Inside The Ecosystem That Fuels Amazon’s Fake Review Problem

Sellers typically pay between $4 to $5 per review, plus a refund of the product. Moderators take a cut off the top — around 20% to 25% for the Discord server I gained access to, but reviewers get to keep the item for free.

On Jan. 13, the server’s moderator published a call for reviewers interested in “Before You Go To The Toilet Poop Spray,” a natural deodorizer carrying the “scent of Australia” by a company called Veil.

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The poop spray’s listing shows a number of negative reviews, followed by a string of more positive reviews published after Jan. 13. Both positive and negative reviews are “verified purchases,” making it nearly impossible to differentiate between commissioned and genuine reviews. None of the reviews contain a disclosure that the product was received for free or that the review was paid for by the seller.

In an email to BuzzFeed News, Greg Doney, a Veil Fragrances representative, acknowledged the company had paid for reviews, “but you have to as its [sic] really hard to launch a product without them.”

When you take a closer look at the poop spray customers’ product review history, a pattern emerges. In addition to the poop spray, Amazon customers “Brian” and “Sharon” also gave a floating shelf bracket, which had been posted to the Discord server earlier, high marks.

Brian said the product was a “really sturdy shelf” (it’s a bracket, not a stand-alone shelf); and Sharon noted they’re “easy to mount” and “durable.” The critical reviews, meanwhile, warn customers “DO NOT BUY!” and “HUGE waste of money,” citing wall damage and poorly made brackets. (The shelf company did not respond to a request for comment sent to its Amazon seller profile from BuzzFeed News.)

The same accounts also reviewed “Boric Acid Suppositories” for vaginal health. The supplements are intended to be inserted into the vagina twice daily for two weeks, according to the product’s label. It purports to provide “vaginal health support” and “relief from odor, itchiness, pain, burning, and soreness.” The capsules were posted to the Discord server on Jan. 22 — and reviews from Brian and Sharon appeared shortly after that.

Brian commented that his girlfriend was “having pain during sex and it was not because of me,” and the supplements cured her. Sharon mentioned it was the “best and cheapest” option for female hygiene and health. Neither of the reviews were marked as verified purchases. A five-star review by D. Pham even says the boric acid “doesn’t taste bad” even though the pill is not taken orally. (D. Pham also gave the floating shelf bracket five stars.)

Meanwhile, a one-star review said that the product was a “nightmare,” citing how the pill “feels like a clump of cement mix in my vagina that is just gritty and totally dries it out.” Another said the suppository caused “an irritating burning sensation that lasted for hours.” The company did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Dr. Jenny Jaque, assistant professor of gynecology at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, boric acid suppositories should only be used under certain circumstances, under the supervision of a health care provider. “Boric acid is not candy, and you need to be careful,” she said. “It can cause irritation: Your vagina will hurt; you’d feel pain like your vagina is on fire.” She added that “it is really toxic if ingested by accident.”

The Discord server recently posted turmeric curcumin vitamins, as well as myoinositol capsules, made by the same brand, listed in the prenatal vitamin category. The same reviewers — Sharon and D. Pham — gave the prenatal vitamins five stars. Both of their reviews were marked as verified purchases. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon said it has applied stricter criteria for leaving verified purchase reviews. US reviewers must have a password-protected account and have made at least $50 in purchases on Amazon with a valid credit card.

During a hot summer in 2010, Jamie Whaley discovered a problem with her fitted sheets: They were breaking loose and ending up wrapped around her husband Jimmy’s ankles.

Whaley, then a 40-year-old nursing student in Texas, went in search of a solution. The suspenderlike designs on older sheet fasteners were too cumbersome, so Whaley developed her own, using a shock cord to make an easy button-enabled tightening mechanism. She called her new invention BedBand.

Jimmy Whaley convinced his wife to start selling BedBands on Amazon. The product worked, and people wanted to buy it: Over the next few years, BedBand became Amazon’s best-selling sheet fastener, with more $700,000 in annual sales.

Then, in October 2014, BedBand’s revenue was suddenly cut in half to about $350,000. Whaley, who had given up a nursing career, and Jim, who had also joined the company full time as COO, were devastated. “Someone was selling an exact replica of our product, and we couldn’t use our patent because it was pending,” said Whaley.

