On May 1st, security researchers SafetyDetectives discovered an unprotected server, seemingly located in China, that exposed over 13 million messages. Those messages involved Amazon sellers paying customers to submit positive reviews for their products.
Over 200,000 individuals are implicated by the data leak, which demonstrates more clearly than ever before how sellers in China have generated thousands of fake reviews. All without decisive action being taken against them – until now.
Here’s how it works. The sellers send a list of products to reviewers, who then buy the products on Amazon. A few days later, 5-star reviews are submitted in accordance with the seller’s instructions – such as a minimum word count or a video review. The seller then confirms the review meets their requirements, and refunds the buyer via PayPal.
A few days after this huge fake review scheme was exposed, Amazon started suspending some of its largest Chinese sellers including Mpow, Aukey and VicTsing. To date, no reason has been given publicly for these suspensions, but Amazon swiftly followed by deleting thousands of product reviews. It doesn’t take a great leap of faith to connect the data leak with these seller suspensions.
Huge Amazon fake reviews data leak
Could it be a coincidence that over a dozen Amazon sellers based in China, who have long been accused of unethical review practices, have finally been suspended after this enormous data breach?
The combined annual sales of the suspended sellers is estimated at over a billion dollars, so this is not small change – even for Amazon. After the suspensions, Marketplace Pulse found that Amazon deleted tens of thousands of reviews for these vendor’s’ products. For example, Mpow’s Flame Bluetooth headphones went from 66,000 reviews to only 14,000. All of the suspended brands’ products are unavailable for purchase.
Fake reviews have plagued the Amazon marketplace for years, despite numerous policy changes and detection initiatives. Amazon has taken modest steps in the past such as deleting suspicious reviews, but this is the first time there has been a mass suspension of very prominent and successful selling accounts.
But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Amazon sellers are known to use third-party services that specialize in soliciting fake reviews, and it’s common for Chinese manufacturers to operate dozens of connected accounts to sell their products. It only takes one of these service providers to have their data seized by law enforcement – or exposed in a data breach – to bring the whole shameful affair crashing down. Our guess is that is what has happened here and, frankly, it was long overdue.
Read more at SafetyDetectives and Marketplace Pulse.
Amazon news
Amazon releases first Brand Protection Report
A new Brand Protection Report published by Amazon this week says that the company blocked ten billion suspicious listings last year.
The report takes a comprehensive look at Amazon’s efforts to protect brands and keep fake products off the site. Some other highlights include:
- Over $700 million invested, and more than 10,000 people employed, to protect against fraud and abuse.
- Six million attempts to register selling accounts were blocked by Amazon’s verification processes. Only 6% of attempted account registrations passed verification and went on to list products for sale.
- Two million counterfeit products in Amazon fulfillment centers were discovered and destroyed.
Amazon also established its Counterfeit Crimes Unit in the year, and initiated legal proceedings against several “bad actors”.
Read more at About Amazon and Forbes.
Automated removals for stranded inventory in EU and UK
Amazon sellers in Europe have new options for dealing with inventory stranded in Amazon’s fulfillment centers post-Brexit.
FBA sellers can now choose different automated removal settings for inventory in the UK and inventory in the EU, including disposal or the return of inventory to different addresses.
Amazon is also reducing fees for MCF (using FBA to fulfill orders from outside Amazon) in the UK. Standard fulfillment fees are reduced by up to 18% and expedited fees by up to 24%, depending on the size band.
Read more at Amazon UK Seller Forums for automated removals and MCF fee reductions.
Fulfillment center tours are back on… virtually
Amazon’s popular Fulfillment Center tours have unsurprisingly been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company is now offering live virtual tours instead.
The one-hour virtual tours combine 360-degree footage, video, and Q&A time from Fulfillment Centers in the US and UK. They run on every weekday except Wednesdays at multiple times throughout the day.
Amazon has also released an impressive ten-minute video tour on YouTube, featuring FCs in the UK. The video explains each main area: receive, stow, pick, flow, pack, SLAM and ship. You can watch it here.
Virtual tours are also available in German, and are coming in the future in Czech, French, Italian, Polish and Spanish.
