Can You Spot A Fake Product Review?

I pay more attention to those with the "verified purchaser" notation. I've had very good luck with Amazon, so overall I think they do a good job and appreciate the lengths they go to in order to assure the review is by a real purchaser.

Funniest overall reviews are for plain old milk.

http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/dp/B00032G1S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445368373&sr=8-1&keywords=milk

Here's just the first part of one of them, written by someone who signs his name as Edgar:

Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts 'N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
'Bad condensor, that,' I muttered, 'vibrating the icebox door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

It goes on ... along with more than 1,700 other brilliant reviews

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't miss the Q&A either:

Two examples:

Q: If I spill it, can I cry?
A: If you do it is best to cry either next to it or below it. Crying over it is useless.

Q: I've never tasted milk from a whole before, and certainly not from a Tuscan Whole. How is it with chocolate chip cookies?
A: I don't know. I cannot get them to fit through the opening in the top of the jug.

"A toast to milk! ... Cheers!"

Mac

Like everyone else I shop Amazon all the time, and after reading the product specs the first thing I go to is the reviews. However, I almost never read the 5 star reviews unless I'm unsure of what the product does, how to use or install it or whatever. I already know what they are going to say, and I also know a lot of them may be fake.
The same is true of the 1 star reviews, but I do look at them for a common thread. Is there one problem that many people seem to have had? I'll check the 2, 3 and 4 star reviews because they are the ones least likely to be fake, and I can get a better idea of how real users like the product.

I admit, I wrote a fake review once because the item was SOOOO bad and I wanted to be sarcastic. It was for a book called Microsoft Studio for Beginners and my review was:
This book has changed my life! (Spoiler Alert!) In just 3 short pages, I learned how to install Visual Studio, write a complex program (I said HELLO to the WORLD!) and even debugged the program (Click the X to close the product). I am very grateful to Cameron Walcott for helping me achieve a 6 digit salary due to this quick guide because I aced an interview with Amazon and because of their serious quality checking, was able to obtain the job of my dreams (quality control programming). Now I can write HELLO to the WORLD all day long and don't even have to debug the program because of these amazing 3 pages. And please note Cameron's advice to not pirate the software!

I shop on eBay and Amazon. But as buyers can only write a handful of words in their eBay reviews and those are really only reviews about the seller, I often search for and find the same items on Amazon - and find it has dozens of bad reviews, pointing out all the faults.

Yes, some of the bad reviews on Amazon will undoubtedly have been posted by rival sellers, trying to put you off buying their rivals' items - just as some of the glowing ones will have been posted by sellers, trying to convince everyone how good their items are. But if you read enough of the good and bad reviews, you usually get a fairly reliable consensus either way ;-)

And Amazon's full reviews for each specific item are so much more helpful than eBay's sellers' feedback reviews, which cannot even be sorted!

If it is an expensive item, I will usually check for the product on other websites and see what the reviews are overall. Smaller items I don't bother but once the item hits $300 plus then yes, I'll look at the other sites to include the manufacturers site if available.

I go more by the verified purchase tag, but guess I'll have to be more careful of even that now. I like the way QVC does it- on the upper right of individual reviews, there's a line that says "See all my reviews," and if I hover my mouse over it, about 3 of the person's reviews show up with the rating they gave each purchase. I quickly disregard those who have 3 one-star reviews because some people are never satisfied. Or as my friend says, "They wouldn't be happy if someone hung them with a new rope."

Apropos: the author of "The Clintons' War On Women" is claiming that Hillary's staffers have flooded his book's Amazon pages with negative reviews. PageSix article here: http://goo.gl/YTbxNH Same article claims that 15% of reviews originate in "boiler room operations."

I read the reviews when I need more information about the product, things I could see if I were in a store with the product in hand. Some people put enough detail of their own experience so that I can learn what I need to know. It had not occurred to me that there were fake reviews; that is disappointing. My preference for large purchases is Consumer Reports. That means I do like reviews of products, but really like the disinterested view the best.