Counterfeits, sold in bulk on AliExpress, had flooded Amazon’s sheet fastener market, and many gained dozens of five-star reviews very quickly. Over the next eight months, sales tanked. “There were tears,” said Whaley. “We wondered whether it was time to look for different jobs.” She was forced to lay off eight contractors, half her staff at the time.

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    “It’s stressful, knowing that Amazon is our big store.”
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Amazon took down the copycats once BedBand was granted a patent; it was a year after sales started dropping, but it was too late. The patent didn’t stop competitors from leaving negative one-star reviews on BedBand’s listings: “You start looking a bit deeper...and you can see they’ve left five-star reviews for our competitors. Or you’ll see that two different buyers have been reviewing the same type of products, our competitors’ products,” Whaley said.

BedBand is currently the best-selling fastener, but that may not be for long. “It’s stressful, knowing that Amazon is our big store,” she said. To diversify revenue income, Whaley started selling BedBands on Walmart.com, Jet.com, Sears.com, and other retailers.

Whaley was careful about how she discussed Amazon, which is her primary source of income —“I don’t want to mess where I nest,” she said — but seemed uneasy about being at the whim of Amazon’s algorithms: “Some days, all of a sudden we’re fifth. When you see a fast shift like that and [our competitors] end up with reviews all of a sudden, it’s frustrating. You just don’t know if tomorrow these competitors will knock our sales down.”

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Paid review writing is the modern lemonade stand. According to the people who do it, it’s a quick, easy way to earn a few bucks and get free stuff — but not a career. And because the bidding, writing, and transaction happen online, it can all be done from a laptop in your bedroom.

Many reviewers who spoke to BuzzFeed News are men in their late teens or early twenties who viewed the activity as a hobby. All wished to remain anonymous, out of fear of being caught by Amazon, which typically results in revoked reviewing privileges or, in the most severe cases, being banned from reusing the same delivery address or payment method with a new account.

Josh, which is not his real name, is fairly new to reviewing; he discovered it through /r/slavelabour. He said he’s in it for the stuff: “You get to keep the product, so that’s a plus. It’s interesting to test out new and unique products in my opinion.”

The most industrious paid reviewers become moderators and begin facilitating review deals themselves. Frank, whose name has been changed, manages an Amazon review Slack channel in his spare time. The entrepreneurial 18-year-old scours Amazon for products that aren’t well-rated and offers the product’s seller his Slack channel’s review services. Listings with a small number of reviews and a low-star rating are ideal candidates. “If [a product listing] has 30 reviews with an average of 2.5 stars, it’s worth it and I’ll reach out,” he said.

Frank only earns about $20 from reviews a month, and sometimes a bit extra through seller negotiations. “I get about 30% for every review that one of our reviewers does,” he said. The bulk of Frank’s review income comes from reselling the items he reviews on eBay, where he makes “about a couple hundred” monthly.

Another reviewer, whom we’ll call Evan, is part of a private 10-person Slack channel and makes about $75 a month from reviews. He’s left more than 150 reviews for items like weighted workout vests, 30-day hair growth pills, and car phone chargers.

“It’s great for small investments and savings I’m working on,” he said. To write his commissioned reviews, Evan takes inspiration from existing reviews, “then I’ll cobble together a few keywords.”

One reviewer, Devan, who asked to be identified by his first name only, however, denies any wrongdoing and doesn’t mind being named. The college student swears he provides nothing but his honest opinion and thinks incentivized Amazon reviews aren’t a scam. He did not know incentivized reviews violated Amazon's terms of service until BuzzFeed News told him.

He did admit he benefits from incentivized reviews (which he writes daily): He reuses the bubble wrap and other shipping materials from Amazon for his eBay business, through which he resells items bought on clearance.

But incentivized reviews on Amazon, he says, are just an evolution of marketing tactics that have been around for a long time. “At a sporting event, Mountain Dew will hand out soda for free, and if people like it they post on social media or whatever. It’s kind of the same thing, and like at Costco or Walmart, where you get free samples,” Devan said.

