Latest news with #consumerProtection
Associated Press
a day ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Amazon commits to stepping up fake-review fight after UK watchdog's investigation
LONDON (AP) — Amazon has pledged to beef up fight against fake reviews, Britain's competition regulator said Friday after an investigation into whether big online platforms are doing enough to crack down on phony online ratings for products and services. The Competition and Markets Authority said it secured the 'undertakings' from Amazon, after getting a similar agreement earlier this year from Google to clamp down on rogue reviews plaguing the internet. The company promised to strengthen its existing systems for fighting fake reviews. It will also tackle catalog abuse, which involves sellers boosting star ratings for a product by hijacking good reviews from a completely different one. As an example, a shopper might come across a pair of headphones with a five-star rating. But, after looking closer, most of the reviews are for a mobile phone charger, the watchdog said. As part of its commitments, Amazon has agreed to sanction anyone caught using these tactics. Businesses could be banned from selling on the Amazon website and users posting fake reviews could be banned from posting them, the CMA said. The watchdog's chief executive, Sarah Cardell, said that so many people shop on Amazon and 'star ratings and reviews have a huge impact on their choices.' Amazon's pledges 'mean people can make decisions with greater confidence – knowing that those who seek to pull the wool over their eyes will be swiftly dealt with.' The pledges apply to Amazon's U.K. website. The company said in a statement that it has zero tolerance for fake reviews and that the measures build on Amazon's existing efforts to tackle them. 'We invest significant resources to proactively stop fake reviews ever appearing on our store, including on expert human investigators and machine learning models that analyse thousands of data points to detect risk,' the company said. The CMA opened its investigations into Amazon and Google in 2021 to examine whether the two companies broke U.K. consumer law by failing to protect shoppers. It began looking into phony reviews on some big websites amid the boom in online shopping fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
Scratchie scam via registered mail offering $US240,000 prize really is 'too good to be true'
It is sold as a scratch and win dream — two professional-looking scratchie cards neatly packaged alongside a glossy travel brochure and sent via registered mail with a return address to Kuala Lumpur. When the recipient scratches a ticket, they "win" a prize of $US240,000 ($369,000). But before any prize can be claimed, recipients are asked to provide the scammers with their personal identification details and to transfer money to claim their winnings. Consumer Protection WA said there had been an escalation in scratchie scams, with 110 reports made to the consumer watchdog over the past year. Five West Australians fell victim to scratchie fraudsters totalling $30,550 in losses. ABC Kimberley-Pilbara Saturday Breakfast presenter Roslyn Butcher received the pictured scratchies last month. "I was quite excited because normally whatever online shopping I do I tend to get it sent to a parcel locker, but this was registered post," she said. The Kimberley-based presenter was suspicious and checked online to see if it was a scam. "I know the saying: 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'," Ms Butcher said. "I was able to think this through and realise it probably was a scam. Sure enough, it really was too good to be true." Consumer Protection Kimberley senior officer Ange Inns said scammers changed their fraudulent trading name once found out. "It's a lottery in itself whether you receive them. Don't fall for the glossy paperwork and the big win," she said. "To go to this trouble and effort, you'd think that they are quite certain some people are going to fall for these scams." She said scammers attempted to use the provided details for identity theft. "It's definitely one of the tricks of their trade to get you sucked into sending in your personal details, copies of your passport or your bank account details," Ms Inns said. "This could be used in a lot of ways to steal your identity, take out loans, and all these other things." Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission statistics show Australians have lost more than $5.8 million in "unexpected winnings" scams, which include scratchie scams, since 2020. Fraudulent scams arriving in the mail have accounted for $1.6 million in losses, with residents in Queensland, New South Wales and WA reporting the highest number of scams. While WA authorities said the scams were difficult to shut down, people should be suspicious of any letters, emails or telephone calls suggesting they had won an unexpected prize. "You should never have to pay to win money, and be careful of sharing your ID documents," Ms Inns said. "We can attempt to take web pages down, but I think the scammers will always be around."
