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I don't think they're trying very hard. I recently bought a dog collar on Amazon. A week or so later, I got a large envelope in the mail, with "Amazon Early Re

I don't think they're trying very hard. I recently bought a dog collar on Amazon. A week or so later, I got a large envelope in the mail, with "Amazon Early Reviewer Program, 2646 Rainer Ave S St 1020, Seattle, WA 98144" as the return address. Inside was a piece of paper with a code to "activate my $20 gift card" by leaving a 5-star review of the dog collar, photographing the review, and emailing it to a very non-Amazon email. It also instructed me that "for security reasons", I should not include or attach this letter to my review, nor leave a negative review without emailing them first. All this still purports to be from Amazon proper with the Amazon logo on the paper as well. This is clearly a scam from the seller to buy 5-star reviews, and their product has plenty of what look to be paid reviews to me as a result. I tried very hard to find any place to report this scheme, which goes past review buying to include impersonating Amazon itself, and mail fraud. I emailed several Amazon contacts, used contact forms on their site, and contact forms I could find on the seller side as well. I attached photos of the letter. The only response I got was a form letter telling me that if I saw a fake review, I should click the report button under that review. This is just one example. Almost every product I've bought in the past year that came from an individual seller included some kind of bribe for 5-star reviews, from gift cards to whole "free products every month" programs.

hughrr 5y ago
The other way round is the time I left a negative review for a phone case. I was emailed every day automatically by the seller directly to my email from theirs to retract my negative review. I asked them to stop. They didn’t. I reported this to Microsoft as it was an outlook.com source address. Microsoft did nothing. My junk mail folder was starting to fill. After about two months of this i got passive aggressive and set up a script to email them a 20 meg gif with “fuck you” tiled on it hourly to their mailbox. After about a day they got the point and I stopped receiving emails. I think amazon have stopped sellers getting hold of buyers emails directly now though.
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  Brilliant.
- marmot777 5y ago
  I’m not usually into cheering for that sort of behavior but I have to say WELL PLAYED, sir!
tailspin2019 5y ago
> I don't think they're trying very hard. I agree. I don't get why there hasn't been more progress on this. The ratings are almost meaningless now on almost the majority of products on Amazon. Amazon themselves seem to be directly making the problem worse with "early access reviews" or whatever they're called.
dahauns 5y ago
Those gift cards are often hilariously bad, like the one I recently received for a USB cable. Very official Amazon-looking at first glance, until you realize that it almost looks like cut out by hand. And when I was promised "10 US€ for a 5-star reviews" on the back, I couldn't help but read it in Borat's voice. :)

hughrr 5y ago

The other way round is the time I left a negative review for a phone case. I was emailed every day automatically by the seller directly to my email from theirs to retract my negative review. I asked them to stop. They didn’t. I reported this to Microsoft as it was an outlook.com source address. Microsoft did nothing. My junk mail folder was starting to fill. After about two months of this i got passive aggressive and set up a script to email them a 20 meg gif with “fuck you” tiled on it hourly to their mailbox. After about a day they got the point and I stopped receiving emails. I think amazon have stopped sellers getting hold of buyers emails directly now though.

tailspin2019 5y ago
Brilliant.
marmot777 5y ago
I’m not usually into cheering for that sort of behavior but I have to say WELL PLAYED, sir!

tailspin2019 5y ago

> I don't think they're trying very hard. I agree. I don't get why there hasn't been more progress on this. The ratings are almost meaningless now on almost the majority of products on Amazon. Amazon themselves seem to be directly making the problem worse with "early access reviews" or whatever they're called.

dahauns 5y ago

Those gift cards are often hilariously bad, like the one I recently received for a USB cable. Very official Amazon-looking at first glance, until you realize that it almost looks like cut out by hand. And when I was promised "10 US€ for a 5-star reviews" on the back, I couldn't help but read it in Borat's voice. :)