Popular question: what's a way to prove reviews are fake on the web? Amazon is trying to fight fake reviews in various ways, and it's much better there than elsewhere but conversely they have an annoying habit of commingling reviews for different products, or the same product from different vendors, that it can sometimes be hard to tell if a review is even relevant to what I'm supposed to buy. One thing I wish they would add is the return rate of a product, eg how many customers are so unhappy they make the effort to return it.
The easiest way to tell if a review is fake is by taking a look at the wording. Most fake reviews use "emotional" language to get someone reading the review to buy the product. Objective reviews don't. And for those who mostly buy stuff from amazon you could useLog In to "spot" fake reviews. Some don't think it's that useful though.
I've never heard of fakespot, thanks @Denis Hard. I'll have to take a look at the site. I almost always read reviews before I purchase items, especially if they're ones I'm unfamiliar with, or ones with a lot of special features, such as electronics. I particularly like the reviews that compare and contrast various models. I've seen reviews that I believe to be fake. I never read just one review, but like to read through random ones, and get a feel for which are fake and which are genuine. I haven't noticed specific giveaways, but sometimes the wording just strikes me as fake, and I ignore those reviews.
I have never heard of fakespot either, but it'd be interesting to use it....thanks for sharing @Denis Hard In this day and age of modern technology, sometimes it's very hard to tell if reviews are fake or genuine when companies are going so far as to buy reviews! I've heard of companies even giving people free stuff to sing the praises of their products. That's why I like to read a lot of the negative reviews too to get a feel of what people are unhappy about. However, even that can be tricky because I've heard of companies running a smear campaign against competitors. I guess these days gut instinct and word of mouth from reliable sources go a long way in determining these things!
If I'm buying an expensive item I'm more wary of spending my money so I will always review before I buy. I won't just stay on the same site and believe every comment I read, I open up another tab on my browser, google the exact name and make of the product and check out other reviews from other sites. I've yet to find a flaw in this way of doing it. You can spend hours searching or just have a quick google search. I kind of enjoy researching as much as I can so it doesn't bother me if I've just spent 2 hours of my time online because I know I'm definitely getting what I paid for. I very rarely believe 5 star reviews on Amazon, either. I always like to check out the 1* and 4*.
Do not rely on reviews from the same site you are dealing with. They aren't likely to be critical of themselves. Open another tab and type the name of the site or product followed by the word review and take trouble to check from a variety of sites to reach a conclusion. You can also type the product or site followed by the word 'scam'.
Oh gosh no, I never go on the site I'm buying for for reviews. I feel like they'll likely only publish reviews that flatter them. I once sent a review to a site from where I'd bought a skin product, and it wasn't the glowing review they were looking for, because it never showed up on their site LOL. I usually go to a few different review sites. Plus I'm also a member of a couple of discussion forum sites where members are BRUTALLY honest, where I know nobody's being paid to write fake reviews.
I honestly don't know if there is any certain way to be able to tell whether or not a review is fake or not. Obviously there are things that may appeal to your bullshit alarm, and things that may set it off. But there is still no way to really prove if the review is fake. I usually check the reviewers profile to check their activity if I suspect that their review is fake.
Well there are fake reviews and also biased ones. I do agree lumping all the reviews together doesn't help (with e-books) because even though the product maybe the same, they might be different versions. In the case of e-books, people want to know about formatting and also if the translations are good, and it's hard when they compile them. Consider also a real review maybe biased because they know the author, or if they have a friend who works for the company. I know an author friend whose reviews were all from people she knew, except 2-3, so many were biased. I always look at the rating; 5, beware, unless they give good reasons for how good it was, and 1, these can be revenge ratings for bad service or competition.
It is getting harder and harder to know what is real any more with all the paid reviews out there. Sellers are spending more money than ever to separate you from your money. I wonder why they don't spend that money on making a better product, instead of paying for fake reviews? Silly me. I like to check products, services, and stores out on more reputable sites such as Consumer Reports or Reseller Ratings where things have been tested and buyers are verified. Still, there will always be bias. That's why I like to read lots of reviews before spending my money. After reading a bunch, you can get a better idea of what's really going on. Sometimes, you'll even find that reviewers will tell you where to find an item at the lowest price.
Yeah, there are definitely biased reviews for sure. But I don't know if I would ever categorize those biased reviews in the fake reviews column. Still, they can't be that useful or helpful for people who just want an honest review of the product that they are interested in. Common sense and intuition plays a part but there is not set way.
I don't know if there is a sure-fire way to prove fake reviews. But, there is a way to prove a fake reviewer! If you find someone offering a fake review service on fiverr(which you won't anymore) or any other website, then that person probably has been leaving a lot of other fake reviews as well using the same account. Amazon is using this method in order to identify fake reviewers and take down their reviews.
I have found that going that way is sort of long though. Often they are not going to have the same username and will have aliases that they leave the false reviews under. It helps to go to their profile on the site that they are leaving the false review on, and see their other reviews, as well as the date they joined and such.
Yeah. Amazon has sort of mastered the art of identifying fake reviews but they still need our help. If you find any such fake reviewers or reviews, let them know.
You know, as obvious as it is that fake reviews happen. I have never actually stumbled across a review that I felt was fake for sure. Otherwise I would have reported it on the spot. The last thing I want to do is but an item that was bigged up in a false review, only for the item to be crappy when it arrives - nothing like what the review said.
Yeah, it is the art of deception mastered by the review providers that makes the job hard. But, there is a pattern and obviously if you see someone leave hundreds of reviews in a short time, you know that its not right.
Yes, that is also another great thing to keep your eyes peeled for. Lots of reviews left in a short amount of time. I will add that to my list lol. How do you feel about reviews from people who received the product at a reduced price or for free, in order to review it?
I only ever consider the feedback from verified buyers, which is tough because in any feedback section the verified purchases will only account for a small fraction of the total. Unusable if there are a hundred reviews only twenty or less will be from verified purchases, and I'm sure that there are some that just slip through the cracks and end up on the non verified section even when they have bought the product but I just try and focus more on the verified ones nonetheless because I see that as being the minimal requirement of getting a review to be recognized as legit.
I don't know what it is but I don't trust verified purchase reviews either. There are gigs going on Fiverr for people to actually purchase products just so they they can leave a review, and then somehow the person who is providing the gig get compensated for the money they spent buying the product to review. So it is difficult to trust anything.
Here are some of the clues I have noticed when detecting fake reviews:Picture does not seem authentic or there's no picture at all. Others put up pictures of things or animals but not human faces. When the review sounds too good to be true, meaning the reviewer is all praises - not a single suggestion for improvement.When five stars are given instead of 3 or 4, which in my opinion is more fair.
