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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

#51

Post by corin_ »

394549 wrote: post #34
zaksoup wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a sign of illegitimate fake-spotting, or a sign of just how widespread fake reviews are? Personally I'm quite inclined to believe an extremely high fail rate.

> Is that a sign of illegitimate fake-spotting, or a sign of just how widespread fake reviews are? Personally I'm quite inclined to believe an extremely high fail rate. I think fake reviews are pretty widespread. This Washington Post story ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-merchant... ) talks about how Facebook groups are used trade free stuff in exchange for good reviews. I joined some, and they…

> FakeSpot seems to spend put a lot of emphasis on analyzing the reviewers, probably looking for accounts who appear to be participating in one of these review rings.

Presumably this (and the fact that Amazon can analyse them too) leads to a wider spread of fake reviews even on legitimate items, as having fake accounts write generic reviews on a random selection of items they don’t care about would make them harder to detect.

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

#52

Post by exolymph »

Gauc2 wrote: post #38
IAmGraydon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pr…

>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. Is this also true with items sold directly by Amazon?

Yes. They commingle all the inventory.

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

#53

Post by ilamont »

According to outside auditors like Fakespot and ReviewMeta, more than half the reviews for certain popular products are questionable. Amazon disputes those estimates.

"Our approximation is that less than 1 percent of reviews are inauthentic," says Sharon Chiarella, vice president of community shopping at Amazon. She adds that "sometimes individual products have more suspicious activity."

The disparity in what outside services observe and users experience vs. what Amazon claims, and the increasing press coverage and online discussion of the problem, will force Amazon to take increasingly drastic measures to crack down on bogus reviews.

There is also the issue of increasing levels of returns for 5-star crap. But, while Amazon can absorb the costs of returns, Bezos truly hates negative press, and the Amazon PR machine will go to great lengths to get high-profile news orgs repeating the official Amazon line.

If they can't tamp down negative coverage, the best hope for generating positive press is to announce action - a crackdown, lawsuits against fake reviewers, or other evidence that they are "doing something" about the issue. Unfortunately for Amazon, they've done this in the past (1, 2) and the problem appears to have gotten worse.

1. October 2015: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/18/amazon-su...

2. April 2016: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-sues-all...

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

#54

Post by whitepoplar »

snegu wrote: post #24

Last night I finally abandoned a book that was absolute trash, but had 83% 5-star reviews on Amazon. Looking at the reviews now, I see that most of them are written by people who only write 5-star reviews (it has an F-rating on Fakespot). Feeling like kind of a dummy right now.

Name and shame!

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

#55

Post by jameslk »

There will always be a desire to pay for reviews, since 70%-80% of shoppers check reviews before buying[0][1] (and growing[2]).

Amazon could help fix this problem by creating "sponsored" reviews. This way a company can pay for reviews in a non-scummy way, a reviewer (and Amazon) gets paid, and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not.

Or just pass laws to regulate reviews.

0. http://www.peopleclaim.com/blog/index.php/the-review-of-rati...

1. https://www.chainstoreage.com/news/study-81-research-online-...

2. https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2016/11/01/media-device-habits-...

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

#56

Post by treebeard901 »

jameslk wrote: post #55

There will always be a desire to pay for reviews, since 70%-80% of shoppers check reviews before buying[0][1] (and growing[2]). Amazon could help fix this problem by creating "sponsored" reviews. This way a company can pay for reviews in a non-scummy way, a reviewer (and Amazon) gets paid, and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not. Or just pass laws to regulate reviews. 0. http://www.peopleclaim.…

> and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not.

Isn't this what the companies are paying for?

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

#57

Post by cmplxconjugate »

jameslk wrote: post #55

There will always be a desire to pay for reviews, since 70%-80% of shoppers check reviews before buying[0][1] (and growing[2]). Amazon could help fix this problem by creating "sponsored" reviews. This way a company can pay for reviews in a non-scummy way, a reviewer (and Amazon) gets paid, and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not. Or just pass laws to regulate reviews. 0. http://www.peopleclaim.…

The fundamental problem though is that companies want to discretely inject these overly positive reviews. If users can identify these “paid-for” reviews, they will most likely treat them with distrust.

I really can’t see a way around this.

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

#58

Post by aiyodev »

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.

Why is this “common knowledge” while almost nobody believes astroturfing exists on Reddit or Hacker News? Serious question. I don’t see a fundamental difference.

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

#59

Post by jameslk »

treebeard901 wrote: post #56
jameslk wrote: post #55

There will always be a desire to pay for reviews, since 70%-80% of shoppers check reviews before buying[0][1] (and growing[2]). Amazon could help fix this problem by creating "sponsored" reviews. This way a company can pay for reviews in a non-scummy way, a reviewer (and Amazon) gets paid, and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not. Or just pass laws to regulate reviews. 0. http://www.peopleclaim.…

> and a customer can tell whether the review was paid for or not. Isn't this what the companies are paying for?

Given the opportunity to pay for sponsored reviews or risk getting perma banned from Amazon, I'm guessing a lot of companies would choose the former. Regardless, it's not an idea I have seen tested yet anywhere, so it's hard to know.

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

#60

Post by dunpeal »

johndubchak wrote: post #6
prolikewh0a wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I checked your comment and it was an F with 83% fake on FakeSpot. Edit: I was paid for writing this review.

I checked FakeSpot with FakeSpotFakeSpot, a website to check the authenticity of fake-review spotting websites, and it received an A with 99% authenticity.
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