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.

Therapee by Dr. Sagie - How Much Hype is Enough?

Update: Before continuing, please note that almost immediately after we posted this blog entry,  Therapee's price on Amazon was raised to $299.00 . 


We had noticed Therapee recently on Amazon, but had little factual knowledge about it except for the "Reviews" (note the ""?) and obvious internet advertisements for the sale of the product. We must admit that we were concerned with the little we were seeing on Amazon. And really nothing significant and confirmable anywhere else (note the word "confirmable").  Our attention was drawn to the Amazon listing for Therapee when about ten of the reviewers on Amazon were asked some simple straight-forward queries about the product which, in our opinion, any honest reviewer should have answered without any hesitation, but none did. Zip. No responses.  We have copied below these queries asked on Amazon:

Query 1:
"I noticed that you didn't buy this through Amazon. Where did you buy it? Was it cheaper there?"

Query 2:
"Hello. I should mention that I am posting this comment (questions) for you only because you are a reviewer of this product on Amazon.com . I am very confused by this product's page on Amazon. You, as an example, are not regarded as an Amazon Verified Purchaser. I understand that this only means that Amazon is unable to certify that you purchased this product from Amazon.
As you did not purchase this product on Amazon, would you please share with me and other readers where and when you purchased it, and what it cost you? Also, why post your review on Amazon if you did not purchase it here? By itself, your posting a review on Amazon would not puzzle me. But there are presently 67 reviews on Amazon for this product, all of them are excellent, and none are Verified Purchasers. This is very confusing. Would you please enlighten me?
I shall also post this same message on a few more recent reviewers and hope that I can get adequate answers from all of you so as to clarify what I am seeing here. Thank you."

We noticed that queries were made to some of both the "Most Helpful" and "Most Recent" reviewers. Quite a reasonable sample in terms of the queries and the reviewers to whom they were presented. And, as pointed out in Query 2, of the 67 reviews, not one was an Amazon Verified Purchaser. So we looked into this matter further, including talking anonymously to some Amazon customer support persons, and looking at the internet. The following are FACTS:

As of the time and date of this posting:

1.            There are 68 Therapee "reviews" posted on Amazon.com, which is the U.S. selling site of Amazon. U.S. customers order from this site.

2.            64 are 5-stars reviews, and 4 are 4-stars reviews.

3.            As may be expected from the stars given in these reviews, every review is superlative, and none are brief one-liners as are often found even with verified 5-stars reviews.

4.            Almost every review is in very correct English. These review could have been written by a Marketing Professional with very good English writing skills. We must admit that we have not yet come across so many reviews for any product where the English has been so good in almost every review.

5.            NONE of the 68 "reviewers" are Amazon Verified Purchasers, so the validity of these reviews is questionable. We must concede that a non-Amazon verified customer could have legitimately purchased this product elsewhere and had user experience of it. But why would 68 separate persons whose opinions of this device and system were so high-flying, not come down to earth for the brief time it might take to answer such straight-forward questions as copied above? And what is the motive for posting these 68 "opinions" on Amazon?

6.            We asked some Amazon customer service persons if they had ever come across any other product on Amazon where there were approximately as many reviews, ALL of which were NOT Amazon Verified Customers, and where 64 of the total 68 reviewers (94%)  gave the product a 5-stars rating, and the remaining 4 gave a four stars rating. ZERO ratings with 3, 2, or 1-star. Every Amazon representative's response was "No." We expected that answer, as these results are totally beyond our experience as well.

7.            We noted that factual information about the product stated on the Amazon page for the Therapee product was MINIMAL. We have capitalized the word MINIMAL as we have not seen any bedwetting alarm with such a little factual seller-provided information, and especially one selling for $299.00 on Amazon (The highest, by far, for this class of products on Amazon).

8.            Looking at the web-site for Therapee, and looking at their section on "Success Stories," the reader is directed to Amazon reviews.

9.            Since the manufacturer offers so little direct information, and refers the reader to the Amazon reviews, are we to infer that these reviews have come from the manufacturer?

10.          It certainly appears that the Amazon Reviews for this product are intended to also serve as information about this product. But they are vague on actual concrete information, and very high on superlative experiences. Why is the manufacturer not providing complete factual information about Therapee, where the device certainly is a bedwetting alarm?

11.          Looking at the internet and doing a Google search for Dr. Sagie bedwetting (we intentionally left out the word alarm or system or whatever else this item may be called so that we would find the searches likely to lead to this product by the correct Dr. Sagie), the only references were from Dr. Sagie's Therapee site or a site (such as Amazon) on which Dr. Sagie's item was being offered for sale. Any off-Amazon opinions that we found (extremely few) were often written by "Anonymous" and not substantiatable.

12.          Looking at Therapee's site, there was a picture of Dr. Sagie and a younger Mr. Sagie. It is stated that Jacob Sagie has a Ph.D. and is a "PsychoTherapist," and Mr. Sagie has an MA in, we assume, one of many areas for which an Arts degree may be awarded. It is not stated that Dr. Sagie is a medical doctor and neither of the Sagies seem to be electrical engineers.

13.          The claim that Therapee is "The World's # 1 Bedwetting Solution" is totally unsubstantiated, and must be ruled as extreme hyperbole. It reminds us of the frequent excessive claims of another manufacturer/seller on Amazon, who has also used such obvious exaggerations. Not at all professional!

14.          Some of the general claims made for the Therapee alarm are typical unsubstantiated hype and absurd fear-mongering, which only a marketing oriented person with a poor sense of ethics would imagine and then publicly state. There is little or no basis in reality that we could identify for some of their claims or statements.

15.          There was one address provided of their "International Office" located in Haifa, Israel. No other physical office or address was suggested.

16.          A look at the Warranty section on the site certainly raises red flags, particularly for U.S. customers towards whom the Amazon.com page is addressed. Of great concern is the statement: "The customer is responsible for shipping and handling costs." Our concern is that no place other than in Haifa, Israel is mentioned. So the buyer would have to pay for shipping the defective item to Israel and back again. Has a buyer looked at these shipping costs, and the time involved?

We could go on. But let's summarize what we see here:

1.            Slick marketing. VERY SLICK marketing. Probably highly fictional, particularly for Amazon Reviews.

2.            If you live in Israel and want to avail yourself of Dr. Sagie's Therapee device and related services and don't mind the costs, try it and find out for yourself.

3.            If you live in the U.S., are a true believer, have the money and time for this item, an uncontrollable compulsion to spend $299.00 as asked for by Therapee on Amazon and possibly much more if anything becomes defective, and cannot even imagine spending less money, or probably MUCH less for another alarm, then what more can we say?

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.

DryEasy: Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment

We examined DryEasy  in our blog on this site dated June 26, 2013. Since this was some time ago, we thought that we should examine DryEasy again. About 18 months ago, we had concluded that DryEasy demonstrated

Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

So we went to their web site (www.bedwettingsolutions.com) to take a fresh look at what DryEasy had to say about itself.

We noticed that their web site had become more "flashy" and sales oriented than what we recall of their previous site. There is a fair amount of general information about bedwetting, which we are not passing judgment on in this blog. Our objective is to identify how completely and accurately the DryEasy and its manufacturer were identified, and complete information provided to the reader. As may be judged from the heading of this blog page, DryEasy failed quite miserably. We consider this failure to be even more severe than our original review from 2013, as we had pointed out to DryEasy many of the matters that we took issue with.

DryEasy took the "Easy" way out by deleting or avoiding some of the issues that we had raised. Others were ignored instead of being addressed. The only relevant information about the DryEasy alarm on their own web site was on their page with the header "Bedwetting Alarms."

Let us list our unanswered questions and our comments relating thereto:

1.            Who is the manufacturer? Who is the seller? What is their location and address? What is their telephone number?

We have a very strong aversion to parties who are marketing over the internet and not providing the buyer with adequate information about themselves. Complete information should be freely available, so that there can be greater confidence in the seller. Not knowing if the manufacturer and seller are the same or not, we are assuming that they are the same and shall refer to them as the seller.

We noticed that DryEasy was listed on Amazon.com, and telephoned Customer Service at Amazon to get the address and telephone number for the DryEasy seller. We were informed that Customer Service did not have this information and could not provide it. A possibly illegitimate seller on Amazon? This is very troubling for us, and should be very troubling to anyone considering purchasing the DryEasy anywhere. Perhaps the public, people considering purchasing the DryEasy alarm, should ask DryEasy to publish this information and make it freely available.

2.            What is the size and weight of the DryEasy alarm?

This would be of interest to any user. We promptly noticed that the sensor is 33" long (for the newer sensor) and 30" long (for the older sensor). The Product Details page did provide some additional dimensions. Amazingly, none of this information is provided on DryEasy's Amazon.com listing, which appears to be the most important U.S. listing for this seller.

We went to the site (sites, actually) that we consider to be by far the most complete for comparing bedwetting alarms: 

www.bed-wettingalarms.com

www.urinealarms.com

sites.google.com/site/comparebedwettingalarms

sites.google.com/site/urinealarms

These appear to be identical in content, and are the most comprehensive sites for comparing the complete details of all (or most) bedwetting alarms, both wired (like the DryEasy) and wireless.

