In April, Amazon sued several Web "entrepreneurs" whom it accused of offering fake reviews for sale. Now, the online retailer took a major new step in its legal fight to cleanse itself of bogus reviews—suing 1,114 John Doe reviewers who sold their reviews on the website Fiverr.

The complaint (PDF), filed Friday in King County Superior Court, shows that Amazon's lawyers are willing to go after anyone making money from writing reviews, no matter how small that "business" may be. In earlier lawsuits, Amazon targeted businesses that were selling packages of dozens or even hundreds of fake reviews. Fiverr is a site where people offer to do small jobs for $5 or more (hence the site's name). Judging by the nature of the accused Fiverr ads, these mini-Internet scams are about as small-time as they come.

"Unfortunately, a very small minority of sellers and manufacturers tries to gain unfair competitive advantage for their products," write Amazon lawyers. "One such method is creating false, misleading, and inauthentic customer reviews. While small in number, these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers... place in Amazon, which in turn tarnishes Amazon's brand."

The complaint accuses the reviewers of breach of contract for violating Amazon's "Conditions of Use," as well as violating the Washington State Consumer Protection Act. Amazon lawyers say the state law violations entitle them to collect treble damages and attorneys' fees.

Fiverr itself is not named as a defendant. The lawsuit points out that Fiverr's terms of service prohibit any "Gig" that violates a third party's terms.

Attached to the complaint are the the 1,114 accused Fiverr usernames in alphabetical order from "aashiralvi" to "zajiue." At least some of those users were engaged in conversations with Amazon investigators learning more about their business practices.

Amazon wrote to a user named "bess98" asking about her process for reviews. She wrote back: "Dear Sir, Please write a review then I will post it."

The lawsuit also recounts an ad by Fiverr seller "Verifiedboss," who guarantees that she can place reviews from 100 different Amazon accounts. "I will post awesome amazon review on your product us, uk, canada, etc," she writes. Her ad continues (original spelling kept):

Life Time Stable amazon reviews Guarantee

100 different Account are available to post

100 different unique IP

100% Safe

100% 5/4/3/2/1 star rating

100% Manual

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

100% money back gurenty

"Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping defendants and uprooting the ecosystem in which they participate," the complaint concludes.

In its lawsuit, Amazon says that the websites that it filed suit against in April have mostly closed down. However, they're not all gone: two sites Amazon said were owned by a Southern California man, buyamazonreviews.com and buyazonreviews.com, are still operating despite Amazon's litigation.

"We actively remove services that violate our terms of use, and respond promptly to any reports of inappropriate content," a Fiverr spokesperson said in an e-mail to Ars. "The challenge of merchants soliciting illegitimate reviews is one that faces all marketplaces and online platforms. In fact, in our own marketplace we restrict reviews to only those who we can verify have actually purchased a service."

Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.