Hundreds of tech products on Amazon have fake five-star reviews from unverified buyers

Amazon prides itself for its authentic user reviews for products but it may have something to worry about. A study by UK-based consumer group 'Which?' shows that technology products of 'unknown' brands on Amazon have received five-star ratings. Moreover, the reviewers seem to be unverified buyers.

The study says that search results for gadgets are dominated mostly by brands no one has ever heard of, but their reviews are positive. In fact, within hours of these products being uploaded onto Amazon, they have hundreds of five-star reviews.

This report is based on reviews of 14 technology products including smartwatches, wearables, cameras, headphones that were apparently heavily targeted by potentially fake reviews. Headphones have the highest number of false reviews.

Which? found that after searching the word 'headphone', tech experts had not heard of any of the brands that showed up on the first page. As many as 71 percent of the products on the first page had five-star reviews, although it was not clear from 87 percent of the reviews whether the product was actually bought from Amazon.

One of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world, Amazon said it invests a lot of resources in making sure reviews are authentic and help customers in their shopping experience. "Even one inauthentic review is one too many. We have clear participation guidelines for both reviewers and selling partners and we suspend, ban, and take legal action on those who violate our policies," Which? quoted Amazon as saying.