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
UK secures action from Amazon to tackle fake reviews
LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab has committed to do more to tackle fake reviews, including sanctioning British businesses that boost their ratings through bogus posts, the country's competition watchdog said on Friday. Following a four-year probe, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Amazon's undertakings also addressed its concerns about 'catalogue abuse' where sellers use the reviews of well-performing unrelated products to boost ratings and mislead customers. Companies that break the rules could be banned from selling on the e-commerce giant's platform altogether, while users who post fake reviews could be banned from posting reviews. Amazon also committed to robust processes to quickly detect and remove fake reviews and catalogue abuse, the CMA said. The regulator, which estimates that 90% of consumers use online reviews to inform purchases, began investigating Amazon and Google in 2021 over possible breaches of consumer protection law. It secured similar commitments from Google in January. "These new commitments matter and help set the standard," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement. The watchdog is conducting an initial sweep of review platforms following the release of new reviews guidance in April, seeking to identify platforms that may need to do more to comply with consumer law. Under its newly-granted powers, the CMA can independently decide whether consumer law has been infringed and take action in case of breaches, including issuing fines and ordering businesses to improve their practices.
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
UK secures action from Amazon to tackle fake reviews
LONDON :Amazon has committed to do more to tackle fake reviews, including sanctioning British businesses that boost their ratings through bogus posts, the country's competition watchdog said on Friday. Following a four-year probe, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Amazon's undertakings also addressed its concerns about 'catalogue abuse' where sellers use the reviews of well-performing unrelated products to boost ratings and mislead customers. Companies that break the rules could be banned from selling on the e-commerce giant's platform altogether, while users who post fake reviews could be banned from posting reviews. Amazon also committed to robust processes to quickly detect and remove fake reviews and catalogue abuse, the CMA said. The regulator, which estimates that 90 per cent of consumers use online reviews to inform purchases, began investigating Amazon and Google in 2021 over possible breaches of consumer protection law. It secured similar commitments from Google in January. "These new commitments matter and help set the standard," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement. The watchdog is conducting an initial sweep of review platforms following the release of new reviews guidance in April, seeking to identify platforms that may need to do more to comply with consumer law. Under its newly-granted powers, the CMA can independently decide whether consumer law has been infringed and take action in case of breaches, including issuing fines and ordering businesses to improve their practices.
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Amazon UK commits to working harder to tackle fake reviews
Amazon has promised to work harder to tackle fake reviews on its site following an investigation by the competition watchdog. The retail giant has committed to 'robust processes' to quickly detect and remove fake reviews alongside sanctions for rogue sellers and businesses as part of work by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to curb the customer hazard. Amazon has also promised to tackle concerns around 'catalogue abuse', where sellers hijack the reviews of well-performing products and add them to an entirely separate and different product in order to falsely boost the star rating. In practice, this could mean a consumer thinks they have found a pair of five-star headphones when the majority of reviews are for an unrelated item. Amazon has agreed to sanction businesses that boost their star ratings via bogus reviews or catalogue abuse, including bans from selling on the website. Sanctions will also be applied to users who post fake reviews, who could be banned from posting reviews altogether. The site has also promised to provide clear and robust mechanisms to allow consumers and businesses to report fake reviews and catalogue abuse quickly and easily. The undertakings relate to the reviews, review counts and star ratings for products visible to consumers when searching Amazon's UK online store. They follow an investigation by the CMA into Amazon over concerns that the company was breaching consumer law by failing to take adequate action to protect people from fake reviews – including not doing enough to detect and remove fake reviews, act on suspicious patterns of behaviour, or properly sanction reviewers and businesses taking part in fake review activity. The CMA estimates that around 90% of consumers use reviews when making purchasing decisions, and that as much as £23 billion of UK consumer spending is potentially influenced by online reviews annually. Fake reviews are now explicitly banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA). Amazon's undertakings follow Google changing its processes for tackling fake reviews, including sanctions for repeat offenders, in January. CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: 'So many people use Amazon, from buying a new bike lock to finding the best coffee machine – and what's clear is that star ratings and reviews have a huge impact on their choices. 'That's why these new commitments matter and help set the standard. They mean people can make decisions with greater confidence – knowing that those who seek to pull the wool over their eyes will be swiftly dealt with.' The CMA will now scrutinise whether review platforms, businesses who list products on them, and reviewers themselves, are complying with the strengthened laws around fake reviews. An Amazon spokesman said: 'We invest significant resources to pro-actively stop fake reviews ever appearing on our store, including on expert human investigators and machine learning models that analyse thousands of data points to detect risk. 'Last year we pro-actively blocked more than 275 million fake reviews, with more than 99% of all products in our store containing only authentic reviews. 'We also suspend, ban and take legal action against those who violate our policies and have teams dedicated to taking action against bad actors that attempt to solicit fake reviews for products.'
