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FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

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Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#31

Post by elektor »

potatofarmer45 wrote: post #6

There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…

I recommend that you copy and paste the Amazon link to https://reviewmeta.com/ and https://www.fakespot.com/ to see how many of the reviews are actually legit.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#32

Post by howard941 »

macintux wrote: post #27
toufiqbarhamov wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about Amazon’s abuse of their customers surprises me anymore. Their “Amazon’s Recommemdation” is a joke too, and they’re associating their brand with garbage. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gflpf0DrCgw Par for the Amazon course, cheap Chinese knockoffs. If they had anything other than a highly permissive refund system, they’d already be drowning in lawsuits. They must bleed refund money though, and I thought B…

What percentage of customers go through the refund process? I think I refund maybe one purchase every 4-5 years, for all of my retail activity combined. I don't believe I've ever bothered with Amazon.

I wish I was as discerning a buyer. I send back half of what I get off of Amazon, something like once every other month. By volume it's a lot more than I return anywhere else except for games impulse purchased and "returned" to Valve on Steam.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#33

Post by CharlesColeman »

duskwuff wrote: post #13
potatofarmer45 wrote: post #6

There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…

Or reviews that were transferred over from other products. Here's a case in point: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MH9HPTR Over 3000 reviews... most of them for products completely unrelated to the one on sale. I see reviews for a bicycle lamp, a phone screen protector, and a voltage converter. This seems like a bug. Surely Amazon shouldn't allow sellers to transfer product reviews over from other products?

> Or reviews that were transferred over from other products. Here's a case in point:

> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MH9HPTR

> Over 3000 reviews... most of them for products completely unrelated to the one on sale. I see reviews for a bicycle lamp, a phone screen protector, and a voltage converter.

And it's "Amazon's Choice for 'iphone headphone charger splitter'"!

Archive link in case the product morphs again: https://web.archive.org/web/20190226210646/https://www.amazo...

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#34

Post by dontbenebby »

elektor wrote: post #30

Last year I bought a set of cheap Bluetooth headphones on Amazon which I use on a daily basis. It's obvious they have an affiliate program because I often seem on those daily deal roundup posts that a lot of tech blogs now have. Recently, I've been getting emails from the vendors asking me to leave a review in return for a free product. Here is a copy and paste of one: Dear Customer, Thank you for purchasing our (HEA…

>If you are interested in a (FREE PRODUCT), please get back to us with the screenshot of your review.

>Note: you can click the link below directly to leave your positive review: (LINK TO AMAZON TO LEAVE REVIEW)

>Please rest assured that we’ll arrange (FREE PRODUCT) to you ASAP after we receive the screenshot of your review together with your shipping address.

It'd be interesting to see what they do if you left a neutral review. (Eg: "Three stars. Cheap build quality but decent for the price I guess").

I suspect they're trying to maintain the illusion they're not paying for positive reviews, just for reviews.

If they're dumb enough to reply back over email that only positive reviews qualify, you could probably forward that to a regulator.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#35

Post by uodtl »

dontbenebby wrote: post #34
elektor wrote: post #30

Last year I bought a set of cheap Bluetooth headphones on Amazon which I use on a daily basis. It's obvious they have an affiliate program because I often seem on those daily deal roundup posts that a lot of tech blogs now have. Recently, I've been getting emails from the vendors asking me to leave a review in return for a free product. Here is a copy and paste of one: Dear Customer, Thank you for purchasing our (HEA…

>If you are interested in a (FREE PRODUCT), please get back to us with the screenshot of your review. >Note: you can click the link below directly to leave your positive review: (LINK TO AMAZON TO LEAVE REVIEW) >Please rest assured that we’ll arrange (FREE PRODUCT) to you ASAP after we receive the screenshot of your review together with your shipping address. It'd be interesting to see what they do if you left a neut…

Can't you edit the review or just take it back once you've received (FREE PRODUCT)?

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#36

Post by dontbenebby »

potatofarmer45 wrote: post #6

There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…

>There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality.

Is it just me, or is it harder to sort by critical nowadays? I find I have to click into all reviews to reveal the option for "all critical".

And recently when looking at one product, when I tried to pull the "negative" reviews, they included several five star reviews.

I'm seriously considering ditching Prime and signing up for a Target credit card - there's no annual fee, you get the same prime style free shipping, and there's a base level of quality to the products at Target that just doesn't seem to be present in Amazon's offerings.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#37

Post by dontbenebby »

mc32 wrote: post #18

Crowdsourced reviews are problematic (often but not always lacking context). Paid reviews make them worthless. Perhaps this is one use of a blockchain which could add credibility to reviews. Still by and large I prefer independent professional reviews (combined with authentic crowdsourced reviews), the problem with these, like CR, is that they’re not scalable to thousands of new products periodically, so we have to r…

>Perhaps this is one use of a blockchain which could add credibility to reviews.

Amazon offers the option to only view reviews from confirmed purchasers.

The problem is that people often receive free products in exchange for the review.

"The blockchain" would show that the buyer sent BTC to the seller, but it does nothing to address the fact the seller can put more things into a box and ship them after the review is posted.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#38

Post by femto113 »

Title would be more descriptive if "Indie Retail Website" was replaced with "Amazon.com".

What I find most notable here is that the FTC's settlement is with the manufacturer/seller, and doesn't seem to affect the company that wrote the reviews (amazonverifiedreviews.com).

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#39

Post by mc32 »

samat wrote: post #26
mc32 wrote: post #18

Crowdsourced reviews are problematic (often but not always lacking context). Paid reviews make them worthless. Perhaps this is one use of a blockchain which could add credibility to reviews. Still by and large I prefer independent professional reviews (combined with authentic crowdsourced reviews), the problem with these, like CR, is that they’re not scalable to thousands of new products periodically, so we have to r…

How on earth would blockchain help?

Tying buyer to review, although not perfect, in that you could still have a confederate problem, it would help.

Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website

#40

Post by dylan604 »

jedberg wrote: post #8
gav wrote: post #4

I still don't understand why Amazon has done so little to combat the plague of fake reviews. It seems like it's something that's going to blow up eventually and bite them. Along those lines: why do they still value reviews that aren't associated with a purchase? This is the logical first step.

> Along those lines: why do they still value reviews that aren't associated with a purchase? This is the logical first step. Sometimes I review products on Amazon that I purchased elsewhere to help others who might be considering the product. If we didn't have fraud, those would be really useful.

But your non-purchase review doesn't prove that the actual item sold on Amazon isn't a fake. That's the whole point of knock-offs. They want you to purchase on the expectation that reviews/experience of the real item will be all the "advertising" needed to sell their knock-off.

If you haven't purchased the item, the review should not be allowed to be made.

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