Can You Spot A Fake Product Review? - Comments Page 1

I rely heavily on reviews on Amazon and I leave reviews of products I have purchased and used, successfully or unsuccessfully. My goal is to personalize my actual use and why it is good or bad without writing a book unless the circumstance is extreme. I appreciate that Amazon is making this endeavor to create trust for the consumer and the seller.

I do a lot of online shopping, mostly through Amazon. I do depend on their product reviews especially when considering products I'm not familiar with. Though I can't necessarily spot a bogus review, I always shy away from those items where the reviews are highly mixed.

Apparently the post about Yelp linked in the article by "notoriously corrupt" has been removed. Interesting.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It was a typo, fixed now.

I often rely on customer reviews when deciding on whether I'm going to purchase a product or not. Some of the reviews I've read pop up in my mind as red flags.

Thank you for writing this article. I found it most informative.

Being a former Quality Assurance Manager and familiar with statistical reviews, I apply that experience in determining if the total reviews are slanted. After many purchases from Amazon and other online sites, I have yet to get burned.

Hi Bob. I look at the surrounding comments from others. If I see five excellents in all categories I am suspicious. The law of averages says not everyone will give a business top ratings--and someone will have a bad day! I also look for outrageous claims in the review like "The Amazon limo delivered my diamond in a white Limo an hour after I ordered it" Another giveaway is when people compare unlike companies. This is especially true with food reviews. "The steak at Jack's wasn't as warm as Ruth Christs" {Jack's is a small seafood place)

When looking at Amazon reviews I put more emphasis on those written by people that actually seem to know about the product and will give their experience with it (good or bad). Which doesn't mean I haven't been fooled so I try to look at a lot of reviews for a given product.

I've written somewhat extensively on bloggers who create fake review sites as a means of luring in buyers of Internet-based offerings. (http://www.sandiegocan.org/2015/04/13/alert-bogus-review-sites-scam-consumers/) These "affiliates" are engaging in the same kind of review corruption as the kinds of mercenary reviewers within Amazon's cross hairs. Your readers should be alert to any sites that claim to offer reviews.

Good for Amazon, but they need to look closer to home. They sell so much counterfeit stuff even when it is flagged as such by user reviews - yet they do nothing it seems. I buy from Amazon far less frequently now, and try to be careful what I do buy. Lost trust is hard to recover.

Interesting article but I disagree with your Yelp comment. I am super-critical of bad restaurants and I have been using Yelp successfully for years. I find that bogus reviews are relatively easy to spot. Maybe it's because I've been using it for so long. Suspect reviews tend to be too off center from other reviews...too perky...too flowery...too something. As with all reviews you must read many of them to come to a consensus but I have only been burned once or twice out of many uses with Yelp. Follow the curve.

Here is my favorite "SFW" review (or collection of them, as it were):
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B000I1X6PM

And this is my favorite (and non-techie) NSFW review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2QP56S5P2DEGA

I think they're all totally legit.

No, I don't have the ability to spot a fake review. I trust Amazon but no other although I do read reviews and try to gauge the quality of the review as a guide to its accuracy. Not the best method but all one has in the circumstances.Sometimes reviews appear authentic but the reviewer has odd opinions so, again, personal judgement.

I looked at reviews for a plastic surgeon. There are a lot of negative and positive reviews. Some of the positive reviews are general. They don't specify what procedures were performed so I believe that they're fake, written by the doctor or someone for him.

Yelp corrupt -- well yes and no. If you are a user like Steve G then probably not corrupt, especially if you know what to look for on the reviews. However, if you are a business owner they pull the chains with the stick of downgrading your reviews if you are not buying yelp ads. I think that the system they have might not affect smaller single-location restaurants and service businesses who're flying under Yelp's radar, but for the larger ones, yes I am sure that it impacts the ratings.

....but it was a great charger. I swear!

I try to post truthful and honest reviews for every item I purchase but it is disheartening to find out some sellers or sites filter their reviews to only show 4 star and above. I have encountered this many times and when questioned am told my review was not relevant to their product. Not relevant if I spend my money on a product I am not happy with? I never trust reviews on websites any more and instead search sites posting unfavorable reviews to see what others really think before buying now.

I, too, rely on "verified purchase" reviewers on Amazon. Whether it's fair or not, I normally skip over the "vine" reviewers, even when they note they received the product free from the seller.

I buy from Amazon a LOT, and depend on the reviews (quite frequently sorting the products by average customer review). However, I do not necessarily take the reviews on face value. Do they sound authentic (one way or the other)? Has the product been available long enough to generate the number of reviews it has? Are the reviews clustered together by date (dead giveaway for purchased reviews)? Does the reviewer actually own the product? For how long? Is the review actually of the product, or is it a customer service issue? What does the reviewer's history of reviews look like? Ask the reviewer for clarification and see what sort of response you do or don't get. Check out the questions & answers section for additional info on the product, and ask questions if need be (they do get answered). Report reviews that do not follow the guidelines. Are the reviews consistent with info on the product found elsewhere on the Web?Amazon does an amazing job (take the pun as you will), but you have to be willing to use common sense and a bit of initiative.

I, too, rely on Amazon reviews immensely. I'm not sure how many reviews I've come across that are fake, as I pretty much ignore those without reasons why something is good or not good, a value or not a value, etc. I do look for the personal experience factor. I especially like those reviews that compare an item to an alternative potential purchase; these I find most trustworthy.

I purchase many items from Amazon.com and rely on their reviews, but I question many of them when obviously the reviews seems skewed.

My best friend takes these reviews at face value and has often not purchased an item I use and recommend to him. Yet he believes every review on ebay in one case actually ordering a Universal battery charger after I warned him that I had one of those at one time, it caught on fire and exploded.
One problem wit some amazon reviews is that I have had some Clip on lights break apart because of the plastic cracking and Amazon will not pull the product. They replaced it and the same thing occurred twice. The spring just missed my eye.