Amazon Reviews: Continuing Degrading and Loss of Credibility and Value.

Amazon reviews are intended to provide honest feedback of user's experiences with Amazon products. Many readers take these reviews at their face value. Unfortunately, seller have learned how to finesse Amazon's lax rules and review policies have been exploited by numerous seller, particularly in the last year since Amazon relaxed its review polices even further from what they were.

For the past two years we have been pointing out how Theos Medical Products, nor selling on Amazon under their product name Chummie, have extensively abused the Amazon reviews. We are copying the article below from  ChummieFraudonAmazonReviews.comas it lays out in some detail the fraud that occurs on Amazon Reviews. Suggestions offered for Amazon to reduce fraud on their reviews are marked by us in RED. It still makes eminent sense. We sincerely hope that Amazon will seriously consider and even adopt these suggestions to ensure the validity and usefulness of Amazon Reviews.

Fraud & Collusion by Sellers to Favorably Stuff their Amazon Product Reviews.

Chummie and Chummie Elite Reviews on Amazon

Having read much about possible fraud by sellers stuffing their product reviews favorably on Amazon so as to get a better reviews rating, we decided to look into it. Having read on bedwettingalarmsdeceitcatcher.blogspot.com the substantial deceit and stuffing being done by Theos Medical Systems with their Chummie products, we decided to examine the 5-stars reviews given to Theos by “users” who were not Amazon “Verified Purchasers” and also had many other non-verified purchases on Amazon. Obviously, such persons could be non-buyers and users of the products, and could be fake reviewers. The issue was whether there was substantial evidence of collusion between Chummie and these reviewers. This exercise and analysis was done on August 11, 2014 and uses Amazon data as of that date. We also continued this examination through September 8, 2014, by which time the extent of the collusion was well established.

We examined a number of such non-Amazon verified reviewers of Theos products. It soon became evident that there were “rings” of persons supporting or "selling" reviews for various products, and the scheme was extensively entwined around very many Amazon products. The evidence is presented in the spread-sheets on the next five pages. The collusion and overlap was so substantial that we restricted ourselves to only ten products apart from the seven that Theos sells under the Chummie name on Amazon.

The probability of so many people in Amazon’s huge buying population buying similar products with substantial overlap is essentially zero. This has to be the result of complicit action by the review writers.

We have also noticed that there must be many “groups” of such "reviewers" that unethical sellers can use. One day after compiling the initial data on the spread-sheet (Page 1) with the names and items reviewed by fake Chummie supporters, we looked at new 5-stars reviews by non-verified buyers for Chummie items. This is a new group of people (or people with new names). Ten additional fake 5-stars reviews were added in less than a day.

There has to be a high degree of duplicity, with the participants either

1)        Payment in Cash: Paid cash by the sellers to post fraudulent and false 5-stars reviews to inflate the Amazon reviews position of the sellers, or

2)        Payment in Kind: Participating in a scheme to provide each other with 5-star reviews for their mutual benefit.

Consequently, payment may be in Cash or Kind. We believe that many payments for reviews are in cash.

We strongly suspect that Chummie is buying 5-stars reviews from these persons. In four (4) days over the period 8/12/14 through 8/15/14, Chummie appears to have purchased thirty-nine (39) more 5-stars reviews from the 38 "persons" listed on Fraud on Amazon Reviews - Page 2 of this site. We have intentionally only referenced the Chummie products given these fake 5-stars reviews, as other products given 5-stars by these professional sellers of Amazon ratings are getting too numerous to describe.

This frantic rate at which Chummie is purchasing 5-stars reviews for its products indicates either desperation for more sales, or a high degree of arrogance and deceit without respect for its customers and/or normal ethics of not creating complete false information to mislead potential customer. This can also be to mislead Amazon, as getting a high rate of 5-stars "reviews" will give them a higher priority in Amazon's placement of Chummie products on Amazon's product pages. This is deception and fraud. This fraud is even more severe if the seller has actively solicited and paid for fake reviews to be posted, either favoring the seller's product, or debasing a competitor's product.

A group of people are colluding, in severe violation of Amazon policies, to artificially raise the review scores of selected Amazon sellers who pay these unethical persons for their illicit service. This may be several groups colluding. There is no doubt about the participation of the sellers in these schemes. Purchasing 5-stars reviews from unethical "buyers" appears to be a mode of operation that unethical sellers on Amazon use. Chummie strongly fits into this group.

We are surprised that Amazon has made it easier for such deceit in recent times by removing their requirement for a reviewer to be an Amazon verified buyer of that item. We must leave it to Amazon to identify the perpetrators and participants of these fraudulent schemes and resulting reviews which have substantially diminished the value of Amazon’s much touted Review System. Let us see what action Amazon takes and how Amazon stops this abuse. Some  appropriate action may be to

1)    Bar these sellers (such as Chummie) from selling on Amazon,

2)    Cancel the accounts of the fakes who "sell" 5-stars reviews to unethical Amazon sellers,

3)    Delete these fake reviews created by these fraudulent persons,

4)    Increase the cost for such illicit sellers by re-instituting the requirement that only Amazon Verified Buyers can provide reviews,

5)    If a Verified Buyer returns a product to Amazon that has been reviewed on Amazon by this buyer, cancel and delete this review,

6)    If there is sufficient evidence that the seller has been involved multiple times in soliciting and purchasing such illicit reviews and having them posted on Amazon,

       a)   Permanently bar the seller from being a seller, or allowing proxies to be sellers on his behalf, and

       b)   If this seller is also the manufacturer of a product, prohibit this product from being sold on Amazon, on any Amazon site, by any seller.

