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Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

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Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#11

Post by zanmat0 »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #4
JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

How legitimate is FakeSpot though? I find nearly everything has an F with a high amount of fake reviews when I use it.

It has worked well for me. There are plenty of A and B products, keep looking.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#12

Post by bob_theslob646 »

How are there not laws that enforce companies to verify there reviews. I understand it is a complex problem, but first it was our elections were manipulated via spam advertising and now, most of the products that we buy are going to be.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#14

Post by wuliwong »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

On what do you base your opinion that the "general population is completely unaware?"

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#15

Post by IAmGraydon »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

You really should never be shopping on Amazon for high margin products that are easy to fake. This means perfume, cosmetics, sunglasses and name brand clothing. These items are cheap to manufacture (even the real ones), but get their high perceived value from brand. Those Raybans you love? A $250 pair costs Luxotica around $5 to manufacture. So items like these are common to fake because the fakers can often get a product that is close in quality to the real thing. If they can just trick people into thinking it IS the real thing, they can make as much margin as the big guys without the cost of building an actual brand.

BTW, because of the way Amazon’s FBA service works, even ordering items that are “sold by” a reputable retailer but “fulfilled by Amazon” gets you a high chance of receiving a fake. This is because they mix FBA stock and don’t discriminate what stock it comes from when filling that item, regardless of who the seller is.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#16

Post by riazrizvi »

drewr wrote: post #13
riazrizvi wrote: post #9

I've been using https://www.fakespot.com to flag bullshit reviews for a few months now. After many happy purchases informed by its review analysis, I believe it works.

How can we believe you?

: )

Well don't take it on trust, validate it works. And keep validating it still works, because one day it won't. Everyone seems to sell out in the end.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#17

Post by wuliwong »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #12

How are there not laws that enforce companies to verify there reviews. I understand it is a complex problem, but first it was our elections were manipulated via spam advertising and now, most of the products that we buy are going to be.

Don't worry, they will eventually regulate that too.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#18

Post by wuliwong »

riazrizvi wrote: post #16
drewr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can we believe you?

: ) Well don't take it on trust, validate it works. And keep validating it still works, because one day it won't. Everyone seems to sell out in the end.

What do you mean by "validate it"?

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#19

Post by dawhizkid »

I'm glad the media seems to finally be paying attention to a problem most people know/have suspected for a long time, though I wonder if Amazon will ever be held accountable in the same way FB has with Cambridge Analytica...seems like it will take a major crisis (someone dying or getting seriously injured buying a fake product on Amazon) for something to actually happen.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#20

Post by marviel »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

You'd think that Amazon would have the machine learning resources to detect likely-fraudulent items with high accuracy, should they be interested in preventing such obvious fraud.
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