Update on DOJ Prosecution of Amazon Employees Accepting Bribes, Writing Fake Negative Reviews and Targeting Products for Takedowns in a $100M Fraud Scheme

An update from Robert Stanek on the Justice Department prosecution of 10 Amazon employees accepting bribes, writing fake negative reviews and targeting products for takedowns in a $100M fraud scheme:

http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2022/09/amazon-rings-of-power-reviews-blanked.html

Something that resonated the most with Cathy, Shannon and I is in the addendum where Robert Stanek says:

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For me personally, the very fact that the US DOJ proved in court that Amazon insiders were a part of these despicable activities was vindicating. Not only did the DOJ prove to be true and correct what I had been saying for years and years, the DOJ also proved in court that targeting products with fake negative reviews was only one part of a larger scheme to harm targeted companies and products. 

Again, the DOJ proved in court that in exchange for bribes, corrupted Amazon staff facilitated attacks against competitors of those paying the bribes, using their inside access to Amazon's network to suspend competitors' accounts and product listings, remove favorable reviews and commentary, write fictitious negative product reviews designed to hurt sales, post spurious comments to intimidate victims and drive away customers, and much more. All much as I experienced it on the receiving end of what was meant to, and did, destroy sales of my books for years and years.

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His original post about the case with the charging documents in case Amazon tries to make all this disappear again:

http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2020/09/doj-ids-corrupt-amazon-employees.html

Robert also has written extensively about the competitors and their friends involved directly with attacking his books and name. These include:

Melissa Foster (romance author)

Carolyn Arnold (mystery author)

David Langford (author)

Stephen Leigh (author)

Jim C. Hines (author)

Victoria Strauss (author)

David Louis Edelman (author)

Patrick Rothfuss (author)

Tim Spalding (Library Thing)

Maureen Johnson (author)

Adam Whitehead (Wertzone, Best Fantasy Books)

Patrick Dennis (Pat’s Fantasy Hot List, Best Fantasy Books)

Back when this started, authors like romance author Melissa Foster literally had hundreds of questionable reviews written by friends, family, associates and paid services. Melissa Foster and others now they have many, many thousands and thousands of questionable reviews. 

How many Robert Stanek reviews were they talking about for all those years? A few hundred.... Yep, a few hundred, across the more than 70 books Robert had published at that time. But they didn't stop there. They and their friends kept at it for TWO DECADES because they needed a scapegoat to point fingers at.

Thanks for reading,

Team Read Indies

Amazon Employees Caught Red-Handed Yet Again Using Fake Negative Reviews to Spam Rivals

Rivals have targeted author William Robert Stanek on Amazon.com for two decades while Amazon staff were paid to assist. Not only has William Robert been blogging about this extensive criminal operation for years, Justice Department investigations indicate these fraudulent tactics are potentially widespread, bringing indictments in Washington against six who bribed at least 10 Amazon staff. In exchange for bribes, corrupted Amazon staff facilitated attacks against competitors using their inside access to Amazon's network to suspend competitors' accounts and product listings, flood competitor product listings with fictitious negative product reviews designed to hurt sales, more. These self-styled "takedowns" against victim sellers used hateful commentary and other tactics to intimidate victims and drive away customers.

Author William Robert Stanek recognizes all of these tactics as they have been used to harm and destroy sales of his books. Regarding this, he stated, "I've been on the receiving end for 20 years..... flooded with fake reviews, getting my books delisted, flagged, etcetera so competitors who were paying off Amazon could get ahead. Two of the names in the charging document are the same people who wrote me back if I dared to complain." 

A grand jury in Washington has indicted six of those involved, more indictments expected. The trial gets underway October 15, 2020, and should result in criminal convictions against those indicted and the 10 or more corrupted Amazon employees involved, unless Amazon once again pays off the justice system to keep insider corruption out of the courts, as it did when more than 50 employees were caught setting up fake seller accounts on Ebay to lure buyers to Amazon--after years and years of doing so illegally and fraudulently.

The group of fraudsters, which includes former Amazon employees, paid current Amazon employees to obtain confidential performance data on rivals that included revenue, customer bases and ongoing ad campaigns. Revenue information allowed the fraudsters to determine the most popular items of rivals and then specifically target those items with fake negative reviews, upvote negative commentary and more to destroy sales. Advertising information allowed the fraudsters to target items of rivals that were being promoted so the rivals could use fake negative reviews, upvoting of negative commentary and more to counter the adverting and destroy any potential sales boost. Rival products were periodically delisted, had reviews removed, were removed from search results, flagged as inappropriate and more to harm sales and ensure the success of the scammers. 

