# Amazon fake reviews reach holiday season levels during pandemic | Tech News (HT Tech) > Bogus reviews have plagued Amazon and other online marketplaces for years, despite the companies’ efforts to purge them. # Amazon fake reviews reach holiday season levels during pandemic ## Bogus reviews have plagued Amazon and other online marketplaces for years, despite the companies’ efforts to purge them. Aug 20 2022, 23:29 IST ![Follow on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/follow-us-facebook.png) ![Follow on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/follow-us-facebook-hover.png) ![Share](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Share.png) ![Share](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Shareclicked.png) ![Share on WhatsApp](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/whatsapp.png) ![Share on WhatsApp](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/whatsapp-hover.png) ![Share on Twitter](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/twitter.png) ![Share on Twitter](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/twitter-hover.png) ![Share on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/facebook.png) ![Share on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/facebook-hover.png) ![Bookmark](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Bookmark.png) ![Bookmarked](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Bookmarked.png) ![ReviewMeta, which focuses on Amazon, says it also noticed an increase in the number of unreliable reviews this summer compared with last year.](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/img/2020/10/19/1600x900/2020-10-16T033753Z_1_LYNXMPEG9F08E_RTROPTP_3_AMAZON-COM-DEVICES_1603106143501_1603106156514.JPG) ReviewMeta, which focuses on Amazon, says it also noticed an increase in the number of unreliable reviews this summer compared with last year. (REUTERS) ![Author Photo](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/HTTech-new-circle-logo.png) ### By BLOOMBERG Fake reviews on Amazon.com Inc. during the pandemic have reached levels typically seen during the holiday shopping season. About 42% of 720 million Amazon reviews assessed by the monitoring service Fakespot Inc. from March through September were unreliable, up from about 36% for the same period last year. The rise in fake reviews corresponded with the stampede online of millions of virus-avoiding shoppers. “We’ve only seen those kinds of numbers in the Black Friday or Christmas period in 2019,” said Fakespot founder and Chief Executive Officer Saoud Khalifah. “In 2020, the surge of fake reviews has proliferated in a rapid manner coinciding with lockdown measures in the USA.” By contrast, almost 36% of Walmart.com reviews assessed by Fakespot during the same period were fake -- about the same as last year. Also read click here. Bogus reviews have plagued Amazon and other online marketplaces for years, despite the companies’ efforts to purge them. The perpetrators, sometimes paid, either hype the virtues of a product or sabotage it to tank sales. Various automated services have emerged to help shoppers assess whether the reviews they’re reading are real. Fakespot, which monitors reviews on Amazon and Walmart Inc.’s site, awards grades to product write-ups. A D means 40% to 70% of reviews for a given listing are fake; an F alerts users that more than 70% are suspect. The company says more than 20 million users have used Fakespot since its 2015 debut -- a testament to how much shoppers rely on reviews and ratings to choose which products to buy. “Companies like Fakespot and ReviewMeta that claim to ‘check’ reviews cannot concretely determine the authenticity of a review, as they do not have access to Amazon’s propriety data such as reviewer, seller and product history,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an email. She added that the company is aware of “bad actors” attempting to abuse the system and is investing “significant resources to protect the integrity of our reviews.” Khalifah said his firm picked up a rise in unreliable reviews as Covid-19 spread across the U.S. earlier this year and demand for hand sanitizer, masks and other protective equipment spiked. One listing for a face mask was rated 3.9 stars, mostly by members of Amazon’s Vine reviewing program, which invites its “most trusted reviewers” to post opinions about new and pre-released items. One of the reviewers claimed to have assessed nine products that day and 1,348 in total. To Fakespot, that was a classic tell. “No one has time to review that many products ever,” Khalifah said. “These are obviously fake.” He said that though he believes Amazon conducted a purge in September, the number of unreliable reviews found by Fakespot remained the highest the company has recorded. ReviewMeta, which focuses on Amazon, says it also noticed an increase in the number of unreliable reviews this summer compared with last year. But founder Tommy Noonan doesn’t entirely attribute the increase to the pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping. Rather he blames new features introduced by Amazon to make it easier to review products. “There are so many things going on in Amazon,” Noonan says. “There are so many little loopholes that can affect the fluctuations we see.” He cites One Tap Reviews, which let users rate products from one to five stars without commenting. Before this feature was rolled out, users had to leave a written review describing the product, which included their profile information and a time stamp. Without those two identifying details, Noonan says, it has become more difficult to discern whether the star ratings are real. He suspects the changes have helped push up the average rating on One Tap reviews to about 4.6 stars, compared with 4.3 stars when reviewers had to comment on, as well as rate, a product. “This has already led to abuse,” he wrote in a blog post from February and updated in July. “We can’t see the dates the ratings were submitted, which users submitted the ratings, what other products those users rated.” “One Tap review was created to help shoppers get authentic customer ratings on products from a broader set of customers who we know have experienced the product,” the Amazon spokeswoman said. “Customers can help other shoppers even if they aren’t willing to write a detailed review, by simply giving the product a star rating.” Based on past experience, Khalifah expects the volume of fake reviews to worsen as Amazon heads into the holiday shopping season, which will be busier than usual as shoppers continue to avoid stores amid an uptick in Covid-19 cases. “If it’s too good to be true,” he says, “it probably isn’t.” Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel. 19 Oct, 16:47 IST amazon ![HT Tech Awards](https://tech.hindustantimes.com/ht-tech-power-list-awards-2026/httech-awards-banner-new.webp) ### Related Stories 05 Oct 2026 71,603,106,067,090 NEXT ARTICLE BEGINS ![View all](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/view-all-icon.png) ## Tips & Tricks ![Ghibli-style art](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/img/2025/03/28/414x233/ChatGPT_Ghibli_style_images_1743161814450_1743161814596.jpg) ### How to turn your photos into Ghibli-style art with ChatGPT for free: Step-by-step guide ![How to create an invitation using iPhone’s new Apple Invites app- Step-by-step guide](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/img/2025/02/14/414x233/invites_1738728829564_1739543695649.png) ### How to create an invitation using iPhone’s new Apple Invites app- Step-by-step guide ![Apple TV app arrives on Android phones and tablets: What you get and how to install it](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/img/2025/02/13/414x233/unnamed_1739426557335_1739426567634.jpg) ### Apple TV app arrives on Android phones and tablets: What you get and how to install it ![Vodafone Idea OTT plans](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Vodafone Idea users can now stream 17 OTT apps with one subscription: Here's how ![Android data transfer methods](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### How to transfer data from one Android to another using Google backup, USB-C cable, and more ## Editor’s Pick ![iPhone 16e launched with A18 chip, Apple AI—bringing flagship power on a budget: Check specs, price](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### iPhone 16e launched in India: All details about the new budget mobile from Apple ![DeepSeek was founded in China with only a fraction of the budget of the top AI companies in the US.](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### DeepSeek AI: How it works, who’s behind it, how it’s different from ChatGPT, and its big US market impact explained ![iPhone 17 Air likely to get this feature that iPhone 17 Pro models may miss out on](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### iPhone 17 Air likely to get this feature that iPhone 17 Pro models may miss out on ![Google Whisk AI explained: How remixing works, availability, and how it differs from Gemini](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Google Whisk AI explained: How remixing works, availability, and how it differs from Gemini ![iOS 18.4 beta arriving soon: Know why it is the biggest iPhone update](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### iOS 18.4 beta arriving soon: Know why it is the biggest iPhone update ## Trending Stories ![Airtel 5G SIM card will now be delivered in 10 minutes with Blinkit- How to order](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Airtel 5G SIM card will now be delivered in 10 minutes with Blinkit- How to order ![Infinix Note 50s 5G+](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Infinix Note 50s 5G+ set to launch in India with 64MP camera and MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC ![Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series sale starts in India: Check price, availability, and more](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series sale starts in India: Check price, availability, and more ![Apple Intelligence AI training](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Apple plans to train AI using your on-device data without accessing personal content or emails: Report ![CMF Buds 2](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### CMF Buds 2 key features and price revealed ahead of April 28 launch: Details inside keep up with tech ![Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/tech-facebook.png) ![Twitter](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/tech-twitter.png) ![WhatsApp](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/tech-whatsApp.png) ![Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/tech-facebook.png) ## Gaming ![Check out these five gaming monitors under ₹20,000,](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Top 5 gaming monitors under ₹20000 you should consider ![gaming consoles](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Grab gaming consoles at discounted rates during Amazon Great Indian Festival: Up to 72% off ![Pokémon GO Wild Area 2025](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Pokémon GO Wild Area 2025 to bring Grimmsnarl family, Shiny Hatenna, and global challenges ![Shade Silver](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Shade Silver free on Steam for a limited time: Here’s how to get it ![Call of duty](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/ht-tech-bg-img-90-66.png) ### Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 skips Switch 2 at launch, release date and price leak ![View all](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/view-all-icon.png) ## Trending News ### Airtel 5G SIM card will now be delivered in 10 minutes with Blinkit- How to order ![Airtel 5G SIM card will now be delivered in 10 minutes with Blinkit- How to order](https://images.livemint.com/static/static/1x1_img.gif) ### Infinix Note 50s 5G+ set to launch in India with 64MP camera and MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC ![Infinix Note 50s 5G+](https://images.livemint.com/static/static/1x1_img.gif) ### Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series sale starts in India: Check price, availability, and more ![Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series sale starts in India: Check price, availability, and more](https://images.livemint.com/static/static/1x1_img.gif) ### Apple plans to train AI using your on-device data without accessing personal content or emails: Report ![Apple Intelligence AI training](https://images.livemint.com/static/static/1x1_img.gif) ### CMF Buds 2 key features and price revealed ahead of April 28 launch: Details inside ![CMF Buds 2](https://images.livemint.com/static/static/1x1_img.gif) ## Trending Gadgets Mobiles Laptops Tablets ![HT Tech](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/HT_tech-new.gif) - https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/amazon-fake-reviews-reach-holiday-season-levels-during-pandemic-71603106067090.html