“Some of these sellers are mom and pop shops, and a lot of companies just want your honest feedback...I know a lot of people who [review] aren’t in it for the money. They’re just trying to find better products for people,” Devan said.

Devan's right — there are “mom and pop shops” on Amazon, like Whaley’s BedBand business. But an increasing number of sellers are folks with little e-commerce experience or product expertise, looking to take advantage of Amazon’s millions of customers — and they need high ratings to supplant the existing best-seller.

Through the “Amazon FBA” or “Fulfillment by Amazon” program, anyone can open their own Amazon storefront. It’s easy: Buy products in bulk from an online wholesale supplier, like AliExpress, then send the inventory to one of Amazon’s warehouses, where Amazon will take care of all aspects of distribution, from payment to order fulfillment to shipping.

David, whose name has been changed, is an FBA seller who has considered buying five-star reviews. “It feels like the people making the most money are those who are violating Amazon’s terms of service,” he said.

David didn’t invent anything. He didn’t go to medical school. But he makes about $1,000 a month selling suture training pads for medical professionals on Amazon. “It’s a hobby, like video games. Plus, Warren Buffett said something like, ‘If you want to make money, you have to practice making money.’”

  <p>
    “It’s a hobby, like video games. Plus, Warren Buffett said something like, ‘If you want to make money, you have to practice making money.’”
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David got started using a site called Jungle Scout. A subscription, which costs about $350 per year, provides metrics that show what products Amazon customers are buying a lot of — and features categories where the top seller has a poor or average star rating. That mediocre star rating indicates that there’s an opportunity in the market for another seller to poach some of that low-rated product’s customers. “What I found were suture pads, like a simulation skin for medical students. Then I went on Alibaba. All the Chinese suppliers are on there and they fulfill bulk orders.”

David — and other FBA sellers like him — swarmed the Amazon suture pad market. “The original guy, the guy whose product was featured on Jungle Scout, started losing a lot of sales because of all the competition,” he said. It became apparent, according to David, that the seller, Your Design Medical, was leaving one- and two-star reviews on competitors’ products. (Amazon said that, after an investigation, it did not find Your Design Medical guilty of reviews abuse. Your Design Medical did not respond to a request for comment sent to its customer support email address from BuzzFeed News.)

The only new seller performing well, in spite of the original seller’s bad reviews, was also, in David’s view, “cheating the system.” “The listing had 33 five-star reviews. There’s no way you can get 33 reviews in two months. That’s unusual for a product like this,” he said.

In the end, David didn’t end up buying reviews — but added that “if I really needed FBA for my income, I would have.”

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Many compensated reviewers, and the sellers who hire them, don’t see themselves as bad actors. They’re just one of the thousands of other reviewers and sellers doing the exact same thing. Taking shortcuts, they say, is just leveling the playing field. Inside Amazon’s massive marketplace, there are lots of places to hide, to optimize, to cheat — and, because sellers can’t control the algorithms, they’ll do everything they can to sway them.

Amazon has tried to crack down on the review fraud on its platform. The company has sued more than 1,000 people for writing or selling fake reviews. In its 2015 suit against freelancers on the website Fiverr, Amazon said it “takes the credibility of its customer reviews seriously,” and also asserted, “While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon, which in turn tarnishes Amazon’s brand.”

In its seller marketplace guidelines, provided to BuzzFeed News by a third-party seller, Amazon says that sellers “may not offer compensation for a review, and you may not review your own products or your competitors’ products.” Sellers can “ask buyers to write a review in a neutral manner,” without asking specifically for positive reviews, or “ask reviewers to change or remove their reviews.” And yet all of these behaviors persist.

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  <p>
    “Amazon really is— It is a great site, but as prevalent as fake reviews are over the internet, I don’t know how anybody can get in front of it. Cheaters are always going to cheat.”
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  Nicole Nguyen covers products and personal technology for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.
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<p>
 Contact Nicole Nguyen at <a href="mailto:nicole.nguyen@buzzfeed.com">nicole.nguyen@buzzfeed.com</a>.
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 Got a confidential tip? <a href="https://contact.buzzfeed.com">Submit it here</a>.
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