Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Ruling Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials - Press Release

I hate fake reviews.

Panzer found this press release at the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) site.

 

According to the release the FTC announced the rules it will enforce against companies and individuals who post or write fake reviews and testimonials online.

 

Panzer says, "It's about time they did something about the problem."

 

Note: This is a long post. Bring a glass of lemonade and a muffin (or a cup of hot cocoa and a muffin depending on where you live) to snack on while you read the post.

 

To read the post tootle over to Federal Trade Commission

Amazon has laid out exactly how to game its self-publishing platform - Quartz

Panzer made a trip to the Quartz site today. There our kitty reporter found a post about Amazon's arbitration claim. Last week he told you about Amazon's plan to seek damages from companies and individuals for violations of the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service.

According to the post by Thu-Huong Ha, Amazon laid out in its claim exactly how the companies and individuals it is seeking arbitration against managed to game the KDP system. These violations include fake reads, fake free promotion days downloads, fake books, and the ever present fake reviews. One description explains how the companies and individuals used fake Amazon customer accounts to download ebooks on free promotion days. This enabled an ebook to gain bestseller status in the free category. There is more information included about how the system was worked.

Don't even think about doing it.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... These cheaters are going to pay some big penalties."

Note: This is a long post. Bring two cups of tea and two muffins for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Panzer's previous post too, bring a thermos of tea and six muffins.

To read the post, tootle over to Amazon sales and royalties

To read Panzer's previous post about Amazon's allegations of violations, tootle over to Amazon alleges violations

Amazon Alleges Violations by KDP Authors, Publishers - Publishers Weekly

Today, Panzer's trip into the Catosphere took him to the Publishers Weekly site. There, with a little digging our kitty pilot found a post about Amazon KDP.

According to the post by Calvin Reid, Amazon is cracking down on authors and publishers who have been determined to be abusing (gaming) the KDP system. Amazon has begun arbitration complaints against three people (one of whom uses a total of three names). Amazon also named in the complaints the companies owned by the three people. Amazon accuses the people and their companies of generating fake reviews and fake readers for authors and publishers' ebooks. These fake reviews and readers were used to fraudulently inflate reviews and page reads to increase the authors and publishers' royalty/income payments.

That was a very bad thing you did.

While not naming any specific authors or publishers, an Amazon spokesperson said very few authors or publishers participated in the fraud.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... When will you humans learn? You can't cheat Amazon. Sooner or later you'll get caught and have to pay the price."

Note: This is a medium post. Bring a cup of tea and a muffin for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Amazon KDP

Amazon's New Review Rules: Should Authors Be Worried? - Anne R. Allen

Today, Panzer's trip into the Catosphere took him to Anne R. Allen's Blog. There our big bad kitty found a post about Amazon's new review policy.

Mom. Where's your credit card?

According to the post by Anne R. Allen, Amazon's new book review rules are not as hard to understand as they previously were. The first explanation on Ms. Allen's list is "The New $50 Rule." Apparently a reviewer must have used their credit card to purchase $50 of merchandise at Amazon. It appears this rule is to stop the use of fake reviewers. Ms. Allen explains each rule in depth so authors won't accidentally cause their reviews to be deleted. Be sure and read the Comment section too.

Panzer says, "Are the rules really easier to understand if you have to read a blog post explaining them?"

Note: This is a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g post, but well worth the read. Bring two cups of tea and three muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Amazon's new rules

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews

Don't do it!

Panzer and I were traveling around the Catosphere and we parked the Panzermobile at Joe Konrath's blog.

Konrath's most recent blog post deals with the fallout from the news a few weeks ago about the Amazon authors who were using fake reviews by paying for good reviews of their ebooks, writing good reviews for their own ebooks and writing bad reviews for their "competitors" ebooks.

As a result of the situation with these few authors, Amazon has instituted new review policies. Because of these new policies a multitude of reviews have been removed from ebooks not even involved in the original situation. This has resulted in some ebooks even getting their rankings lowered because their "stars" have been lowered.

You can read Konrath's take on the situation at  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews .

Panzer says, "Don't post fake reviews!"

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Panzer is rolling on the floor he's laughing so hard! He can't believe Joe Konrath did this.

As you may have read, some pretty heavy weight writers got outted (by themselves) for buying fake reviews for their ebooks on Amazon. There's been quite a storm raging over these reviews.

So, Konrath got to thinking Why not? 

 And ... he wrote some fake product reviews.

Go to Konrath's blog  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing  and read why he did it. You decide if you agree with him.