Amazon permanently bans over Chinese brands for review fraud

600 Chinese brands have been perma-banned from Amazon for review fraud

The scam is simple. Boost your products on Amazon by giving them hundreds or thousands of reviews, giving buyers the impression that their product is popular and of high quality. From there, real customers will buy your products, and some will leave legitimate reviews, restarting the cycle. 

Amazon has revealed that they have now permanently banned over 600 Chinese brands across over 3,000 seller accounts. These companies have been banned from Amazon for review fraud, intentionally and repeatedly violating Amazon’s review policies. 

These bans started five months ago with brands like Aukey and Mpow after these manufacturers were caught offering rewards to customers leaving reviews. Beyond that, some companies had enlisted Amazon users through social media to purchase and review products on Amazon, offering refunds for their purchases and other incentives. These buyers would then review their purchases on Amazon and sell these products for additional cash.  

Chinese brands like Aukey, Mpow, RavPower, Vava, TaoTronics and Choetech have disappeared from Amazon. It is unknown how many non-Chinese brands have been banned thanks to Amazon’s recent fake reviews purge. 
 
Some banned brands have already started relisting their products under new brand names, circumventing Amazon’s ban. Amazon has stated that they will continue to “suspend, ban, and take legal action who violate these (review) policies”. Below is Amazon’s full statement on their recent bans (via The Verge).
 

    Amazon works hard to build a great experience in our store so that customers can shop with confidence and sellers have the opportunity to grow their business amid healthy competition. Customers rely on the accuracy and authenticity of product reviews to make informed purchasing decisions and we have clear policies for both reviewers and selling partners that prohibit abuse of our community features. We suspend, ban, and take legal action against those who violate these policies, wherever they are in the world.

We will continue to improve abuse detection and take enforcement action against bad actors, including those that knowingly engage in multiple and repeated policy violations, including review abuse. We are confident that the steps we take are in the best interests of our customers as well as the honest businesses that make up the vast majority of our global selling community.

  

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