Amazon’s review system has seen a few overhauls in recent years, including the AI summaries that have become so prevalent elsewhere. However, it seems like the shopping giant is focusing on reviews left by paid influencers. A product with no reviews is less likely to be picked over one that has a lot of different reviews, and companies are not above paying influencers to spread the word about their latest creation.

The ethics of such a decision can be debated, but it’s not exactly honest to leave biased reviews. Now, Amazon is reaching out to potential influencers and asking them rather pointed questions about their affiliations.

According to MSN (via Bloomberg), an unnamed reviewer was contacted by Amazon with an email that read, “We are researching reviews and would like to talk to you about the interaction you had with the seller on this product.” The Amazon rep then asked 11 questions about the shopper’s level of influence, and if they’d posted videos on other social media platforms.

The timing of this questionnaire campaign follows on the heels of a Federal Trade Commission ruling that companies could be fined for paying for reviews. The FTC reached out to 700 companies before the ruling (including Amazon) informing them of the upcoming changes, so this current investigation feels like Amazon attempting to clean house.

However, it’s unclear how effective the campaign will be. Influencers could choose to ignore the questions or simply delete the email without opening it. Amazon already has automated systems in place that are designed to detect paid reviews and potential fraud, but the systems aren’t always the most effective — there are often accounts shut down because of an inaccurately-perceived slight.

The systems do help, though, preventing more than 250 million suspicious reviews from being posted in the last year. Amazon has also filed numerous lawsuits against paid review farms in an attempt to stem the tide.

What are the consequences?

Although people can ignore the emails, Amazon could take away their ability to post reviews. Chris McCabe, a former Amazon executive, told MSN, “Amazon sellers will all have to be very careful how they interact with TikTok influencers and social-media influencers in general. Amazon is starting to investigate the reviewer side of the problem and sellers are going to get suspended if they choose influencers poorly.”

It seems clear the shopping giant is serious about this new endeavor, and if you use Amazon as your primary source of income, it’s better to play by the rules than risk losing your account.