Amazon Targets Fake Review Fraudsters on Social Media
19.7.2022 07:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today filed legal action against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups that attempt to orchestrate fake reviews on Amazon in exchange for money or free products. These groups are set up to recruit individuals willing to post incentivized and misleading reviews on Amazon’s stores in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.
Amazon will use information discovered in this legal action to identify bad actors and remove fake reviews commissioned by these fraudsters that haven’t already been detected by Amazon’s advanced technology, expert investigators, and continuous monitoring.
“Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they’re ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Selling Partner Services. “Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable.”
The fraudsters behind such groups solicit fake reviews for hundreds of products available for sale on Amazon, including car stereos and camera tripods. One of the groups identified in the lawsuit is “Amazon Product Review,” which had more than 43,000 members until Meta took down the group earlier this year. Amazon’s investigations revealed that the group’s administrators attempted to hide their activity and evade Facebook’s detection, in part by obfuscating letters from problematic phrases.
Amazon strictly prohibits fake reviews and has more than 12,000 employees around the world dedicated to protecting its stores from fraud and abuse, including fake reviews. A dedicated team investigates fake review schemes on social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and regularly reports the abusive groups to those companies. Since 2020, Amazon has reported more than 10,000 fake review groups to Meta. Of these, Meta has taken down more than half of the groups for policy violations and continues to investigate others.
Amazon was a pioneer of product reviews, having introduced them in 1995 to help customers make more informed shopping decisions. The company aims to ensure every review that appears in its stores is trustworthy and reflects an actual customer experience. Amazon’s expert investigators use industry-leading tools to detect and block fake reviews. As a result, Amazon proactively stopped more than 200 million suspected fake reviews in 2020 alone.
Today’s legal action is the latest step by Amazon aimed at stopping fraudsters who attempt to post fake reviews in Amazon’s stores. In the past year, legal action from Amazon has shut down multiple major review brokers targeting customers in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
However, the nefarious business of brokering fake reviews remains an industry-wide problem, and civil litigation is only one step. Permanently ridding fake reviews across retail, travel, and other sectors will require greater public-private partnership, including collaboration between the affected companies, social media sites, and law enforcement, all focused on a goal of greater consumer protection. Amazon remains eager to continue to partner with all the relevant stakeholders to achieve that mutual goal.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220718005747/en/
Contact information
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Tecnotree allekirjoitti 17,5 miljoonan Yhdysvaltain dollarin monivuotisen sopimuksen nykyisen teleoperaattoriasiakkaan kanssa Amerikan alueella13.8.2026 15:04:00 EEST | Tiedote
Tecnotree, joka on maailmanlaajuinen 5G- ja tekoälynatiivien digitaalisten BSS-ratkaisujen sekä teleoperaattoreille suunnattujen digitaalisen transformaation ratkaisujen toimittaja, ilmoitti eilen allekirjoittaneensa uuden monivuotisen ja usean alueen kattavan sopimuksen nykyisen teleoperaattoriasiakkaan kanssa Amerikan alueella. Sopimus kuvastaa Tecnotreen jatkuvaa painotusta pitkäaikaisten asiakassuhteiden laajentamiseen yhtiön 5G- ja tekoälynatiivien digitaalisten alustojen ja palvelujen avulla, jotka auttavat teleoperaattoreita uudistamaan liiketoimintaansa, nopeuttamaan palveluinnovaatioita ja parantamaan asiakaskokemusta. Tecnotree jatkaa operaattoreiden muuttuvien digitaalisen transformaation painopisteiden tukemista maailmanlaajuisesti. ”Amerikan alue on Tecnotreelle edelleen tärkeä markkina-alue, jolla yhtiö jatkaa teleoperaattoreiden tukemista ratkaisuilla, jotka yksinkertaistavat toimintaa, mahdollistavat liiketoiminnan ketteryyden ja luovat kestävää arvoa seuraavan sukupolv
Vantage Data Centers and Nebius Expand UK AI Infrastructure with First Deployment in South Wales AI Growth Zone13.8.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vantage Data Centers, a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, and Nebius (Nasdaq: NBIS), the AI cloud company, today announced an agreement to deploy high-density, NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure at Vantage’s CWL1 campus in Newport, Wales. The deployment represents the first announced commercial capacity commitment in the South Wales AI Growth Zone and will support growing UK demand for domestic AI compute capacity. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260813253918/en/ CWL13 data center at Vantage’s Newport, Wales, campus. Under the agreement, Nebius will lease high-density capacity at CWL1 to support AI training, inference, agentic AI and enterprise AI workloads, serving enterprises, researchers, startups and public sector organizations seeking access to advanced AI infrastructure. This capacity is part of Nebius’ broader UK expansion and commitment to scale domestic AI compute capacity. In
SBC Medical Group Holdings Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results13.8.2026 13:30:00 EEST | Press release
SBC Medical Group Holdings Incorporated (Nasdaq: SBC) (“SBC Medical” or the “Company”), a Medical Services Organization (MSO) providing management support across a wide range of healthcare fields to medical institutions in Japan and abroad, today announced its consolidated financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 (the three months ended June 30, 2026) and the first half of fiscal year 2026 (the six months ended June 30, 2026). Second Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights Total revenues were $49 million, an increase of 13% year-over-year. Net income attributable to SBC Medical was $11 million, an increase of 335% year-over-year. Net income margin was 22%, an increase of 16 percentage points year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA1 was $20 million, an increase of 32% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin1 was 41%, an increase of 6 percentage points year-over-year. Basic EPS was $0.10 for the three months ended June 30, 2026, an increase of 400% year-over-year. The Company believ
Unimed Expands Maritime Healthcare Platform with Growing Adoption of Telemed Plus13.8.2026 12:00:00 EEST | Press release
Universal Maritime Solutions (“Unimed” or “the Company”), a leading provider of maritime healthcare, medical supply, and crew wellbeing solutions and a portfolio company of ZCG Private Equity, the private equity fund management platform of Z Capital Group, LLC (“ZCG”), today announced that Bahri, one of the Middle East’s leading maritime operators, has expanded its relationship with Unimed by enrolling in its Telemed Plus premium service. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260813787745/en/ The agreement builds on a longstanding relationship between the companies through Unimed’s MedScale medical supply and medical chest management program and marks another important milestone in the continued rollout of Unimed’s Telemed Plus platform, launched in 2024. The expansion underscores the growing adoption of Unimed’s integrated healthcare platform by leading global maritime operators while demonstrating the increasing v
The Fairest of Them All: Klarna Supercharges Memberships, Removing Fees, Boosting Cashback and Increasing Annual Value to as Much as €6,00013.8.2026 10:09:00 EEST | Press release
Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, today unveiled its most significant membership upgrade yet. The revamped tiers deliver more cashback, up to €6,000 worth of perks, and remove service fees — built so a Klarna membership pays for itself, and then some. Klarna's improved membership lineup spans four tiers, each built for a different kind of member but all embodying a flexible ethos: pay only for the Klarna that fits your life. Pay later is free at partner stores, or get broader fee-free access with Everywhere (formerly Core), or climb to Plus, Premium or Max for richer cashback rewards, bigger, everyday perks and a growing set of subscriptions and protections. A Klarna membership is a fairer alternative to a credit card by design, and one of the biggest differences is freedom. While other cards tie you in for a year, a Klarna membership moves with you. Upgrade for a big travel month and drop back down when things are quieter, with no penalty and no year-long
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom