"Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud
EDIT: A paid review isn't an opinion, it's an attempt to mislead for commercial gain. And civil suits are decided on a preponderance of evidence. As in 51% plausible. As in, a nudge more than a coin toss.
"i bought this book last week and I love it so far"
"my favorite part was when the dog rescues the cat" (no dog in the book)
1) a user who claims to have 100 different Amazon accounts and will guarantee whatever star rating is requested, and asks the purchaser to provide the product review
2) being willing to receive an empty envelope to create a fake shipping record for a "verified purchase" review.
However, actually getting damages against the users is fairly unlikely, particularly since the users may not be US based.
This sounds like grounds for banishment from the site, not legal action.
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/01/26/fake-reviews-everyone...
In summary, reviews like this are illegal.
I'd have thought the case would fall down on other grounds as well: it's pretty difficult to sustain an argument that credibility of reviews is intrinsic to Amazon's business model when the company doesn't make the minimum effort to remove well-publicised joke reviews. And it's going to be tough if they want to prove loss of earnings since if anything paid positive reviews probably increase sales revenues.
1. They need better AI to determine bad actors. It's not like they don't have smart coders working there (right?) and if you look at a fake user's review profile, it's very easy to see the web of fakes
2. They should strongly consider only allowing verified purchase reviews, or highly devalue or have some kind of moderation for non-verified purchases. ie, you need to provide a unique picture.
3. They should strongly consider permanently banning spammy products that have consistent and high amounts of fake reviews.
Some corners of Amazon's marketplace have definitely started to turn into eBay. They need to prevent that at nearly all costs.
Is there a reason Amazon allows reviews of the product from people who haven't bought it? How is that beneficial?
They provide a question and answer section for presales/post sales follow-up.
I know amazon is working hard to solve this, but it's still possible to buy things from not-amazon
The review will be attached to an account. The account's purchase record is available to Amazon.
http://www.projectcensored.org/11-the-media-can-legally-lie/
The notional difference is that the ad industry works with implication, dramatisation, and suggestion.
Even so, how many celebrity endorsements are genuine and not bought and paid for in exactly the same way a five star review is bought and paid for - but with rather more money changing hands?
Does anyone believe that corporations have never, ever encouraged ad agencies to plant positive reviews?
Perhaps the issue isn't so much that Amazon's review system is being damaged, it's that it's being manipulated by the wrong people - which puts it outside the usual borders of corporate control.
And personally I find the reviews unhelpful anyway, because Amazon often groups unrelated reviews together - so I see 200 reviews of an old 2TB hard drive, when I really want reviews of the latest 6TB model.
In the US of course one can be sued for just about any vaguely plausible set of damages. That doesn't mean that they have prevailed on the facts and the law.
The next step then, by definition, is to hear a response from people who are otherwise in a life position where they find themselves writing Amazon reviews for $5 or less.
(nb I don't know what's in their T&Cs regarding fake reviews. I'm be kinda surprised if there's not something in there about doing so honestly and/or not for profit.)