This site states that the DryEasy is 2.4"x2.3"x0.63". No weight is provided of the DryEasy alarm box by itself, but with batteries it is supposed to weigh 2.1 oz. No weight is provided for either sensor. These correspond closely to what is on DryEasy's web site. Kudos to these comparative sites.

3.            We had previously complained that DryEasy had given no practical measure to its claim of "extra loud sound," which is very deceiving. We found nothing about this on DryEasy's web site, but noticed that in their Amazon.com listing they stated:

"Support max. loudness of 85 db."

Loudness is a function of the amplitude (size) of the sound waves, and dissipates (becomes smaller) over distance. The loudness statement provided is meaningless. Can this 85 dB loudness be heard if the alarm is held attached to the ear, or what distance from the ear? Avoiding stating the distance at which the 85 dB loudness can be measured is a very convenient way of possibly misleading the naive reader. If the seller has adequate technical knowledge, he/she should understand the need to provide meaningful information instead of something that is deceitful and incomplete and can be misunderstood.

4.            So let us examine DryEasy's listing on Amazon.com:

Apart from matters mentioned earlier, we note that

a.            There is no Country of Origin. Apparently the DryEasy originates nowhere, or everywhere! If so, perhaps that should be claimed.

b.            Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces. This is impossible as the alarm itself weighs more than that.

c.             Clicking on the seller DryEasy's name on Amazon.com takes us to a details page, which provides no information about DryEasy (as mentioned in 1. earlier).

d.            On this details page we note that the Shipping ETA to  a Continental U.S. Street address is 17 - 28 days. Surprise! The typical Amazon customer in the U.S. expects to receive purchased items in a few days . Does the average person buying this device on Amazon realize that it may take 3 to 4 weeks to receive it? Why does the seller not clearly state on Amazon that they are located in China (an assumption on our part) and shipping from China after the order is received. Consequently it will take several weeks for the buyer to receive the product from China. Attempting to keep this hidden unless the reader does some detective work on the Amazon site is very deceiving. 

5.            For other bedwetting alarms sold on Amazon.com, there is an "Answered Questions" section in which readers can ask about the product. We notice that this has disappeared for DryEasy, together with many other relevant facts about this device. We can only conclude that this is part of DryEasy's deception campaign on Amazon.

6.            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.
 

7.            DryEasy is currently listing for $24.90 on Amazon.com (+ $4.54 shipping with typical arrival 17 to 28 days after the order is placed). We have already expressed our feelings about this deception. Now we point out that on its web site DryEasy is offered at a price of US $49.95 . There is nothing wrong in DryEasy offering it on Amazon for approximately one-half of its normal sale price. But it does make us wonder about the viability of the DryEasy seller if he is selling it in the U.S. for one-half of its normal price.

It is appropriate to raise the issue of how the buyer/user will get warranty or other support from the DryEasy seller if the seller proves to be unresponsive, as the seller has carefully hidden his exact location (full street address) and telephone number so that the seller can be verified and contacted as needed. This, too, is suggestive of the seller wishing to hide his identity from buyers so that he cannot be contacted directly. Again, very deceiving in our opinion.

We believe that DryEasy's continuing behavior in providing incomplete product information and hiding from its public is very deceiving, and strongly recommend that the public be cautious about doing business with an unknown entity. 

Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

Deceit on the Internet: Shopping Reviews -- Reducing Fake Amazon Reviews.

Fake and deceitful reviews on shopping sites is a common occurrence. Amazon.com is the largest internet shopping site, and gets a tremendous number of reviews on a tremendous number of products and services that might be sold on Amazon. Undoubtedly, many of these reviews are fake and false. Some parties may almost be in the business of promoting their product and hurting competitors' products by fake reviews posted on Amazon by themselves or their flacks (shills). We have extensively reported on one such party in this blog.

We are aware that Amazon has procedures in place to try to prevent or reduce such bogus reviews. However, there is little doubt, that a substantial number of fake reviews get by Amazon's people who examine these reviews (we shall refer to them as Examiners). We feel that much of this is because of Amazons dedication to allowing a variety of expressions and opinions to be expressed. And Amazons criteria for allowing a review on its site is loose and often subject to interpretation by its Examiners. Unfortunately, the quality of Amazon's Examiners goes all over the place, from intelligent and willing to understand the circumstances for or against a review, to people who are incapable of going beyond a very literal reading of Amazon's rules, with no other considerations allowed. These latter Examiners have a favorite phrase which is often used - "This does not violate Amazon's rules."

