Your favorite accessory brand may have left Amazon due to fake reviews
Recognition: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
- Amazon removed Aukey and Mpow soon after an investigation found companies were paying for fake reviews.
- Companies were giving out free products in hopes of boosting sales.
- The brands still have to respond to the allegations.
Have you noticed that a popular tech accessories brand has disappeared from Amazon without a trace? There could be a good reason for this. How Digital trends Amazon reportedly dropped Aukey and Mpow from its offerings not long after a SafetyDetective investigation when companies discovered they were paying for fake reviews to increase sales.
The internet security attorney discovered an exposed server with a cache of messages between Amazon sellers and customers willing to provide fake reviews in exchange for free products. While participants in the program would buy the products themselves, vendors would send money through PayPal to avoid alerting the moderators to Amazon. Some may have received an “extra payment” even though there were no examples of it in the cache.
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The scammers also set review policies to avoid detection and used a variety of messaging platforms to coordinate fake reviews, including Telegram and WhatsApp. The server hosting all of these conversations appeared to be in China, although the data concerned people in Europe and the US.
We asked Amazon for a comment. Aukey and Mpow have so far not looked into the shutdowns, including whether or not they were directly linked to the alleged bogus verification scheme.
It is not certain how many companies were involved in the fake review scam. However, the removal of Aukey and Mpow could have a dramatic impact on the tech accessory world. Both are among the best-known manufacturers of technical accessories and were used by Amazon – they have just lost one of their largest storefronts. Alternatives like Anker and RavPower remain, but they won’t be of much use to you if they don’t match what you were looking for.
