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Amazon's Fake Review Problem

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Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#201

Post by perseusprime11 »

mathgenius wrote: post #122
perseusprime11 wrote: post #22

This is not just Amazon’s problem. App store ratings, Reddit comments, Twitter/FB feeds, and Net Neutrality comments are all gamed. We are living in the age of human controlled bots looking to manipulate other humans through what we read.

Yeah, these are all "message passing" algorithms, like belief propagation. The whole financial system itself is another good example of this.

I hope Hacker News will be the last bastion for fake comments. At least, I have never seen bots lurking around on Hacker News.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#202

Post by pwaai »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #95

It's not perfect, but I've been using Fakespot [0] for all my Amazon purchases. It helps filter down the info a bit, which makes it easier to make decisions. Honestly, I think what we need is a Consumer Report reboot. I signed up for a subscription recently, and was very disappointed with their service, although I still like idea behind it. I'm often overwhelmed by the huge number of options, and it can be incredibly…

what did you find disappointing about it? First time I heard about it, what is it they do that's worth subscribing?

On researching, yeah it's honestly a chore everytime because so much disinformation/misinformation.

I'm not sure what decentralization would look like or even make sense. It seems like you just need some central guy like CR to vet and test out all the products. I go to Youtube for that tho.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#203

Post by Spivak »

anthuswilliams wrote: post #186
ausjke wrote: post #27

There are groups that do both: buying the first batches of products and writing nice reviews, then the seller will pay for what they have done, it's a mature business these days: you hire a team to market you at Amazon by faking reviews after "real" purchases(will be compensated or rewarded under the counter afterwards). This is very hard to detect indeed. Maybe Amazon can have some AI algorithm, that is for any newl…

But then, why does Amazon want to do that? it will decrease its own profit. Why would policing fake reviews decrease Amazon's profits?

Presumably because positive reviews cause people to buy products, they don't necessarily blame Amazon if they turn out to be bad, nor do they return them.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#205

Post by doglet »

intopieces wrote: post #200

Amazon's solution to fake reviews is Amazon Basics, a "verified good" version of whatever you were looking for. Thus, they have little incentive to combat fake reviews for products not directly sold by them, since that bad experience, they hope, will cause you to run back to them for the product next time. They also get to avoid being called a monopoly by selling products of various qualities and from various sellers…

Interestingly, Amazon might have a secondary payoff here: they actually get some good ground truth (honest review data) since these reviews - at least the positive ones - aren't tainted by the same incentives.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#206

Post by derefr »

DanielleMolloy wrote: post #127
catdog wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Headphones seem to be a very strange category in general. You can get exceptional good value for money if you know what to buy and on the other hand pay a lot for utter crap.

Listening is extremely subjective though. Headphone types can be better / worse for certain listening habits (there are people out there who don't think great bass makes great music, folks), and for different ears. Music taste itself is extremely subjective. Best thing is still to get to a trusted hifi store nearby with your own, known music in best quality and your current best headphone model and test through candi…

> Headphone types can be better / worse for certain listening habits

No they can't. Loudspeakers (of all kinds) can either faithfully convert electrical signals into the vibrations they represent, or they can't. Equalizer presets can be better / worse for certain listening habits. There is no reason, when even a $5 MP3 player has EQ presets, that headphones shouldn't be aiming for a flat frequency-response curve.

Now, admittedly, there might be some preference axis between being able to faithfully replicate high amplitude signals, vs. having low impedance and therefore being kinder to the batteries of portable devices (and/or not requiring an extra in-line portable headphone amp.) But other than that one distinction, headphones can really only be "better" or "worse" at doing their one job.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#207

Post by lightwin »

jacek wrote: post #39

The fake review problem on Amazon is much bigger than people think. Here are my two anecdotes: 1. I got bluetooth headphones on amazon (~$65). They had great reviews, but were very disappointing. I returned them and gave 2 star review. Representative from the manufacturer contacted me and offered me a pair for free. After I got them, they asked for positive review. I refused. That manipulation technique wasn't enough…

Just today I was trying to find some earphones on amazon and came across following seller page.

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dap...

Almost all of their products have 500-600 reviews and all are 5 star, not even a single one is less than 5 stars. Moreover, most of reviews are created in November 2017 and each reviewer has left couple of 5-star reviews only for same seller's product within a week.

These fake reviews could have been detected by even a basic detection system. Not sure why Amazon has not already detected and removed them.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#208

Post by Malician »

Someone1234 wrote: post #119
threatofrain wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also call this dishonesty, but I wouldn't be too hard on someone for this. Asking someone to not do this is like asking someone to do honest advertisements. It's asking someone to uphold an ethical standard that the majority neglects. A little bit of moderated moral pushback has its place, but I think the main solution at societal-scale must be structural.

I actually agree, I'd be lying if I wouldn't leave a positive review if my spouse or friend wrote a book. Problem is the person above said "Yet FakeSpot [...] is completely wrong." and criticized Fakespot for pointing out the problematic reviews. They say that everyone is a hero in their own story, and I think that applies here, you have good personal motivations (help a friend/spouse/family, etc) but ultimately what…

I mean, I'm just suspicious. Fakespot seems to say the reviews are dishonest, fake, overly positive for.. well, a lot of things, including my favorite pair of headphones.

They're positive because the headphones are utterly fantastic. They beat the crap out of the better-reviewed (on Amazon) Bose version. Which Fakespot gives a better grade to.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#209

Post by RhodesianHunter »

pwaai wrote: post #51
mjevans wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the behavior that I would like to see Amazon encourage as a solution. Tracking the product back to it's actual origin of manufacturer (and showing us the consumer). Where, exactly, was the factory? The lot number and date of manufacturer? Official model and revision number? Requiring these things will give buyers better hard data to detect and exclude middle-level-marking shenanigans as well as combat 'bait an…

How would you go about tracing the steps? Are there some large database of OEM factories where you can contact them in English (assuming China). I too would love to know exactly where and who made it, how many middle-men have stepped in with their own markup to finally Amazon. Because it's clear that Amazon doesn't give two shit about who and what gets sold, they just care about volume. Fixing reviews is not part of…

With great difficulty.

Most major brands never even touch their products. They design them and have them built by contract manufacturers. They then get sent through distributors, shippers, brokers, etc. Each of which has terribly old systems which may or may not track each individual item.

Most links in this chain are also disinterested in any third party knowing what and how many products they move, including and especially the brand itself.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#210

Post by iClaudiusX »

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…

Both situations should require full disclosure, otherwise I don't see anything wrong with the F grade assessment.
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