Amazon Review Scam

[Sam Vimes]

I haven't gotten any email scams before as I think my mail server is doing a good job of filtering them out. However, a few weeks ago I posted a review on Amazon which was only three stars. Then I started getting every few days an email - obviously a scam - offering me a gift card if I'd remove my review. I've had similar before but they've always been from a note within the item box or a message via Amazon. I've always rejected and reported them.

This time its different. The emails are coming directly to the email address I use for Amazon and nowhere else. They are gmail.com emails but with random prefixes. They started off offering my a £10 gift card. They had the order number and a link to the review (which I never clicked on). Over time the offer has risen and is now standing at £35.

I've reported this to Amazon but there's not much they can do as these are originating outside of Amazon. I've set up filters on my email to put them in the Spam box, which I'll leave for a while as I'm curious to see how high the offer will go. Shortly though I'll change the filter to just delete them completely.

Amazon Review and Gift Card scams have been around a long while but how they managed to get hold of my Amazon only email address is a mystery.

 

[Buckman]

I had that issue a few years ago and since then I have hardly posted any reviews unless the product was a minus star!

 

[Buckman]

I have just checked my Prime membership and was a bit miffed to find out that it was recently renewed at £94. A quick search showed no emails referring to the increase.

On reflection over the past year we have not ordered much off Amazon and now as a lot of the content seems to require payment, I am wondering whether it is worth the subscription as we no longer watch that much Prime. Not sure if you can get a refund if cancelling halfway through the year?

Especially annoying is bookmarking a movie which is part of your subscription and then a few days later going back to it and suddenly it is no longer part of the subscription and you need to pay to watch the movie!

 

[ProfJohnL]

I detest how businesses continually ask me to provide a review about what I've purchased, how the purchase went and what could they have done better. If the people they employ to run all these questionnaires could be redeployed to their complaints departments, then perhaps you would not be made to hold on for so long for them to answer the blasted phones.

As far as I am concerned, if the product or service meets my expectations or needs, then the absence of any comment from me can be assumed to indicate my satisfaction.

I will only make after sales contact if the service or goods are faulty or other wise do not meet my needs or expectations contact a supplier , OR if I receive exceptional service or performance.

 

[Dustydog]

Product reviews serve no useful purpose. I don’t believe most of them are genuine moreso an artificial way of inflating the efficacy of the product.
However I do reviews on U.K. Campsites and the two Clubs.

 

[Jcloughie]

I haven't gotten any email scams before as I think my mail server is doing a good job of filtering them out. However, a few weeks ago I posted a review on Amazon which was only three stars. Then I started getting every few days an email - obviously a scam - offering me a gift card if I'd remove my review. I've had similar before but they've always been from a note within the item box or a message via Amazon. I've always rejected and reported them.

This time its different. The emails are coming directly to the email address I use for Amazon and nowhere else. They are gmail.com emails but with random prefixes. They started off offering my a £10 gift card. They had the order number and a link to the review (which I never clicked on). Over time the offer has risen and is now standing at £35.

I've reported this to Amazon but there's not much they can do as these are originating outside of Amazon. I've set up filters on my email to put them in the Spam box, which I'll leave for a while as I'm curious to see how high the offer will go. Shortly though I'll change the filter to just delete them completely.

Amazon Review and Gift Card scams have been around a long while but how they managed to get hold of my Amazon only email address is a mystery.

This has similarities to an attempted scam I had 2 days ago. The similarity is that I was sent an email immediately after writing on a social media site. Which begs the questions, how did the sender know I had just posted an advert, and how did they get my address.

I use Nextdoor. I am not a great fan, but it is useful for local info and for selling locally. We are having the bathroom refitted, so wanted to offer the perfectly good bath, basin a toilet for free. I received an email saying that I would need to use my credit card to verify my account in order to stop people posting fraudulently, until then my posts would be frozen. I did not do this. My posts are not frozen.

I have reported the incident but not received a reply. Reporting is far from easy on that platform.





John

 

[ProfJohnL]

I tried "Nextdoor" but found it wasn't just my neighbourhood it was upto 25 miles radius. The notifications were annoyingly intrusive, and very rarely anything of relevant or interest to me, often being advertising for service not or available to my immediate neighbourhood.

Barely used it so I withdrew.

 

[Jcloughie]

I tried "Nextdoor" but found it wasn't just my neighbourhood it was upto 25 miles radius. The notifications were annoyingly intrusive, and very rarely anything of relevant or interest to me, often being advertising for service not or available to my immediate neighbourhood.

Barely used it so I withdrew.

