San Francisco, Feb 23 (IANS): Amazon has announced that it has filed lawsuits against fake review brokers who orchestrate the posting of incentivised and misleading product reviews, in exchange for money or free products.

The lawsuits aim to shut down two major fake review brokers, AppSally and Rebatest, which helped mislead shoppers by having their members try to post fake reviews in stores such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy, the announcement said on Tuesday.

Amazon's legal action comes after an investigation into these review brokers, which claim to have more than 900,000 members willing to write fake reviews, Xinhua news agency reported.

The legal action is part of Amazon's comprehensive and proactive efforts to ensure a safe and trustworthy shopping experience for its customers and extensive opportunities to create thriving businesses, according to the announcement.

"Fake review brokers attempt to profit by deceiving unknowing consumers and creating an unfair competitive advantage that harms our selling partners," said Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President of Worldwide Customer Trust & Partner Support at Amazon.

"We know how valuable trustworthy reviews are to our customers. That is why we are holding these review fraudsters accountable."