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Amazon's Fake Review Problem

brianbien.com

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Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#71

Post by delecti »

ajmurmann wrote: post #49
maxxxxx wrote: post #11

Amazon is starting to feel more and more like eBay. The same product sold by multiple vendors under different names, questionable reviews, clearly fraudulent sellers and so on. I used to love Amazon but now when I look for something I dread to do so on Amazon because I don't feel I can trust anything there.

I wish that Amazon could split the market place off. I disliked it from the first day they introduced it. I want to buy from Amazon not some company I've never heard of. It's if course never gonna happen. It's too convenient for Amazon and most users probably don't even understand that they aren't buying from Amazon.

If nothing else, they at least allow you to filter out non-amazon (or even non-prime fulfilled) items.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#72

Post by r00fus »

ad_hominem wrote: post #38

If Amazon starts penalizing products for fake reviews then it's probably just a matter of time until that's weaponized by competitors to tank competing products. Then I imagine Amazon will have to come out with a "disavow review" tool similar to Google's disavow backlinks (to counteract targeted negative SEO).

What's to say that isn't happening now? Seen quite a lot of pseudo positive reviews that are simply advising reader that "another product is better"

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#73

Post by propman »

I briefly considered offering a curated review service for Amazon many years back (I know it's unethical and it was just posturing) and was not surprised to find many services already offering that.

I thought Millennials had become desensitized to all 5 star over the top, big flashy sounding reviews so a service that carefully curates reviews for top items seemed like a decent idea. Sprinkle a few 1 star reviews for the wrong item sent or a fault of Amazon, a few 4 stars raving about the product but complaining about some minor aspect irrelevant to the average buyer to make it sound authentic. Many people compare a few products and when they make a purchase, they do so feeling really proud of themselves that they picked the perfect product for the best price. The "it's too good to be true" doesn't really seem to work anymore. This honestly seems to be the case for every Amazon product these days. We'll probabzky get desensitized to this soon too and something else will come up.

That said, fake products are ridiculous and there are a few sites I've bookmarked that do a pretty decent job of spotting a fake product and I do admit it's becoming harder to differentiate lately but the too good to be true adage still stands.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#74

Post by jazoom »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #14
corvallis wrote: post #7

I am much more wary about buying from Amazon than most of my peers, who easily click and buy on a whim or out of habit. I went to buy a toy at a brick and mortar, and compared the price to Amazon while there - $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! I think they've marketed them to be the low price leaders but that's definitely not the case. I'm also concerned about counterfeit products - I don't care as much about…

I don't think Amazon has marketed themselves to be low price leaders for a long time now. In fact, a lot of people around me know they pay a slight premium when shopping on Amazon, and do it nonetheless for the convenience it offers.

Amazon is saying they want to be a price leader in Australia. It's still definitely a tactic of theirs.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#75

Post by picodguyo »

brianpan wrote: post #26
gesman wrote: post #15

>> Amazon – who has some of the world’s most advanced ML – really needs to step up its review fraud detection game. It's not in the interests of Amazon to be on a crusade against fake reviews. Mass fake reviews are the driving force of revenues. AMZN will always maintain the balance between public outcry and absolute minimal effort to show that they're doing something against spammers. From my side I maintain the rig…

I don't understand your argument. How do reviews drive revenues? If all fake reviews were taken down, wouldn't buy less stuff from Amazon.

Most retailers find that conversion increases alongside review count, with diminishing returns above something like 50 reviews. It's important enough that most of the largest retailers either incentivize reviews with rewards or run "seeding" programs where they send out products in exchange for reviews.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#76

Post by aerion1 »

miles_matthias wrote: post #62

Here's my anecdote: my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. FakeSpot gave her most popular book an F grade because people were "suspiciously positive". Most people leaving reviews only leave reviews for things they absolutely love, so saying that it's "suspiciously positive" is not an indicator of it being fake. In her case, she knows these people personally and th…

I have been using Fakespot on Amazon and pay for the subscription features to simplify my online purchasing because it is needed. From what I have seen, Fakespot will detect ANY biased reviews. So if your wife had friends read and then leave a review with an affiliation as they mention in their FAQ/About.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#77

Post by Someone1234 »

miles_matthias wrote: post #62

Here's my anecdote: my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. FakeSpot gave her most popular book an F grade because people were "suspiciously positive". Most people leaving reviews only leave reviews for things they absolutely love, so saying that it's "suspiciously positive" is not an indicator of it being fake. In her case, she knows these people personally and th…

> my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books.

So your wife has people she knows leave positive reviews in order to bump her book's review score and you're upset that Fakespot gave it an F due to them being non-organic reviews?

As a consumer it sounds like Fakespot is doing a great job, and exactly what it states on the tin. What your wife is doing is at best dishonest and I'm glad they're exposed as sham reviews. Hopefully these people are putting a disclaimer in the reviews stating the conflict but I highly doubt it.

> Yet FakeSpot, who OP holds up as doing the great job that Amazon is not, is completely wrong.

Except according to your own anecdote they were completely right?

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#78

Post by matsemann »

miles_matthias wrote: post #62

Here's my anecdote: my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. FakeSpot gave her most popular book an F grade because people were "suspiciously positive". Most people leaving reviews only leave reviews for things they absolutely love, so saying that it's "suspiciously positive" is not an indicator of it being fake. In her case, she knows these people personally and th…

> In her case, she knows these people personally and they're not fake scripts

Still, their opinions aren't trustworthy to me, given they are written by people close to the author. So I could actually agree with FakeSpot on this.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#79

Post by notatoad »

miles_matthias wrote: post #62

Here's my anecdote: my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. FakeSpot gave her most popular book an F grade because people were "suspiciously positive". Most people leaving reviews only leave reviews for things they absolutely love, so saying that it's "suspiciously positive" is not an indicator of it being fake. In her case, she knows these people personally and th…

I find that reviews on books and reviews on everything else amazon sells are two completely different ballgames. I don't trust product reviews on amazon at all anymore, but I still trust book reviews to be honest 99% of the time. Books don't seem to be plagued by the same review spam as everything else on amazon.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#80

Post by aerion1 »

gesman wrote: post #15

>> Amazon – who has some of the world’s most advanced ML – really needs to step up its review fraud detection game. It's not in the interests of Amazon to be on a crusade against fake reviews. Mass fake reviews are the driving force of revenues. AMZN will always maintain the balance between public outcry and absolute minimal effort to show that they're doing something against spammers. From my side I maintain the rig…

200% agreed. It drives sales and that's a certainty.
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