Amazon.com banned paying for reviews a year and a half ago because of research it conducted showing that consumers distrust paid reviews. Amazon has filed five lawsuits since 2015 against people who write paid reviews and companies that solicit them. She has conducted research on paid Amazon reviews by joining some of the Facebook groups. In February, there were nearly 100 Facebook groups, split up by geographic region and by product categories, in which Amazon merchants actively solicited consumers to write paid reviews. She observed the sellers using tactics to avoid detection by Amazon, such as focusing on reviewers who have a long history of writing Amazon reviews.

Source: Washington Post April 23, 2018 17:26 UTC