Amazon Restricts Review Access Amid Fake Review Crackdown

Amazon has introduced a new policy that limits customers to reading only five 5-star reviews for any product. The restriction is in place regardless of purchase history or Amazon Prime subscription status.

The decision, which seems arbitrary and random, appears to be an effort by the company to prevent unauthorized data scraping on its site. Some users have reported being flagged as bots, even though they are legitimate customers.

According to a statement from Amazon, the policy is aimed at curbing fake reviews and review mills that summarize purchased reviews into a single line, making them worthless to sellers. However, some users have expressed frustration with the lack of clear criteria for who gets restricted and the five-day wait period before being able to read more reviews.

A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed that the company is trying to restrict unauthorized data scraping on its site, but admitted that it's also mistakenly flagging legitimate customers as bots.