Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Amazon deleted 20,000 product ratings after an investigation highlighted paid-for reviews

Amazon deleted 20,000 product ratings after an investigation highlighted paid-for reviews

Amazon removed 20,000 product reviews following revelations that some sellers offer free products in exchange for positive ratings. An investigation by the Financial Times analyzed the behavior of top reviewers in the UK. One user posted a review every four hours, on average, during August, and then sold duplicate products on eBay. Positive reviews can lift a product's rating and cause a short-term spike in sales.

Amazon has removed 20,000 product reviews after a Financial Times investigation suggested that some of the site's top UK reviewers may have profited from leaving positive ratings.

The paper's analysis showed nine of Amazon's top 10 UK reviewers dished out five-star reviews to products from little-known Chinese brands. The FT found the same products in Facebook groups and forums that offer free products or money in exchange for ratings.

Amazon deleted around 20,000 reviews from seven of these users just hours after the paper's report on Friday.

Amazon also removed thousands of ratings analyzed in a study into paid-for reviews by the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Positive reviews feed into Amazon's product-ranking algorithm, and determine whether a product gets a coveted "Amazon's choice" label. Because of this, vendors have started offering reviewers their products for free – or even for a commission — on Facebook groups and forums.

USC and UCLA researchers identified around 2,500 of these groups, and around 80% of the products posted in them were from China. Their paper showed that these fake reviews can lift a product's rating temporarily and cause a short-term spike in sales.

Researchers reported that around a third of the reviews on products they were monitoring were removed by Amazon – and that most of these were five-star reviews.

One user posted a review every four hours


The FT's analysis showed that Amazon UK's top-ranked reviewer, Justin Fryer, rated products totalling £15,000 ($19,740) in August alone, including three gazebos, 10 laptops, and even dolls houses, posting a review on average every four hours. Many of the products he reviewed were then listed for sale on an eBay account bearing his name and address.

Fryer denied he was given the products for free in exchange for positive reviews, and said the eBay listings were for duplicate products he had received. He deleted his Amazon review history after being contacted by the paper.

Several other prominent reviews also removed their history after being contacted by the paper, it said.

Amazon invested more than $500 million into tackling online fraud and abuse in 2019, a spokesperson told The Markup. This includes both software and human investigators analyzing millions of reviews a week. The spokesperson also said that the company has "sued thousands of bad actors for attempting to abuse our reviews systems."

"We want Amazon customers to shop with confidence knowing that the reviews they read are authentic and relevant," an Amazon spokesperson told the FT, adding that it takes action against people who violate its policies.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×