Amazon targets admins behind thousands of fake review Facebook groups

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is taking legal action against the admins of over 10,000 Facebook groups that it says facilitate fake reviews for products on its platform by promising money or free products in exchange for positive reviews. The groups are allegedly responsible for fake reviews across Amazon's sites in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan, the company has announced. Just one such group, called Amazon Product Review," reportedly had over 43,000 members.

The e-commerce giant has a well-documented problem with fake reviews, which has grown more pressing as third-party marketplace sellers make up a bigger and bigger proportion of sales on its platform. It officially banned incentivized reviews in October 2016, but four years later in...

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