Amazon sues 1,114 sellers of 'inauthentic' reviews
Amazon is going after 1,114 "John Does" who have allegedly posted "false, misleading, and inauthentic" paid reviews on the site.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Seattle, the company said the defendants, whose real names they don't yet know, are promising five-star reviews for as little as $5 on the website Fiverr.com. The reviewers are being paid by sellers looking to boost their products, but Amazon said the false reviews are affecting its brand, writing in its complaint: "While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon."
Amazon said that during its investigation, it bought fake customer reviews on Fiverr from people who used several accounts and unique IP addresses to avoid being caught, the BBC reports. Fiverr is not a defendant in the lawsuit, and said it is working with Amazon to put an end to fraudulent reviews.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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