Why Amazon Lets Fake Reviews Exist (And Why They Won't Fix It)

Anyone else notice how some Amazon reviews feel... off?

I thought they had some algorithm or filter catching this stuff but I guess it is mostly hands-off? It feels most egregious on products from overseas sellers and a simple Google search shows tons of services where you can straight up buy reviews. LLMs have made it even harder to discern what is real anymore because people are getting really good at bypassing detection.

They Are Not Obviously Fake Anymore

The old fake reviews were easy to spot. Broken English, generic praise, obviously copy-pasted. Those still exist but the sophisticated ones have evolved.

Now they are just weirdly similar. Same phrasing, same timing, same "I was skeptical at first but" energy across a bunch of different accounts. Not identical enough to get flagged but close enough that once you notice it, you can not unsee it.

I started clicking reviewer profiles one night and that was a mistake. A lot of them are not bots, just accounts reviewing everything under the sun in the exact same tone. Probably the same LLM generating all of them. The fake reviews checker tools exist for a reason.

Why Amazon Does Not Really Care

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Amazon makes money whether the review is real or fake.

Think about it. A product with 4.5 stars sells better than one with 3.5 stars. More sales means more revenue for Amazon. They take their cut either way. The incentives are completely misaligned with consumer protection.

Sure, they have policies against it. They remove obvious violations. But aggressive enforcement would mean:

• Fewer products with high ratings
• Lower conversion rates
• Less revenue

That is not a trade-off they are rushing to make.

The Genuine Reviews Are Still There

Here is the thing though. There ARE a lot of genuine reviews on Amazon. Real people buy stuff and leave honest feedback. The platform is not 100% fake, not even close.

The problem is you can not easily tell which is which. A product might have 2,000 reviews and maybe 1,500 are legitimate. But if 500 are coordinated fakes pushing the rating from 3.8 to 4.4 stars, that changes buying behavior significantly.

I ran a product I was looking at through RateBud out of curiosity. It caught a pattern I missed: a cluster of reviews posted within 48 hours, all from accounts that had reviewed similar products in the same category. Could be coincidence. Probably was not.

The Review Checker Problem

There are tools out there trying to solve this. Amazon review analyzer services, fake review checker extensions, that kind of thing. Some are better than others.

The challenge is that the fakers are getting smarter faster than the detection tools. They use AI to write varied content now. They space out posting times. They build up account history before deploying for paid campaigns.

It is an arms race and honestly the fakers have more financial incentive to win.

What Actually Works

After going down this rabbit hole, here is what I have landed on:

Be skeptical of products with suspiciously perfect ratings. Real products have flaws. Real reviewers mention them. If everything is 5 stars with vague praise, something is off.

Click into reviewer profiles. Are they reviewing random unrelated products with the same enthusiasm? That is a red flag.

Use a review checker tool. Not as the final word but as a sanity check. I have been using RateBud when I am unsure. There are other similar services out there too. The deprecated FakeSpot was popular for a while. Your mileage may vary so try different ones.

Buy from established brands when possible. They have more to lose from review manipulation scandals. Not foolproof but better odds.

The Uncomfortable Conclusion

Amazon is not going to fix this. Not really. The incentives point the wrong direction.

Maybe that is cynical. Maybe some new policy or AI detection system will change things. But the fundamental problem remains: Amazon profits from high ratings regardless of authenticity.

The best we can do is stay skeptical, use whatever tools help us filter signal from noise, and accept that some percentage of what we read is manufactured.

It is possible everything is somewhat fake and we just need to buy from trustworthy companies? I do not know. Maybe I have gone too far down the rabbit hole.

But I would rather be paranoid and occasionally miss a good deal than get burned by another product with 4.8 stars and garbage quality.