Amazon is cracking down on users who post fake reviews on its site. The online retail giant has reportedly filed a lawsuit Friday against 1,114 users it claims posted fake reviews.
The lawsuit was filed in Seattle and claims that the company’s brand is hurt by “false, misleading and inauthentic” reviews paid by sellers who want to see their products boosted artificially. According to the BBC, Amazon specifically looked at people who were hired through Fiverr.com and paid as little as $5 to post a fake five-star review.
“While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon, which in turn tarnishes Amazon's brand,” Amazon’s complaint reads.
Amazon said it identified the 1,114 defendants, only identified as “John Does” in the suit, through its own investigation. The company said that it even found people who would use different IP addresses to hide the fact that they were posting fake reviews. Fiverr said that it was cooperating with Amazon and the site is not named as a defendant.
This is the second lawsuit Amazon has filed to stop fake reviews on its site. As Geekwire reported, Amazon filed its first lawsuit against fake review sites in April. That lawsuit targeted “John Does” who operate bayreviews.net, buyreviewsnow.com, buyamazonreviews.com and other similar sites. The suit also named Jay Gentile of California, who ran buyazonreviews.com.