AMAZON, the world’s largest online marketplace, is suing more than 1,000 people suspected of selling fake reviews in one of the biggest legal actions to uncover hidden identities on the internet.
The web giant is mounting the unprecedented court action to strip 1,114 alleged fake reviewers of their anonymity and force them to pay damages for the “manipulation and deception” of Amazon customers, according to court documents filed in America on Friday.
It is the first time any company has taken action against its own reviewers on this scale, according to legal experts, and could have far-reaching implications for privacy and the way consumer websites are policed.
The clampdown comes after an undercover Sunday Times investigation, in which a ghostwritten ebook was published on Amazon and fake reviewers were paid to push it to the top of one of the online retailer’s bestseller charts.
A number of the fake review dealers exposed in our investigation have been cited in the Amazon lawsuit.
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This includes one US-based dealer who stole identities, including those of British children, from Facebook to make their fake accounts appear more genuine.
In the court documents Amazon said the fake reviewers were responsible for “misleading Amazon’s customers and tarnishing Amazon’s brand for their own profit and the profit of a handful of dishonest sellers and manufacturers”.
The company filed the legal complaint in Washington state, where it has its headquarters, and listed the defendants as “John Does” — the American term for an unidentified person.
According to the complaint, all the defendants were advertising fake review writing services on the website Fiverr, a platform for online freelancers, and were identified following an “extensive investigation” in which the company posed as potential customers on the site.
Amazon has included a list of all the defendants’ account names on Fiverr in the complaint and are seeking a court judgment to identify the people behind them.
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Although Fiverr has co-operated in removing fake review dealers, Amazon claims this does not “address the root cause of the issue or serve as a sufficient deterrent”.
Earlier this year Amazon sued several websites suspected of selling fake reviews and has introduced new technology to detect suspicious posts.
However, the company’s latest move shows a significant escalation in tactics, according to Ashley Hurst, a specialist in internet disputes at the law firm Olswang.
“An action on this scale in relation to fake reviews is certainly unprecedented. We have seen this kind of enforcement in the music industry to protect against piracy and on a smaller scale to prevent harassment and defamation on social media.
“But this is the first time we have seen it on this scale for false positive reviews.
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“The technology industry uses increasingly sophisticated methods to prevent this kind of unlawful behaviour, but where enforcement becomes a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ it is sometimes necessary to take action directly against the perpetrators, both to prevent the activity and send a message to others.”
That message could come with a heavy price tag, as Amazon is seeking treble damages and lawyers’ fees from the defendants.
Authors and other sellers on the site who took advantage of the scam may also face action in the future.
It is understood that once Amazon has identified the fake reviewers, it will use the courts to force them to turn over details of all the companies for whom they have fixed reviews.
Yair Cohen, who specialises in internet law at Cohen Davis, believes that many of the defendants will be identifiable through their payments on Fiverr.
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“I’ve never seen a case like this against so many people at once, but going by similar smaller actions, the next step for Amazon will most likely be a subpoena of transactions from companies like PayPal.
“They may have used software to hide their location and IP address, but they’ll have to have used a bank account to take payment. You just follow the money.”
Fiverr would not comment directly on the case but said it had a record of co-operating with Amazon over fake review dealers.
“As Amazon noted, we have worked closely together to remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content,” a company spokesman said.