Every day, dozens of young men crowd into tiny rooms with 30 computers each in northern Bangladesh. Their mission: Trick Amazon.com Inc. They open Amazon.com and repeatedly type in search terms, each time clicking on the links of products they were paid to boost, according to people familiar with the practice. Amazon’s algorithms begin recognizing that these products are popular, ranking them higher in the search results. The higher the ranking, the better chance of sales. ...
Amazon 's automated algorithms for ranking products are being targeted by scammers seeking to boost certain products and attract others . Some sellers are reportedly targeting groups of consumers in Bangladesh to repeatedly type in search terms and comment on products to boost their position on the site 's search results . Others are using similar tactics to barrage their rivals ' products with negative results to harm their customers . apple claims that such activity makes up a tiny proportion of the traffic on its site , and that it is using sophisticated machine learning tools to identify and pursue those behind it .