So they write a review of whatever product giving 5 stars and raving positivity. It is nothing harmful or some evil scary tactic. Do you not look at reviews before you purchase stuff? Are you not more likely to buy a 5 star whatever than a no star or 2 star? It is just a way to boost their company.
Not harmful, per se, but
extremely dishonest and deceptive - which I would consider an "evil scary tactic" - though not in the same sense that the conspiracy theorists would have it.
I almost always make my purchase decisions on Amazon based on price + positive reviews and I always read positive and negative reviews of everything there. Sellers that harvest false positive reviews are not where I want to send my business. I bought an inexpensive item through Amazon a few years ago based on many positive customer reviews it had. When it arrived (from China) there was a note included that said they would
refund my full purchase price if I left a review on Amazon or Twitter and provided a screen shot.
So I figured, why not? and I shot off a tweet - not overly praising the item, but an honest short positive remark. I screenshot and sent it to the email included on the note insert. They replied that I needed to leave the review on Amazon as a Verified Purchaser to get my refund. I then copied my twitter review and pasted it as a Verified Purchase review on Amazon; and screenshot it. They replied that my review was not positive enough and asked me to say more and recommend the product highly. It then dawned on me that the many positive reviews I had read which convinced me to buy that item were likely harvested the same way from other buyers. By this time, I had used the item regularly and although it was adequate, but FAR from the greatest thing since sliced bread that all of the reviews made it seem and I felt like I had been dishonestly duped. It had some drawbacks and design flaws that were not mentioned in any of the reviews I'd read.
So I amended my Amazon review of the product and wrote some very positive recommendations of the item. I submitted that update to the Chinese company, waited for my refund credit to arrive (which came within a few days), and then I
promptly deleted my review hoping that nobody else was convinced in the interim to buy that *bleep* product based on my recommendation.