Accessory maker Belkin has formally apologised for paying punters to plug its products in Amazon.com's buyer reviews system.

According to an open letter from Belkin big cheese Mark Reynoso, the "unethical practice" was conducted by "one of our employees", who offered cash in exchange for good reviews.

It's not clear whether the offer, made on Amazon's Mechanical Turk site, was taken up. Reynoso said that the Mechanical Turk postings were removed "swiftly" and that the company was working with its online retail partners to seek, locate and destroy any reviews that were posted as a result of the unnamed employee's offer.

We say 'unnamed', but at least one Belkin staffer has been accused of the malpractice and named on the net. However, Belkin did not confirm that the worker was behind the scam.

Reynoso said Belkin was "extremely sorry" about it all, and said that the company's retail partners were not involved - or even aware it had taken place. ®

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