Note: The same goes for companies arranging negative reviews and denegrating those who post negative reviews of their products.<br><br clear="all"><br>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/technology/for-2-a-star-a-retailer-gets-5-star-reviews.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25&pagewanted=print#">Reprints</a></li></div><br></div>
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<div class="timestamp">January 26, 2012</div>
<h1>For $2 a Star, an Online Retailer Gets 5-Star Product Reviews</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By <a rel="author" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/david_streitfeld/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by David Streitfeld" class="meta-per">DAVID STREITFELD</a></h6>
</span>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
In the brutal world of online commerce, where a competing product is
just a click away, retailers need all the juice they can get to close a
sale. </p>
<p>
Some exalt themselves by anonymously posting their own laudatory
reviews. Now there is an even simpler approach: offering a refund to
customers in exchange for a write-up. </p>
<p>
By the time VIP Deals ended <a title="Letter from VIP" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/286364-vip-deals.html">its rebate</a> on <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/amazon_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about Amazon.com Inc" class="meta-org">Amazon.com</a>
late last month, its leather case for the Kindle Fire was receiving the
sort of acclaim once reserved for the likes of Kim Jong-il. Hundreds of
reviewers proclaimed the case a marvel, a delight, exactly what they
needed to achieve bliss. And definitely worth five stars. </p>
<p>
As the collective wisdom of the crowd displaces traditional advertising,
the roaring engines of e-commerce are being stoked by favorable
reviews. The VIP deal reflects the importance merchants place on these
evaluations — and the lengths to which they go to game the system.
</p>
<p>
Fake reviews are drawing the attention of regulators. They have cracked
down on a few firms for deceitful hyping and suspect these are far from
isolated instances. “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old
problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways,” said Mary K.
Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for
advertising practices. “We’re very concerned.” </p>
<p>
Researchers like Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, are also taking notice, trying to
devise mathematical models to systematically unmask the bogus
endorsements. “More people are depending on reviews for what to buy and
where to go, so the incentives for faking are getting bigger,” said Mr.
Liu. “It’s a very cheap way of marketing.” </p>
<p>
By last week, 310 out of 335 reviews of VIP Deals’ Vipertek brand
premium slim black leather case folio cover were five stars and nearly
all the rest were four stars. The acclaim seemed authentic, barring the
occasional indiscretion. “I would have done 4 stars instead of 5 without
the deal,” one man bluntly wrote. </p>
<p>
VIP Deals, which specializes in leather tablet cases and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/stun_guns/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about stun guns." class="meta-classifier">stun guns</a>,
denied it was quietly offering the deals. “You are totally off base,” a
representative named Monica wrote in an e-mail. </p>
<p>
But three customers said in interviews that the offer was
straightforward. Searching for a protective case for their new Kindle
Fire, they came upon the VIP page selling a cover for under $10 plus
shipping (the official list price was $59.99). When the package arrived
it included a letter extending an invitation “to write a product review
for the Amazon community.” </p>
<p>
“In return for writing the review, we will refund your order so you will have received the product for free,” it said. </p>
<p>
Anne Marie Logan, a Georgia pharmacist, was suspicious. “I was like, ‘Is
this for real?’ ” she said. “But they credited my account. You think
it’s unethical?” </p>
<p>
While the letter did not specifically demand a five-star review, it
broadly hinted. “We strive to earn 100 percent perfect ‘FIVE-STAR’
scores from you!” it said. </p>
<p>
The merchant, which seems to have no Web site and uses a mailbox drop in
suburban Los Angeles as a return address, did not respond to further
requests for comment. As of last week, the company (as opposed to its
products) had received 4,945 reviews on Amazon for a nearly perfect 4.9
rating out of five. </p>
<p>
Amazon is expected to sell 20 million Kindle Fire tablets this year,
making the market for cases potentially enormous. But it is also
bitterly competitive, with dozens of models in Amazon’s Kindle showroom.
With a modest <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/investments/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about investing." class="meta-classifier">investment</a>,
VIP pushed its product far above the competition, none of which had so
much enthusiasm with so little dissent. Customers like Ms. Logan, who
got something they had genuinely wanted for only a small shipping
charge, were of course thrilled. And Amazon racked up more revenue.
</p>
<p>
Even a few grouches could not spoil the party. “This is an egregious
violation of the ratings and review system used by Amazon,” a customer
named Robert S. Pollock wrote in a review he titled “scam.” </p>
<p>
He was promptly chastised by another customer. This fellow, himself a
seller on Amazon, argued that he had both given and gotten free items in
exchange for reviews. “It is not a scam but an incentive,” he wrote.
</p>
<p>
Under F.T.C. rules, when there is a connection between a merchant and
someone promoting its product that affects the endorsement’s
credibility, it must be fully disclosed. In one case, Legacy Learning
Systems, which sells music instructional tapes,<a href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/legacy.shtm"> paid $250,000</a> last March to settle charges that it had hired affiliates to recommend the videos on Web sites. </p>
<p>
Amazon, sent a copy of the VIP letter by The New York Times, said its
guidelines prohibited compensation for customer reviews. A few days
later, it deleted all the reviews for the case, which itself was listed
as unavailable. Then it took down the product page itself. </p>
<p>
Asked why Amazon did not seem to notice that at least a few consumers
called into question the VIP deal on its own site, a spokeswoman
declined to comment. Nor would she say exactly what happened to VIP’s
other products, like the Vipertek VTS-880 mini stun gun, which also
disappeared from the retailer. </p>
<p>
The gun, like the Kindle case, received nearly all five-star reviews. “I
bought one for my wife and decided to let her try it on me,” one man
wrote in a typical display of the sort of effusiveness that VIP
inspired. “We gave it a full charge and let me just say WOW! Boy do I
regret that decision.” </p>
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