I agree that it has lots of faults. But I have found it useful for selling or giving away the odd thing.

John

 

[otherclive]

I agree that it has lots of faults. But I have found it useful for selling or giving away the odd thing.

John

Selling locally our daughter puts our stuff on local Facebook. Giving away use Trash Nothing/Freecycle. When we moved here we were invited to Next Door but did not join for similar reasons to Prof John.

 

[Beachball]

I agree that it has lots of faults. But I have found it useful for selling or giving away the odd thing.

John

Like you sold some of our stuff on Next Door and the news around my area .

 

[Kenno]

Product reviews serve no useful purpose. I don’t believe most of them are genuine moreso an artificial way of inflating the efficacy of the product.
However I do reviews on U.K. Campsites and the two Clubs.

Fake Review Protection browser and android add on​

Fakespot - Love Everything You Buy

Fakespot spots, analyzes and identifies fake reviews and counterfeits - helping you out when buying stuff online.

www.fakespot.com

 

[Sam Vimes]

Fakespot should run there own program on their App Store reviews because many of them appear to be fake.

Personally I wouldn't use anything that relies on AI although I came across what I though was a good use of it yesterday.

O2 mobile network operator has developed and AI voice called 'Daisy' which it used to frustrate fraudsters making scam calls. When intercepted by Daisy it keeps them talking for quite a while using human like rambling chat which keeps the scammers on the phone. Its a specific number so relies on getting picked by the scammers but has been hacked into the contact lists used by many of them.

So while they're spending many minutes chatting to 'Daisy' they're at least not calling someone else.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I think product reviews can be useful but need careful examination. I'd be suprised to find anyone who has never read a review even in a caravan magazine for example or on this forum and not taken note of some aspect of it.

I'm part of the Amazon Vine Review Program and test and write reviews on many products. I'm honest and only chose to test things I have a practical use for. My reviews range from 1 star Absolute Rubbish to 5 star Excellent. I'd like to think they help others make an informed decision.

I read many of the other reviews of the product, if there are some, and its obvious that some folks are just paraphrasing the description in the listing without explaning their personal experiences - if indeed they have any. One person used to cut and past the words from the listing.

Usually when I read reviews I start with the mid range 3 star ones then go down. If I disagree with my own impressions then I'll go back to the 4 and 5 star reviews. Even then they may still not convince me because other people may well have different expectations of a product.

 

[Buckman]

When reading the bad reviews I look for a pattern i.e. same issue and ignore the rest.

 

[Mel]

When reading the bad reviews I look for a pattern i.e. same issue and ignore the rest.

Me too, if lots are saying the same thing then I pay attention. Although I bought a hedge trimmer thing from Aldi. I read the reviews afterwards, when I was writing a very positive one, and a load of people said that the charger wouldn’t fit the socket. These were all people who hadn’t read the instructions and were trying to charge it in the wrong place.
I do write reviews for some things I have bought as I do find the reviews of others potentially ( but not always)helpful.
Mel

 

[RogerL]

I read reviews of campsites that I'm interested in booking, on UKCampsite and CAMHC - quite often the poor scoring reviews seem to me to show the reviewer had the wrong expectation for the site - but I generally find that product reviews are useless, too many good reviews to be believable.

Caravan magazine "reviews" are one of the worst - they rarely call out poor layouts or faulty workmanship - and we all know how common they are!

 

[ProfJohnL]

I don't trust the internet to tell the complete story or truth. I have been researching a non caravan related topic where I witnessed certain events many years ago and I know the story well, but since about 2000 tand the advent of VideoBlogging, a number of bloggers have passed through an area and remarked about some changes that took place in 1971. But their explanations do not match the detail of the knowledge I have on the subject. I decided to write rights to some of the bloggers to point out the errors of their conclusions, but then I realised my own perceptions could be wrong. I needed to check my own evidence, In attempting to do so, I researched on the internet, but only found several instances of near identical erroneous reporting. I traced it back to a local government project about developing a conservation route where the wording technically agrees with my own experience, but it has been misquoted which has changed the entire meaning of the words.

It seems most bloggers may undertake research into topics, but they don't go far enough back to th e sources, so they repeat (Almost word for word) the erroneous content, and becasue its been repeated so frequently its incorrect wording now comes up multiple times which makes an inquirer believe the faulty description is correct.

In a caravanning context a similar occurrence arises with the 85% towing ratio advice, mis quoted as a "rule" which give the impression it has authority.

Just becasue multiple sources on the internet provide the same explanation does /should not be taken as confirmation of its factual accuracy or efficacy