I read many of the reviews for the products I buy (the % read depends on the total number of reviews), and I do look for trends. First of all, the ratio of good-vs-bad reviews. Then, the substance of the reviews and whether or not the good and/or bad comments apply to my use. (A negative review for poor over-the-air reception for a TV, for example, would not apply to me because there are zero broadcast signals in my area: cable-only.) A nit-picking negative review I typically disregard, but many negative reviews for the same problem (a knob breaks easily, for example) is a HUGE red flag for me. On the other end of the spectrum, overly profuse positive reviews with no specifics as to why the reviewer liked the product so much are also usually discarded. What's left will usually yield a decent judgement of the product's real value.

I order from Amazon a lot and sometimes from Ebay. I do look at the reviews, on Amazon, but, I also do research online and read Consumer Reports, before I purchase a product.

One review on Amazon for a Samsung TV said this TV was better than stepping onto the holodeck. This was before the TV was released so some people doubted it.

So, the title of this article is "Can You Spot a Fake Review", so, is it just me, or anyone else think you were going to get advice, tips, etc. on how to spot fake reviews? Wasn't expecting a "review of online reviews". If I COULD spot fake reviews, I wouldn't need to read an article about it, so, I guess the question is still now answered; no, I cannot spot a fake review. Please, tell me how.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I ended the article by saying "Have you run across reviews that seemed fake? If so, what tipped you off?" See the reader comments for some great answers!

I'm fond of this review I came across on Amazon.com:
it's shiny and strong. I use it often. we are 2 people to use it, so before purchasing I thought it was too big for 2 people.
but after using it several times, I found the size is pretty fit for us. I'll never buy any smaller one than this. I can strongly recomend it to anybody who are 2 people.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ha, too much information! :-)

Like others here, I usually head straight to the 1-star comments.

Some 10 years ago (maybe more? maybe less?), there was an Amazon reviewer with tongue-in-cheek texts so witty that articles about the gentleman appeared in the media. His reviews turned out to be so hilarious that my jaws were hurting. If anyone knows/remembers his name, I would love to hear from you… (However, I believe I added him to some kind of Amazon "Following" list (which I can't find him on anymore), so maybe his reviews were taken down — by himself? — for some reason.)

I'm another person who looks at 1 & 2-star reviews on Amazon to see if there is a pattern in the responses. I also look at other websites and pay more attention to Consumer Reports. And I don't pay much attention to verified purchase or Vine reviews. I have been satisfied with Amazon; I buy mostly music and books & I have a pretty good idea on what I'm getting before I click on "place order."

If a poor review is based on a buyer's treatment by the seller, a shipping problems, a pricing issue, or the condition of the product received, I'll typically ignore the review. As other buyers, I look for similar evaluations of product quality, such as parts that break consistently, electrical problems that show up often, and so on. I pay less attention to Consumer Reports than I used to because products reviewed by them are often obsolete (no longer made) by the time their reviews are published.

The more specific the dings or praises are, the more likely I am to give credence to the review. To be credible, I expect either some unknown aspect of the product, or how the product worked or how it affected the area in which it was to be used. And with things electronic, I know there are always some Luddites who will NEVER understand how to use the product, so always discount those as the lunatic fringe. Ditto for the "praise to the heavens" reviews. I generally will only leave negative reviews if I feel I'm being ripped off by the seller.

@Don: I am *not* "like everyone" *nor* do I "shop [at] Amazon all the time."

I too hoped to hone my detecting skills! I just spent much of today trying to research kitchen faucets w/motion sensors. Scrolling thru many reviews on HomeDepot and Amazon as well as the manufacturers sites and looking for independent reviewing sources.

I already use most of the techniques mentioned. Reading lower reviews, a few higher and mostly 3's and 4's. Some reviewers are just not overly bright when they complain about things that if they read directions they would know what was wrong or fault the product for something it states it does not do, or they measured wrong and it doesn't fit...
It is hard to know what complaints to trust at times, especially if it is a small percentage. I do add the 1's and 2's together to look at what % of the total they comprise. I also look to see if the manufacturer or distributor offers a reasonable response to problems and it it satisfied the poster. Some only respond to the very low complaints, not the ones listed in 4's or 3's with a problem that really should be addressed (tho the person should try customer service).
And the last thing I look for is how hard a time people have trying to contact customer service.
Sigh, I still don't know which faucet to try!