Hikvision EZVIZ Amazon Scam Revealed

Their dishonesty is unsurprising.

But for a company who claims to be doing great, this sure seems like a desperate move. Why waste so much time, money and energy trying to sell onesies and twosies $60 cameras off Amazon? Even if they scam their way to 5 stars, how many can they sell? How much money do they make after factoring in Amazon's cut, the typical 10-20% returns, free 'lifetime technical support', the cost of this scam, etc.?

With the crisis communications hire, the ongoing security issues, the ongoing across the board sales, etc., Hikvision is increasingly signaling a company in bad shape.

I would be suprised to see what Amazon does. Amazon has somewhat of an interest in Ezviz since they sell it as "Shipped and sold by Amazon" which I assume means they buy ezviz wholesale.

On the other hand, Amazon is a stickler about rules, especially against 3rd party sellers. Their are horror stories of 3P sellers getting their selling rights revoked for an assumption Amazon thought they were doing wrong, when in fact they werent. I have a side business selling stuff on Amazon and I have been shut down erroneously a couple of times, luckily I was back up within a day.

This may be a good indicator that Hik should stick to the manufacturing business, not the retail business. Let other sellers sell, since they know the ins and outs of the rules. 

I don't want to sound like i'm protecting Hik but it starts to sound like you guys have some kind of vendetta against Hikvision... the percentage of negative coverage they get compared to other brands (or other Chinese brands that are no better) is overwhelming and starts to feel there's something personal behind it. 

Is there any mechanism that compels the gift card user to leave a review?

If not, would it be against any FTC or other guidelines for Hik employees to give free Ezviz gift cards to people who are not family or "close friends"?  

Like everyone in a local homeowners association, or every gas station on Main Street, etc.

If you really believed in a product and wanted to jumpstart the product with hopefully good reviews, would that be ethical?

So, is there anything stopping me from getting an Amazon gift card and buying something else?

I'm curious. I see all the time on amazon where people say they received a product and in return they're to give an "honest review". If this is acceptable why doesn't hik do this? Mailing out a gift card so they can buy it seems like a lot of work. I wonder if they're going for the verified buyer check mark next to the review. 

The whole thing seems really sketchy to me. Not suprising at all. I think this tactic is somewhat common among newer amazon sellers. I buy a lot of workout supplements on amazon and I often see reviews that are obviously fake. Sometimes I wonder if Amazon even cares. They have so many shoppers that 99% will never know they're being scammed. So the question for today is, is amazon ethical enough to do anything about it?

Update: Hikvision has cut the price from $59.99 to $39.99. Please don't try to explain how Hikvision is profiting from selling $39.99 cameras on Amazon, after factoring in Amazon's cut, dealing with 10-20% returns, tech support, etc.

Oh and the fake reviews are coming in, the funniest is this person who has 2 total reviews, both for Ezviz products, claiming that s/he replaced her home security alarm system with this cube camera: