How firms buy bogus 5-star reviews to boost products

FAKE reviews for internet products are being bought and sold online, an investigation has found.

Companies use Facebook to offer Amazon customers full refunds in exchange for five-star reviews of their products.

Investigators found several Facebook groups where potential Amazon customers were encouraged to do this.

They were also able to buy a bogus five-star recommendation on Trustpilot, one of the world’s most trusted review websites.

Responding to an advert on eBay, BBC 5 Live Investigates was able to buy a recommendation, which then appeared word-for-word.

Online review sites are becoming increasingly popular. In 2016, Amazon vowed to clamp down on ‘incentivised reviews’, where businesses offer customers free products, but industry experts claim the measures have not worked.

Amazon said: ‘We do not permit reviews in exchange for compensation of any kind, including payment.’

Trustpilot said it has ‘a zero-tolerance policy towards any misuse’, adding: ‘We have specialist software that screens reviews to identify and remove fakes.’

A spokesman for eBay said it has banned the sale of fake reviews and that such listings are removed.

‘The clampdown has not worked’