Amazon Prime Crime: Buyer Beware

For retailers and consumers alike, shopping has become something of an experience of hand-to-hand combat.

Consumers arrive at their digital devices looking for a hotel room or an outdoor grill and find themselves immediately overwhelmed with choices.

A quick scan for price can narrow the options a bit, though you find that separating a great hotel from a cheap but creepy one is very hard indeed. Star ratings seem to have lost any differentiation. Almost all reviews are now 4 stars.

But here’s where consumer-generated content comes to the rescue.

Real consumers, real voices, real opinions — at least, that what you hope.

So, with Amazon’s Prime Day now on everyone’s mind, you can’t blame consumers for a bit of skepticism about which product “deals” are really deals.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told The Guardian about “troubling evidence of a thriving marketplace for fake online reviews” and recommended action.

The CMA’s investigations found fake reviews for cash was a growing problem on Facebook and eBay. The CMA also targeted Airbnb, getting it to limit reviewers to customers who booked and stayed at a property.

And while enforcement is one solution, building technology that can separate real…