The pandemic left many people without a job, and they were forced to look for other sources of income. This is how the phenomenon of fake reviews arose for companies like Amazon and more.
If you want to be interested in a business and check how serious the people behind an ad are, say, then you can check on the Internet. If there is a Facebook page, you should see how many people follow that page and what reviews there are. You also have Google Review.
It also applies to a restaurant, a place to stay or any other business that offers you goods and services. Just be aware that some of the positive things you read there may be false. Thousands of people in Italy do just that: they write fake positive reviews for companies like Amazon.
There is an entire industry formed around this phenomenon, writes Reuters.
The phenomenon of fake reviews on the Internet
Those from Reuters give the example of a woman from Italy, who takes care of two children and who was left on the road during the pandemic, after losing her job. That's how he came to identify other sources of income and found people on the Internet promising money to those willing to write fake reviews of various goods and services.
It's an industry that, believe it or not, is worth millions of dollars. Tens of thousands of people have signed up to dedicated platforms on Telegram, where anonymous intermediaries recruit people to write reviews in exchange for financial rewards.
Amazon, unwittingly at the center of this industry
The purchase of goods online in Italy increased to an estimated 31% last year. And it is valid everywhere in the world. People stayed indoors more and shopped online only. What's more, sacrificing travel or vacations made them order even more things at home, whether they needed it or not.
At the center of the fake review industry is the giant Amazon. Although the company claims to have gone to great lengths to prevent fake reviews from being published, it doesn't quite succeed.
Recently, a 14-year-old boy from Calabria revealed that several Chinese companies have joined together to form online teams to operate on Telegram channels, which are presented as "Amazon Reviews for Free Products".
These intermediaries look for people willing to buy products to promote, and once they publish the required positive reviews, the purchases are reimbursed through payment systems such as PayPal. The teenager revealed that he receives between two and 2.5 euros commission per review and can reach 300 or 400 euros per month.
Revenues of several hundred euros per month
Reviews can increase the appreciation rate of the product, so that it gets more visibility and attracts a larger number of customers. Those who trade online make a living from it.
Consumer associations are sounding the alarm, however, and believe Amazon should do more to protect its customers from these review scams
The implications of such reviews are becoming more serious as buyers can obviously be misled. In just a few months last year, fake reviews boosted sales of unsafe products and hurt business for legitimate sellers. Big names in commerce have decided to cut some ties with Amazon.
Amazon said at the time that it uses "powerful machine learning tools and skilled investigators to analyze more than 10 million reviews submitted weekly, with the goal of stopping abusive reviews before they are ever published." He just doesn't quite succeed.