In the "Huh, I wonder how that happened...?" category, this showed up today:
Data leak implicates over 200,000 people in Amazon fake product review scam | ZDNet
An open database has revealed the identities of over 200,000 individuals who appear to be involved in Amazon fake product review schemes.
There is an ongoing battle between the e-commerce giant and dubious sellers, worldwide, who wish to hamstring competitors and gain an edge by generating fake reviews for their products.
This can include paying individuals to leave a glowing review or by offering free items in return for positive, public feedback.
How they operate and stay under Amazon's radar varies, but an open ElasticSearch server has exposed some of the inner workings of these schemes.
On Thursday, Safety Detectives researchers revealed that the server, public and online, contained 7GB of data and over 13 million records appearing to be linked to a widespread fake review scam.
It is not known who owns the server but there are indicators that the organization may originate from China due to messages written in Chinese, leaked during the incident.
The database contained records involving roughly 200,000 - 250,000 users and Amazon marketplace vendors including user names, email addresses, PayPal addresses, links to Amazon profiles, and both WhatsApp and Telegram numbers, as well as records of direct messages between customers happy to provide fake reviews and traders willing to compensate them.
More at: zdnet.com |
