This is a hard problem (in the CS sense). How do you filter a customer that reviews a product paid for w/ their own money, who then later gets reimbursed via PayPal?

For the reviewer in the article, how can Amazon know these reviews are purchased? Yes, she buys a lot of stuff, but from Amazon's point of view she may just be a loyal customer- especially given the fact that she mixes personal purchases in.

Amazon does a bad job curating reviews, but this is a difficult problem. I'm not sure how anyone could police the type of review fraud discussed in the article effectively.

> Between these “authentic” fake reviews, the usual fake reviews and counterfeit products, Amazon seems open to serious competition.

To me, this implied you thought that competition could do better

Ah, good point!

What I mean is that these problems make people more open to giving another company a try. It lowers the loyalty someone has to Amazon.

One of the hardest parts of starting a new company is having customers even consider buying something from you.

With all the problems Amazon is having, convincing someone to try an alternative company isn't as difficult.

In fact, some are actively looking for alternatives.

That goes for buys and sellers.