Because the main on-line retailer within the US and the UK, Amazon sells nearly every little thing. (Like the brand says, from A to Z.) Whether or not you’re buying on-line for a low cost transportable charger, eco-friendly cleansing provides, or headphones on your children, Amazon is probably going your first cease. And when it’s time to decide on between similar-looking merchandise, most folk depend on person critiques.
The difficulty is that many Amazon critiques are faux. Unscrupulous or determined sellers pay for glowing critiques, and a few provide reward playing cards or free merchandise in change for five-star rankings. Sometimes, sellers will even solicit false unfavourable critiques on competing merchandise. It’s powerful to establish with certainty what’s actual, however you’ll be able to scale back the danger of being conned when you realize the warning indicators. We’ve compiled some ideas that may assist.
Up to date July 2025: We have up to date this text with latest information, together with the UK’s CMA crackdown on faux critiques, the adoption of AI summaries, and Fakespot shutting down.
Faux Amazon Critiques
In case you are buying on Amazon, there’s a good probability you’ll see some faux critiques. A 2023 UK authorities report advised that 11 to fifteen p.c of client electronics critiques on ecommerce platforms had been faux. That investigation led to an specific ban on faux critiques within the UK in April 2025, as a part of the Digital Markets, Competitors and Client Act 2024. However faux critiques are usually not simple to eradicate.
The bulk are optimistic, extolling the virtues of a product in suspiciously glowing phrases. Brief five-star critiques are seemingly supposed to recreation the system by boosting a product’s rating and visibility. However there are additionally extra refined makes an attempt to influence you to purchase, the place paid reviewers will go into some element, possibly share photographs, and even write one thing unfavourable alongside many positives. They could rating a product 4 out of 5 stars, for instance, which may be very convincing.
Some sellers have interaction in paid unfavourable critiques designed to criticize competing merchandise. They’re sometimes one-star critiques that target cons and can typically point out one other product that compares favorably to attempt to steer you towards it.
Amazon just isn’t the one ecommerce web site with a faux overview drawback. Walmart, Goal, and lots of others have comparable points (the Federal Commerce Fee put greater than 700 companies on discover in 2021 and explored a rule that will set off stiff civil penalties for violators). Many of the ideas we focus on right here will serve you on the whole, not simply on Amazon.
How Amazon Sellers Get Faux Critiques
Sellers need to improve their gross sales, and critiques can do this. The reviewers need to earn money or free merchandise. That’s why the underground marketplace for faux critiques is flourishing. There are abroad corporations promoting blocks of optimistic critiques, social media teams that arrange groups of reviewers, and firms that supply all types of incentives to influence real patrons to depart a positive overview. Sellers additionally present refunds or different rewards to persuade patrons to take away or edit unfavourable critiques. Reply All’s “The Magic Retailer” episode covers some widespread situations and is a enjoyable pay attention on the subject.
How Sellers Manipulate Amazon Critiques
Earlier than we dig into the veracity of particular person Amazon critiques, there are a few dodgy vendor strategies to concentrate on. Some sellers abuse the variation system, supposed to allow them to promote variations of a product (for instance, completely different colours of the identical gadget). Amazon’s variation coverage prohibits sellers from including variations which might be “basically completely different” from the unique and that embrace new variations or fashions. However it is extremely simple to seek out examples of sellers doing precisely that.
Let’s say a vendor has a list with 4,000 optimistic critiques and a median of 4.5 stars. They will add different merchandise with far fewer, principally unfavourable, and even no critiques in any respect as variations, and at a look it seems as if they’ve numerous optimistic critiques. Should you discover a itemizing with a number of variations, it’s a must to scroll all the way down to click on See extra critiques after which choose the All codecs drop-down to filter the critiques for the precise product you’re looking at.
