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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

#71

Post by inoop »

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.

Because it's a really, really hard problem to solve. The sheer scale of Amazon combined with razor thin margins and the fact that Amazon isn't even the selling party on most products means that they can't just throw a bunch of manual labor at the problem.

It's a similar problem to YouTube still hosting tons of copyrighted material. Fraud is just super hard to fight.

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

#72

Post by Theodores »

omouse wrote: post #46

FINALLY. "In addition, the order requires the defendants to notify Amazon, Inc. that they purchased Amazon reviews of their Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia capsules and to identify to Amazon the purchased reviews." Online reviews don't work without trust . Maintaining trust is done by Amazon in this case, but sometimes the job is too big, especially at this scale. Amazon needs better tools perhaps, but the j…

The thing is that trust with Amazon is just not about the product reviews.

I have been genuinely amazed by Amazon service, delivery and choice but those days are over.

Years ago some right on woman ticked me off for recommending her a book that you could just get on Amazon. At the time I thought her attitude was a bit extreme - essentially she was already of the boycott Amazon persuasion. At the time I could not care less for bookshops, that battle had been lost and Amazon gave choice, delivery and price that couldn't be argued with.

Years later I have almost came to this woman's conclusion. What has changed? There are lots of small trust things. It seems that Amazon will gladly tender and take on the most odious work for the spy agencies that the rest of Silicon Valley would not touch with a bargepole. It doesn't appear that Amazon want to pay any taxes, which is all very clever but I would prefer to see a society where businesses pay taxes and individuals don't. But, despite these problems, I will still want Amazon stuff.

Now if the reviews are not trustworthy and I can't trust them to have the best prices then that is it really, I stop being a customer of Amazon and, a decade after crazy woman scorned me for buying from Amazon, I become of the opinion that she was right all along with all her talk of 'illegal monopoly' and 'tax avoidance'.

Trust is a fragile belief-y thing and when it has gone it has gone.

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

#73

Post by ABCLAW »

Guest10928391 wrote: post #61
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…

Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every result on my front page is a website that is filled with Amazon affiliate links. I feel like none of them can be trusted because most have never touched any of the umbrellas, but they are just doing a top 10 list and rewriting opinions they read on Amazon. Of cour…

I don't mind the affiliate links, but I mind dishonest or low quality churned reviews.

When TV shopping, I used the reviews from https://www.rtings.com/

They pointed me to issues and concerns with TV quality, provided me with an understanding of the trade-offs at various price points, and then directed me to a TV model that I purchased and have been incredibly satisfied with. Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports. We obviously have demand, the question is how to finance it.

I think consistent, ethical, non-conflicted third party quality reviews can be a solid lifestyle business. Won't be a unicorn, but it'll keep a few people gainfully employed and make the world a bit better.

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

#74

Post by haggy »

uodtl wrote: post #35
dontbenebby wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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)?

It's a numbers game. Most people aren't going to go back and edit it. They'll leave their 5 star review and hold their hand out for FREE PRODUCT.

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

#75

Post by ams6110 »

ABCLAW wrote: post #73
Guest10928391 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every result on my front page is a website that is filled with Amazon affiliate links. I feel like none of them can be trusted because most have never touched any of the umbrellas, but they are just doing a top 10 list and rewriting opinions they read on Amazon. Of cour…

I don't mind the affiliate links, but I mind dishonest or low quality churned reviews. When TV shopping, I used the reviews from https://www.rtings.com/ They pointed me to issues and concerns with TV quality, provided me with an understanding of the trade-offs at various price points, and then directed me to a TV model that I purchased and have been incredibly satisfied with. Maybe we need a reputable internet equiva…

Well? What's wrong with Consumer Reports? Sign up, pay for it, done.

Why does valuable information that takes a lot of time and expense to produce need to be free? That attitude is the root of most of what's wrong with the web today.

s/internet/web/

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

#76

Post by function_seven »

Guest10928391 wrote: post #61
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…

Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every result on my front page is a website that is filled with Amazon affiliate links. I feel like none of them can be trusted because most have never touched any of the umbrellas, but they are just doing a top 10 list and rewriting opinions they read on Amazon. Of cour…

My solution to this has been to find a subreddit that's devoted to the product in question.

If there is one, then I'll check the sidebar there, read through some posts, search for a few keywords. Basically spend 15 minutes researching.

Reddit still has shills and astroturfs, but for a lot of niches they're often aggressively moderated out of the community.

To go along with your umbrella example:

Unfortunately /r/umbrellas isn't a thing, but I did find this thread[1]. Sprinkled throughout the comments are links to sites that seem to be on the up-and-up.

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/a4afrg/guys_d...

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

#77

Post by function_seven »

ABCLAW wrote: post #73
Guest10928391 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every result on my front page is a website that is filled with Amazon affiliate links. I feel like none of them can be trusted because most have never touched any of the umbrellas, but they are just doing a top 10 list and rewriting opinions they read on Amazon. Of cour…

I don't mind the affiliate links, but I mind dishonest or low quality churned reviews. When TV shopping, I used the reviews from https://www.rtings.com/ They pointed me to issues and concerns with TV quality, provided me with an understanding of the trade-offs at various price points, and then directed me to a TV model that I purchased and have been incredibly satisfied with. Maybe we need a reputable internet equiva…

> Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports.

We have one. It's cr.org

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

#78

Post by Gpetrium »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #65

Seems like there’s a huge business opportunity for trusted, independent review websites. Or for a company that certifies such websites as trusted.

Until the trusted, independent review websites are paid to let some things slide. It is a very difficult environment to maintain.

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

#79

Post by duskwuff »

organsnyder wrote: post #14
duskwuff wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

They're abusing the "color" parameter to be multiple products instead. It's astounding that Amazon has yet to actively prohibit this.

I'm not sure that's the source of the problem here. There are multiple variants of this particular product, but they are all substantially similar to each other, and completely different from most of the products being reviewed.

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

#80

Post by nomel »

mc32 wrote: post #39
samat wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is defeated by simply giving people amazon gift cards to purchase the product to submit the review. I've seen many reviews state that this is already happening: a review in exchange for the product.
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