Brushing (e-commerce)

A suspicious seed package intercepted for analysis by the National Identification Service of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

In e-commerce, brushing, also called "review brushing",[1] is a deceitful technique sometimes used in e-commerce to boost a seller's ratings by creating fake orders,[2][3][4][5] which are either shipped to an accomplice or to an unsuspecting member of the public.

Most e-commerce sites rate sellers by multiple criteria and display these seller ratings to customers. Since a good rating can boost sales, these ratings are very important to sellers. The number of items shipped is usually an important factor in that rating, as is the star rating given by the person who placed the order (irrespective of who received the item, or whether the parcel that was sent to them even contained it).

  1. ^ Davies, G., Addressing ‘review fraud’ in the online retail marketplace Archived 20 November 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Juriosity, published 14 November 2018, accessed 20 November 2023
  2. ^ "They Call It 'Brushing': The Dark Art of Alibaba Sales Fakery". The Wall Street Journal. 3 March 2015. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  3. ^ "China's ecommerce sites try to sweep away 'brushing'". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  4. ^ Shepard, Wade. "Americans Are Receiving Unordered Parcels From Chinese E-Criminals – And Can't Do Anything To Stop Them". Forbes. Archived from the original on 6 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  5. ^ Fountain, Nick; Malone, Kenny; Wei, Sandy (27 April 2018). "Episode 838: A Series of Mysterious Packages". Planet Money. NPR. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.