Amazon and Google don’t seem to be big fans of the “fake it ’til you make it” philosophy.
The two companies have each filed separate lawsuits against Proloy Pondit, who they claim maintained, controlled or operated the site at the center of both cases, BigBoostUp.com. Amazon and Google allege that BigBoostUp allowed users to purchase fake reviews, which bad actors posted on businesses’ products or profiles on the two platforms.
According to Amazon’s complaint, BigBoostUp.com “advertised that [it] would provide fake five-star reviews at prices ranging from $60 for one fake review, to $2,680 for 50 fake reviews.”
Related Stories
Amazon uses product reviews to help influence its rankings of products based on sales, and to help customers make decisions about which products to buy. By allegedly using fake reviews, BigBoostUp worked to “improperly manipulate the published ratings and rankings of products listed for sale in Amazon’s stores,” the company argues in its complaint.
That, it goes on to say, negatively impacts consumers’ perception of the legitimacy of Amazon’s business model.
“Defendants were actively deceiving Amazon’s customers and tarnishing Amazon’s brand for their own profit, as well as for the profit of bad actors who purchased their services,” the complaint alleges.
It further contends that if fake reviews give an inflated rating to poor-quality products, consumers might be unsatisfied with their purchases if they had a false sense of what they were buying. Having higher ratings could also “help sellers unfairly take advantage of perks in Amazon’s stores, including the likelihood that a seller’s products are selected as ‘Featured Offers,’” the company argues.
According to Amazon, several days before the company filed its Oct. 28 complaint, BigBoostUp’s owners and operators deactivated the site; allegedly, it had been in operation since September 2023. Now, users trying to access the site receive a message informing them that the domain has expired.
The e-commerce behemoth accuses BigBoostUp of violating Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, as well as breach of contract with the company itself. That’s because, as part of Amazon’s terms of service, customers agree not to post reviews incentivized by monetary gain, free products or other gifts.
Amazon filed its complaint in the Western District of Washington, but technology giant Google decided to file a parallel complaint against Pondit and BigBoostUp in the Northern District of California. Its complaint outlines many of the same concerns Amazon has, but in Google’s case, the alleged fake reviews were directed to businesses on Google Maps.
Amazon has several other lawsuits focused on nearly identical claims pending. According to a blog post, earlier this year, a court ordered Auction Sentinel, another site that had allegedly been peddling fake Amazon reviews, to hand over all profits made from those sales and to transfer ownership of the domain to the e-commerce behemoth.
Those consequences are similar to the relief Amazon seeks in its newest review-centric lawsuit. It requests the court issue an injunction against Pondit and the site, and states that the BigBoostUp domain—and any other domains Pondit and BigBoostUp associates may use for fake reviews—should be disabled and transferred to Amazon. Additionally, the company requests that any profits BigBoostUp made based on selling fake Amazon reviews should be handed over to the Seattle-based marketplace platform.
The two companies have been focused on thwarting fake reviews for several years. Amazon uses artificial intelligence to determine whether comments and ratings left by customers are real or not, and Google has put sanctions into place for Business Profiles caught paying for fake reviews.
“Our goal is to ensure that every review in Amazon’s store is trustworthy and reflects customers’ actual experiences,” Claire O’Donnell, Amazon’s director of Selling Partner Trust and Store Integrity said in a statement. “The parallel actions with Google further our efforts in protecting customers and our selling partners, and we are proud to team up with a company who is also committed to taking action against bad actors attempting to deceive customers.”
Halimah DeLaine Prado, general counsel for Google, said, like Amazon, the company will continue to pursue bad actors influencing reviews on Google Maps and other platforms it owns and operates. It also supports a rule put forth by the FTC in August, which stipulates that fake reviews; buying positive or negative reviews; review suppression and more are now fully prohibited.
“Reviews play a crucial role in helping people explore the world and find businesses they enjoy with confidence. We will continue to take action to safeguard our platforms and this litigation builds on our ongoing work to crack down on fake reviews, including supporting the Federal Trade Commission’s new rule on this,” she said in a statement.