Amazon itself uses these unscrupulous tactics to target popular products of independent sellers in its marketplace after making Amazon-branded versions of the same. Using insider information about the independent products from sales data to customer base to private marketing and advertising campaign data, Amazon puts the rival sellers out of business. Not only has this allowed Amazon to gain an unfair competitive advantage in its marketplace monopoly, it has done irreversible harm to the very sellers it purports to support on its websites, putting many sellers out of business as well. Just one of many ways Amazon abuses and destroys third-party sellers and creates rival products to boost operating revenues and profits no matter the cost to feed and grow its trillion-dollar monopoly. 

Six indicted in connection with multi-million dollar scheme to bribe Amazon employees and contractors - The defendants, who include former Amazon staff, paid bribes to at least ten different Amazon employees and contractors. Since at least 2017, the defendants have used bribery and fraud to their benefit, resulting in more than $100 million of competitive benefits, to harm competitors and to harm consumers. In exchange for bribes, corrupted Amazon employees and contractors facilitated attacks against competitors using their inside access to Amazon's network to suspend competitors' accounts and product listings, flood competitor product listings with fictitious negative product reviews designed to hurt sales, more. These self-styled "takedowns" against victim sellers used hateful commentary and other tactics to intimidate victims and drive away customers.

For more information, see:

Six people indicted in Amazon Marketplace bribery scheme to help third-party sellers

Wall Street Journal Finds Amazon Uses Data From Third-Party Sellers to Develop Its Own Products

Amazon Employees Among Those Indicted for Insider Fraud

Author Stanek's blog posts about the dirty tactics used to harm and destroy his book sales at Amazon go back decades. Here are some:

Speaking Out Against Ugliness in the Publishing Industry - Indie authors continue to get a bum rap from traditional publishers and authors. Read about the dirty tricks being used.

Inside Job: Amazon.com Employee Stole Credit Data of 106 Million Amazon.com is rotten to its core. This latest case of "employee gone bad" is yet another example of the widespread patterns of misbehavior, misconduct and mismanagement by Amazon.com employees that have been ongoing for the better part of two decades.

Amazon Reviews: Broken System Between 1 in 3 and 2 in 3 product reviews on Amazon.com are fake. They are bought and paid for. They are written by friends and family. They are swapped and traded on Facebook. They are incentivized from readers.

Amazon Caught in Pay-for-Praise Scheme Involving Hundreds of Employees Last August Amazon began recruiting so-called “fulfillment center ambassadors,” compensating them to generate praise for the company on twitter (and also elsewhere in social media and on Amazon’s websites). Several hundred employees have been enlisted into the highly questionable, unethical (and likely fraudulent) scheme so far.

Amazon Fraud Again: Amazon Employees Caught Creating Fake Ebay Seller Accounts In 2018, at least 50 Amazon employees were caught red handed creating fake accounts on Ebay and accused of multiple federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, fraud and racketeering. Over a period of years, the Amazon employees had created hundreds—if not thousands—of fake seller accounts to lure sellers away from Ebay’s marketplace.

Amazon's Black Eye Deepens: A Public Sham/e Speaking out about fake reviews has made me the target of the thousands who make their living writing reviews for pay. This continues despite Amazon's public dispute with over 5000 paid reviewers at Fiverr--no few of which were writers, who unable to make a living at writing, made their living writing reviews.

Amazon Still Has a Review Problem. A Solution That Could Actually Resolve It. A visit to Amazon will take you to lots of products with oodles of reviews and the problem is that it's extremely likely most of these reviews are bogus. What percentage? Estimates vary widely, but my research says about 60% or so. Simply mentioning this fact, as I have for many years, makes me a target for those who make their living at this—whether they are merchants selling products or those who make a living by writing product reviews.

Amazon's Blackened Soul To date, there are about a billion reviews at Amazon sites that don’t meet Amazon’s own criteria for acceptability. This represents about 3 out of every 5 reviews. Is it any wonder when Amazon’s own management and executive staff are allowed to break the rules when it suits them to target an author whose book wasn’t as flattering as Amazon hoped it would be. Yes, I’m talking about....

Thanks for reading,

Team Read Indies