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[HN] Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

www.theguardian.com Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in Great Britain ‘bribed’ by sellers to offer good review, poll finds

Which? survey suggests ‘unscrupulous’ sellers bombard customers with incentives

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  • Damn, do they just not like me or something? I'm open to bribes!

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  • This is the best summary I could come up with:


    As many as one in 10 Amazon shoppers could have been offered a “bribe” in exchange for a positive review of a product in the past year, research from the UK consumer body Which?

    The organisation claimed that unscrupulous sellers on Amazon were “bombarding customers” with incentives such as gift cards, free products and refunds “in order to cheat the system”.

    said its survey of more than 1,500 adults in Great Britain carried out in July found that 10% of respondents who had bought from Amazon in the previous 12 months had received a note or card in the packaging of the product offering an incentive for leaving a five-star review.

    called on ministers to follow through on proposals to make it a criminal offence to host reviews without taking proper steps to ensure they are genuine.

    In June this year, Amazon said shoppers were being deceived because social media platforms and messaging apps were not doing enough to prevent a “cottage industry of fraudsters” soliciting fake reviews.

    This week the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging it used its position in the marketplace to inflate prices on other platforms, overcharge sellers and stifle competition.


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