Inside The Ecosystem That Fuels Amazon’s Fake Review Problem

Ben Kothe / BuzzFeed News

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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    “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:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.
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 Got a confidential tip? <a href="https://contact.buzzfeed.com">Submit it here</a>.
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