This blog entry is not intended to be a critique of what may be wrong with Amazon's review policies. Our objective is to reduce deceit on the internet. So let us present an opinion expressed as a comment by Helen Smith on August 4, 2013 to our blog entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle" which we posted on this blog on August 2, 2013. Helen's comments are reproduced below:

Helen Smith   August 4, 2013 at 9:10 AM

Hi,

I am repeating a comment I posted on an earlier entry on this blog, as it is applicable anywhere a seller is trying to prevent fake reviews. My suggestion relates to fake reviews on Amazon.

What you have said in an earlier blog Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle is so correct. I quote

"They have been very vociferous in their proclamations, many of them based on Chummie's deceit. They have screamed at anyone who called their bluff, or pointed out their flaws, or suggested any changes in their aggressive and deceitful practices and behavior. Chummie's response was often to invent even more deceit with which to threaten persons or parties that they felt threatened by. All with the intent to continue on their road of deceit.

They are obviously after DryBuddy, which must be scaring Chummie silly with their product(s). From what I have read in your entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Part 2," Chummie will be facing a major competitive problem shortly.

With Chummie's established track record of deceit and manipulating reviews on sites like Amazon, I would bet that Chummie will be flooding Amazon with fake negative reviews on any product that DryBuddy places there. Other competitors might as well.

I am an Amazon seller in a completely different area. I have also had to endure fake negative reviews from competitors. I would suggest that DryBuddy considers doing what I do.

The review must come from a buyer who is both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name." Using just "Amazon Verified Purchase" lets people buy an inexpensive item and provide a fake review. And for a bad-mouthing competitor like Chummie, it may be worth spending $30 to be able to lie about your product. So by itself it is not reliable. But when you add "Real Name" to it, now will have only proper reviews from people who are willing to back up their review truthfully with their name.

For people who may have purchased the item directly from you, explain that they will have to use the "Real Name" on Amazon which matches their credit card "Real Name" when they ordered from you. Else it is probably a fake review.

Using both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name" has worked for me. Several genuine customers have informed me that my explaining this and branding an inappropriate review as a possible fake for these reasons has been very acceptable to them. And for people who want to lie, brand them and forget them. They may bring your Amazon rank down, but there isn't much you can do about fakes and liars, unless you also want to be like Chummie and massively flood Amazon with fake positive reviews.

I hope that this helps you and every other seller and buyer on Amazon and similar sites to try and keep reviews honest. I shall post it on some of your other blogs as well, and you may post this comment as a blog entry anywhere on your deceit related sites.

I appreciate the big effort that you have put into revealing deceit in the bedwetting alarm industry. We need this in other areas as well.

Good luck, and God Bless you.

Helen's idea merits consideration. State on your Amazon placement that if a buyer wishes to offer a review on Amazon, the purchase from Amazon must be made using the buyer's "Real Name" - the name on the credit card used for the purchase at Amazon. Although it is not impossible for such a name to be false, it is very likely to be a true name. Further state that a reviewer must have a "Real Name" as well as be an "Amazon Verified Purchase" for the review to be considered valid.

If the item can be purchased directly from the seller's site, the seller should state on the site that it must be purchased using the same name as on the credit card being used on the purchase. It must then be reviewed on Amazon with the same name which Amazon would certify as being a "Real Name." The seller could verify that this is a valid purchase from his/her site, since Amazon would not have labeled it as an "Amazon Verified Purchase."

Reviews that do not meet these criteria for proof of actual and valid purchase would be branded as "FAKE."

Explain this on your site and on your Amazon placement. People who do not wish to give or use their real name can still buy from either Amazon or the Seller's site using a pseudonym. But any review on Amazon would be label FAKE. As part of this FAKE label, state why the review has been so branded, since the buyer did not follow the conditions for a purchase which would be considered to be valid for a review on Amazon. These instructions would have been posted on both Amazon's and your site.

We recognize that Helen's idea may be difficult to follow for products sold by many sellers who do not have access to all sale records. But for numerous sellers selling unique items or limited to just selling on Amazon and/or their own site, it might work.

We do not know if this would be acceptable to Amazon. And although we understand Helen's viewpoint, there is some possibility that a potential customer may take umbrage for whatever reason. But, as stated earlier, if the customer does not intend to post a review on Amazon (and most don't) then using a pseudonym is not an issue at all.

As we said earlier, this merits consideration. Your feedback is welcome. Please make your feedback productive, participative and honorable, whether you agree with the idea or not. Suggest improvements to make it more feasible. It is important to all persons, buyers, sellers and Amazon, that reviews not be fake and prejudicial.

Please remember that our objective is to reduce and try to eliminate deceit on the internet. Reducing fake and bogus reviews on Amazon would be a substantial step in that direction, an objective that only the rogues can object to - and they would not do that publicly.

Thank you.