Over the past couple of years, we’ve published a number of deal posts on Aukey and Mpow accessories that have been discounted to reasonable prices. The two brands make some quality products across a wide range of categories, we’ve reviewed a number of their gadgets on TalkAndroid and found them to be worth recommending in the main. Despite their quality, though, product listings from both Aukey and Mpow have been removed or made unavailable from Amazon, possibly because of a report that sheds light on a huge review scam that potentially involves the two companies.
Updated June 17th: With neither Aukey nor Mpow returning to Amazon’s fold yet, we have news of another accessory maker joining them on the naughty step. This time, it’s RAVPower that has fallen foul of the retailer’s paid reviews crackdown. According to The Wallstreet Journal, RAVPower’s practice of incentivizing buyers to place reviews on Amazon with the promise of $35 gift cards with purchases of just $53. The Verge says that Amazon has confirmed the removal of RAVPower products from its sites, but declined to provide a reason for doing so.
Once again, this is a long-standing brand that made great products (we’ve reviewed a bunch of items from Aukey, Mpow, and RAVPower over the years), why they felt the need to pad their reviews is unknown but it would appear that it’s costing them dearly.
According to a report from SafetyDetectives, a 7GB chunk of data was procured from an insecure server called ElasticSearch that revealed the techniques used by some businesses to request reviewers to leave 5-star reviews on Amazon, before refunding the money to the review via PayPal. This resulted in the buyer getting the product, and then also a refund after leaving the positive review, thus skewing Amazon’s feedback system in the business’s favor. There are around 200,000 people involved in the scandal, with email addresses and more included in the leaked data, with Aukey and Mpow seemingly implicated if the rumors are true.
Both Aukey and Mpow product listings went missing from May 8th, with no comment issued by either the two companies or Amazon. If, as is suspected by DigitalTrends, this is due to the two brands being caught up in this fake review scandal, it doesn’t bode well for their reputation. And while we only have circumstantial evidence that it could be the case, it’s unlikely that either Aukey or Mpow would willingly stop selling accessories on Amazon for a hoot.
For the moment, it seems that it’s only Aukey and Mpow that may be involved with the fake review scandal, and hopefully, a statement will be issued by them or Amazon to confirm why the product listings have been removed and when or if they will return.
