Amazon on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups that allegedly acted as fake review brokers.
The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle accuses the group admins of soliciting reviews for items in exchange for money or free products. One of the groups, “Amazon Product Review,” had over 43,000 members, and allegedly offered refunds or other payment to buyers willing to leave bogus reviews on products like camera tripods and car stereos.
Another group, called “Amazon Varified Buyer & Seller,” had over 2,500 members, the complaint said. Administrators allegedly sought out fake reviews, and offered them to Amazon sellers, charging $10 per review, according to screenshots of Facebook messages included in the complaint.
Facebook parent company Meta has taken down half of the more than 10,000 groups reported by Amazon, and continues to investigate others, Amazon said.
The case represents Amazon’s latest effort to root out fake reviews on its sprawling third-party marketplace. The marketplace now accounts for more than half of e-commerce sales and has helped the company bring in record revenue. But fake reviews have become more severe as Amazon’s online marketplace has grown to amass millions of third-party merchants. Bad actors often seek to boost their product ratings or search ranking by soliciting fake reviews.
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