In my latest video, I reveal yet another brand behaving badly. This time sending out letters to bribe Amazon reviewers to delete their critical reviews of products.
I recently bought a product on Amazon (affiliate link) that looked like it could be useful for filming. It was a small display that snaps onto the back of an iPhone to mirror the front screen, which sounded ideal since the rear cameras are much better than the front-facing one.
At first, the device seemed to work, but once I hit record, I noticed the display lagged 20 to 30 seconds behind realtime. That made it useless for its intended purpose, and on top of that, the orientation button didn’t work either. I left a review describing what I found—both the good and the bad—but ultimately explained why it didn’t serve its purpose or meet its marketed claims.
After posting my review, I received multiple messages from the third-party seller offering direct refunds, though they avoided directly asking me to change my review. Their eagerness to issue a refund without going through Amazon made sense—too many returns can trigger Amazon to delist a product. But I had already started the Amazon return process so I ignored them.
Not long after that, a letter showed up at my home offering me $20 if I deleted my review. This was troubling because it showed the seller had access to my address, even though the product came from Amazon’s warehouse.
The letter asked me to not only remove my review but also replace it with a five-star positive one. It included instructions to scan a QR code that led to a Chinese website, which logged some data, and then redirected my browser to a mailto address with my order information and gift card preference.
The letter explicitly said not to mention the gift in the review “to protect your Amazon account.” This of course violates Federal Trade Commission guidelines and Amazon’s terms of service, leaving customers at risk of losing their accounts or worse.
The letter came from a UPS store address in San Leandro, California, which has been tied to similar scams in the past. Searching online, I found others had received almost identical letters, sometimes dressed up to look like official Amazon communication. Some even pushed people to review products they hadn’t purchased, including inappropriate ones for adult toys, raising concerns about what unsuspecting recipients—possibly even kids—might see when opening these envelopes.
What makes this situation particularly concerning is how long it seems to have been happening. Reports going back years link the same address to review manipulation and product “brushing” scams, where people receive unordered items to inflate seller ratings. Amazon has been trying to crack down, even working with Chinese authorities to pursue criminal cases, but the persistence of these letters shows how difficult it is to stop.
For anyone who gets one, Amazon has a reporting mechanism. You can submit the product details, ASIN number, and a copy of the letter through their review compensation reporting page. It’s important to do this because the more evidence Amazon has, the better they can track and take action against bad actors. For the rest of us, the takeaway is to stay vigilant. A $20 gift card isn’t worth risking your account, your reputation, or potentially landing yourself in hot water with the law.