Amazon Reviews – Gaming the System?

I’m always looking for quick, easy ways to boost my income or get points to get things I want.  I’m a busy mom and wife in addition to working a full-time job, and life can get expensive.  I have a debit rewards card from my favorite gas station that saves me 2 cents a gallon gas and gives me 1% cash back on everything I use it for each month.  I use reward caps from bottles of diet coke to get cool things like telescopes and coupons for the Nike store.  I tend to lean towards easy and things that I can do here and there as I have time.

I was recently informed of an opportunity to write reviews for pay for Amazon.com.  If I write 11 reviews for products I own or have tried, or books I have read, I can get a $5 Amazon gift card.  Despite the fact that is relatively easy to do, and would be an easy way to earn a little bit of extra, the fact that I’m being paid to write reviews makes me a bit uncomfortable.  Reviews written by paid reviewers will not be marked as such on Amazon’s site, making this a really iffy deal in my mind.  There’s no requirement that I had to buy the product from Amazon or even prove that I own or have ever owned the product.

When I am on a website with a review system, I want to believe that that system is unbiased.  If you’re paying people for reviews, then how do I know you’re not paying for positive reviews, and not for negative reviews?  It’s a very sticky wicket, that’s for sure.

What are your feelings on such things?  Do you trust reviews from Amazon now that you know they are paying people to write them?