No, it's the other way around: these guys, and many others, were pioneers in these fields of breaking Amazon TOS without any consequences.
They knew they could get away with it, became part of their modus operandi, like a playbook for every new product launched.
But don't take me wrong: I blame all of this on Amazon, they nurtured this for years, by trimming away honest sellers and giving wealth to shady ones.
My example: few weeks after I launched my product in an under developed market on Amazon, a new guy came in. For every ~80 sales I'd get one review, while the guy was getting 7-10 reviews for the same amount of sales (mostly 5 stars). How can you compete with a review velocity that's no where close the organic one?
I also like the way they choose not to offer an easy way to report fake reviews. If you get offers to review someone’s products, Amazon will reliably and quickly delete a review saying that the company solicits fake/paid reviews but if you try to report it any other way you’ll never hear back or see any signs of a change in behavior.
They knew they could get away with it, became part of their modus operandi, like a playbook for every new product launched.
But don't take me wrong: I blame all of this on Amazon, they nurtured this for years, by trimming away honest sellers and giving wealth to shady ones.
My example: few weeks after I launched my product in an under developed market on Amazon, a new guy came in. For every ~80 sales I'd get one review, while the guy was getting 7-10 reviews for the same amount of sales (mostly 5 stars). How can you compete with a review velocity that's no where close the organic one?