Amazon continues crackdown on alleged fake reviews - CNET

For budding novelists looking to stand out, the website PaidBookReviews.org offers a package of 100 book reviews on Amazon for the low price of $2,200.

The website was one of five sites Amazon sued Friday in Washington state court, part of the online retailer's year-long campaign to snuff out networks of fake reviews on its site.

The company has filed three separate lawsuits since last April, targeting more than 1,000 alleged fake reviewers. Several sites Amazon sued have already shut down, and an Amazon spokeswoman said Monday that the suits have helped the company obtain information to go after people not directly involved in the lawsuits, resulting in Amazon banning some sellers and reviewers.

"We will continue to pursue legal action against the root cause of reviews abuse -- the sellers and manufacturers who create the demand for fraudulent reviews," the spokeswoman said in a written statement, "as well as the ecosystem of individuals and organizations who supply fraudulent reviews."

Amazon has a big interest in making sure its millions of customers trust its 5-star reviews system, especially because these reviews let buyers know how good or crummy products are before making purchases online. While Amazon repeatedly says only a small fraction of its reviews are fakes and it uses controls to take many of them down, the company may still find itself in an unending battle of cracking down on paid reviews websites that crop up when old ones are shuttered.