7)    If there is sufficient evidence that the seller has been involved multiple times in misrepresenting himself as a competitor, solicited fake reviews using a competitor's name or identity, and paid for them to be posted on Amazon's reviews, the actions taken by Amazon should be at least as severe as recommended in 6) above, with Amazon taking possible legal action against such a seller.

With their information, knowledge and resources we feel sure that Amazon can resolve this problem IF THEY WANT TO. This is where the problem essentially lies, at Amazon's door. Inadequate efforts, ignoring obvious severe violations, and even "protection" of such "preferred" sellers, when these are brought to Amazon's attention. In such matters, Amazon seems to be oblivious of the fact that the credibility of their review system is being ruined, mostly by unethical sellers, but also by some of Amazon's own actions (or in-actions).

For unethical and fake buyers and sellers, we have made copies of these violations from Amazon's review listings so as to have proof of the illicit acts, even if the fake buyers (reviewers) or the unethical  seller (Chummie in this case) attempt to alter any of the current facts.

We have found that the Chummie Elite alarm on Amazon is fraught with fraudulent reviews. 

NOTE: The situation got so bad that Theos Medical Systems, the maker and supplier of Chummie alarms, was removed as a seller on Amazon.com by Amazon. We shall continue to follow the Chummie Elite's reviews on Amazon, and also its performance on eBay. Chummie cannot manipulate matters on eBay easily, as there are no reviews on eBay to manipulate. Chummie true performance on eBay is deplorable, as is its performance on Amazon would be once all of the phony and "purchased" reviews are removed.

Keeping the Consumer Dumb and Ignorant - Missing Performance and Physical Information for Bedwetting Alarms.

For almost two years we have been attempting to make manufacturers of bedwetting and enuresis alarms provide the public with complete and accurate information about their alarms with some success but also substantial resistance by some manufactures. Perhaps these manufactures are afraid to disclose how their product hype does not correspond with actual product characteristics. Leaving out performance measures may prevent embarrassment, but should also serve as a warning to the reader that these missing facts may relate to product deficiencies.

We therefore decided to look at the most prominent site for selling bedwetting alarms (Amazon.com) and the alarms on the first page using the search term "bedwetting alarm" and compare claims and missing information with the data on the most complete and comprehensive sites providing very detailed characteristics of these bedwetting alarms at

http://urinealarms.com/Wired_Alarm_Chart.html and  
http://www.bed-wettingalarms.com/wired-alarms-comparison-chart.html 
for Wired Bedwetting Alarms
and at

http://urinealarms.com/Wireless_Alarm_Chart.html  and
http://www.bed-wettingalarms.com/wireless-alarms-chart.html 
for Wireless Bedwetting Alarms.

Alarms not on the Amazon.com first page or not in the detailed reference site are not included.

As we are examining the absence of "hard" facts, we shall be looking at missing or "suspect" data in
Effectiveness
Weight & Size
Cost
Required Certifications and Registrations

Please note that we are only considering bedwetting alarms on Amazon.com's first page, and listing them in alphabetical order (as in the reference sites).

Chummie

Claim: Loud alarm            Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided

Chummie Elite

Claim: Loud sounds         Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided

DryBuddyEZ

Complete Data Provided 

DryBuddyFLEX Wireless System with Magnetic Sensor

Complete Data Provided 

DryEasy

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box only (with and without batteries): Not Provided or Not Clear

Required Certifications and Registrations: Not Provided 

Dry-Knight

Volume Control: Not Provided

Connector from Sensor Cable to Alarm Box: Not Provided

Required Certifications and Registrations: Not Provided 

Dry-Me

Claim: Loud sounds         Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided 

Malem Ultimate 1

No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided 

WetStop3 
Claim: Loud alarm            Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided

Connector from Sensor Cable to Alarm Box: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided


We hope that the above will provide a guide to consumers to investigate further, and to manufacturers to provide missing information and keep consumers correctly and completely informed.

DryEasy - Illegal Sale of Product in the United States of America

In our blog entry on December 6, 2014, we found DryEasy to be involved with Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment. There were a variety of issues that we found DryEasy to be deficient about, an important one being that DryEasy was not registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To repeat from our previous blog:

DryEasy and its parent company are not registered with the FDA. By U.S. law, any bedwetting alarm sold in the U.S. and shipped from a U.S. location, and its related facility, must be registered with the FDA. Any reader who wishes to check whether a bedwetting alarm and/or related facility is registered with the FDA in the U.S. can look at:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfrl/rl.cfm
 
and enter the Product Code  KPN  which is the FDA code for "alarm, conditioned response enuresis" which is a bedwetting alarm. A complete list of all registered parties and items will be shown from the FDA database. DryEasy and its parent company are not registered and listed. Consequently any buyer of the DryEasy buying it from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.

We hoped that by pointing out their illegal activity, the owners of DryEasy would register with the FDA as required by U.S. laws and FDA regulations. Unfortunately, as of today, looking at the FDA Establishment Registration & Device listing web-site (see above) we do not find DryEasy to be registered. Apparently DryEasy seems to consider themselves above and beyond the reach of U.S. laws, perhaps because they are based in China. Being very familiar with these issues, there is no doubt that the sale of DryEasy in the United States and being shipped from U.S. locations is a violation of these U.S. laws and regulations. It can result in regulatory fines and other actions against the vendors and shippers of this product in the U.S. No shipper of such unregistered products is exempt from these regulations.

We are informed that the FDA directly, or the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) acting on behalf of the FDA, is looking into taking action against such violators of U.S. law.

This notice is placed on this blog to again warn the owners of DryEasy, as well as sellers and shippers of this product, that they could see actions against them by the FDA and the FBI. 

We also repeat that  any buyer of the DryEasy buying it from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.

DryEasy - Illegal Sale of Product in the United States of America.