“Fake Review” as a business

I refer to a report today in money.cnn.com, staing that Amazon has  sued over 1000 sellers of “fake product reviews”.

It may surprise many that “Writing Fake Reviews” is a business model taken by many and it is being advertised on sites such as Fiverr.com.

For example one of the offer costing US $ 5/- per review is as follows:

QUOTE

• I will write a 200 -300 word review of your website or chosen product.  This could be on your website or a review site.
• I will make the review sound natural, genuine, insightful and with lots of enthusiasm.
• The aim of the review is to build trust and show your product in the best possible light without sounding ‘ Fake’.
• I pride myself on paying attention to detail and will make sure your review is engaging.
• I have reviewed a range of products and services, covering many different audiences. Therefore, I can adapt to suit your needs.

NOTE: If a review is pulled from a site, for whatever reason that may be, I cannot be held responsible, nor will I be able to offer you a refund.  

UNQUOTE

The service offering indicates how the service is “Ab-Initio” a fraud on the consumers any where in the world. It is an offence that can attract penal provisions under any law.

The question also arises on the responsibility of the website such as Fiverr.com in promoting such fraudulent business. Some time back, we commented on the business model of Glassdoor.com which thrives on a facility to black mail an employer by carrying on a false campaign, though the original intention could have been only to provide a genuine employee feedback on an employer.

Naavi once had to battle with another Cyber Law practitioner in India whose hired “Reputation Management Contractors” who, in a bid to promote their client kept on writing against me in many websites. I had to go to each of such websites, write counter comments and eventually the campaign was perhaps withdrawn. I am not sure if the professional who in fact had used Naavi.org to promote himself in the beginning of his career was aware of what the “Reputation Managers” were actually doing. But obviously, he was taking responsibility for the irresponsible activities of the hired reputation managers.

These indicate the dark side of Internet and Social Media where there are members willing to spread mis-information for a price. At $5 a piece, an unscrupulous competitor can hire people to damage the reputation of a rival. With increasing emphasis on mobile commerce and e-commerce, it is necessary for all those who are interested in the positive development of Internet that these tendencies are nipped in the bid. These are like viruses and trojans who need to be tracked down and killed.

I therefore support Amazon fully in its efforts to bring these unscrupulous contract review writers to book and also support action against the website managers who fail to follow due diligence steps to prevent such misuse of their platform.

While we donot have any objection to genuine job seekers to post their resume and credentials in review writing or any other matter, the offer “To write fake reviews” is a shameful profession for any talented person. We need to stand up against such practice and make the Cyber Space more trust worthy.

Naavi