers. They should also be weighted based on what I am going to call "karma". By this I mean that it should not be possible for someone to setup an account, buy a product and then leave a 1 star negative review within a few days. We have seen reviews posted before the product was delivered to the buyer! In addition to this, the buyer's "karma" needs to have an element of seniority validation. Someone who has been on Amazon for ten years and regularly buys products is not likely to post face reviews. Someone who just joined Amazon 30 days ago and only bought a handful of products should not be trusted. Non verified reviews should not be allowed at all. The key word here is "review", which should mean "I bought one, I used it for a reasonable period of time and this is what I think of the product.". Reviews also need to have a certain amount of minimum time from purchase built in. Say, 30 days. And, within this time, sellers ought to have access to buyers in order to try and make it right. In other words, just like a Walmart customer would when buying something from the store and don't like it. There's an opportunity for excellent customer service here and Amazon is not allowing it to happen. That's a review. An unverified review is a fairy tale. It's fake. And it can be fake both in a positive or negative direction. Amazon needs to put in basic provisions in order to ensure that reviews are from actual buyers with enough "karma" to be trusted.
WaltPurvis 10y ago
>> And past that, Amazon does something really crazy. They allow anyone to leave reviews on any product, whether they purchased the product or not. ... And so, what happens is that there are scammers using fake bad reviews as weapons of war to knock good sellers down in ranking and capture what would have been their sales. How does leaving a bad review for a product have any effect at all on the ranking of a seller? Reviews for a product are wholly unrelated to seller reviews. You are allowed to leave feedback (including a star ranking) for sellers, but that option is only available from the summary page of your actual order, i.e., it is not possible to rank/review a seller without having purchased from them.
- rebootthesystem 10y ago
  My language was not precise enough in that quote. I meant to say that the products sold by good sellers are knocked down in ranking by bad product reviews. Thanks for picking that up.

Neliquat 10y ago

They penalize and hide non verified reviews mostly now unless super helpful.

scurvy 10y ago
"Helpful" is easy to game with enough fraudulent upvotes.
- jrnichols 10y ago
  but lousy broken English still (fortunately) gives away these reviews as false. As bad as it sounds, I dismiss most reviews unless the punctuation and grammar is correct.
rebootthesystem 10y ago
The issue is that reviews affect ranking. And ranking can have a huge impact on sales. Attackers only have to get through a few times to create enough damage to require hundreds or thousands of 5 star reviews to fix. It's a matter of very simple math. The only reviews that should be permitted should be from actual Amazon customers. They should also be weighted based on what I am going to call "karma". By this I mean that it should not be possible for someone to setup an account, buy a product and then leave a 1 star negative review within a few days. We have seen reviews posted before the product was delivered to the buyer! In addition to this, the buyer's "karma" needs to have an element of seniority validation. Someone who has been on Amazon for ten years and regularly buys products is not likely to post face reviews. Someone who just joined Amazon 30 days ago and only bought a handful of products should not be trusted. Non verified reviews should not be allowed at all. The key word here is "review", which should mean "I bought one, I used it for a reasonable period of time and this is what I think of the product.". Reviews also need to have a certain amount of minimum time from purchase built in. Say, 30 days. And, within this time, sellers ought to have access to buyers in order to try and make it right. In other words, just like a Walmart customer would when buying something from the store and don't like it. There's an opportunity for excellent customer service here and Amazon is not allowing it to happen. That's a review. An unverified review is a fairy tale. It's fake. And it can be fake both in a positive or negative direction. Amazon needs to put in basic provisions in order to ensure that reviews are from actual buyers with enough "karma" to be trusted.

WaltPurvis 10y ago

>> And past that, Amazon does something really crazy. They allow anyone to leave reviews on any product, whether they purchased the product or not. ... And so, what happens is that there are scammers using fake bad reviews as weapons of war to knock good sellers down in ranking and capture what would have been their sales. How does leaving a bad review for a product have any effect at all on the ranking of a seller? Reviews for a product are wholly unrelated to seller reviews. You are allowed to leave feedback (including a star ranking) for sellers, but that option is only available from the summary page of your actual order, i.e., it is not possible to rank/review a seller without having purchased from them.

rebootthesystem 10y ago
My language was not precise enough in that quote. I meant to say that the products sold by good sellers are knocked down in ranking by bad product reviews. Thanks for picking that up.