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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

#81

Post by ascar »

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 got also very annoyed by that to the point where I spent more time filtering fake reviews than the cheap product is worth. I always start npw by remembering myself that a physical shop would not give me any reviews, but also often the same bad quality to an even higher price.

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

#82

Post by [deleted] »

thatoneuser wrote: post #62
vonmoltke wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. Why? How do we "know" they have the data? How do we "know" that can act on whatever data they have? People here seem to ascribe a level of omniscience to tech giants that I'm not certain they deserve.

Are you seriously proposing Amazon doesn't realize what's going on with their review systems?

[deleted]

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

#83

Post by acchow »

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 wish Amazon would separate verified reviews (actually shipped item from Amazon Warehouse to this Amazon account who is writing a review) from unverified reviews.

Does anyone know why they don't do this?

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

#84

Post by Gpetrium »

This is an interesting case since it has the potential to impact other larger entities such as Amazon (Goods), Google (Apps), Apple (Apps).

The issue with fake paid reviews is extremely difficult to gauge and act upon. On one end, the owner of the marketplace doesn't want their place to be seeing as 'full of fakes' on the other end, they don't want to be seeing as censoring legit feedback. How do you know who is who? The second you figure that out, the 'bad actors' will find different, innovative ways to break your system.

On another side, because review has become a huge part of the decision people take, new entrants are finding it harder to get a piece of the market (even if they are legit) without paying someone to provide reviews.

Finding the right balance in this area will be a continuous effort on all sides, we will likely need better independent customer review sites, the marketplaces will need to find better ways to gauge what is real and what is not, the customers will need to be proactive and check information from different angles, businesses will need to find new ways to prove their legitimacy to get the trust of clients.

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

#85

Post by nitrogen »

function_seven wrote: post #77
ABCLAW wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why don't they ever show up in search engine results?

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

#86

Post by tyingq »

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's also confusion between when a product is being reviewed, or a seller. Buyers often leave a bad review meant for a seller to the product itself.

So, a good product, with multiple sellers, might get dinged due to one bad seller.

Or, one bad seller out of four sellers is shipping counterfeits. Because of commingling, all sellers and the product get tarnished.

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

#87

Post by crwalker »

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…

One-star reviews are the best signal I can find for product quality. They will let you know if there is a repeatable issue with trustworthy incentives. If there are more 2 star reviews than 1 star reviews and there is no pattern in the 1 star reviews, that's a great sign.

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

#88

Post by duado »

vonmoltke wrote: post #60
duado wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shopping on Amazon is like shopping in Chinatown now. The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. This shit must be working, for some definition of working. Personally, anything that touches my child, or goes in my body, is not allowed to be bought on Amazon.

> The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. Why? How do we "know" they have the data? How do we "know" that can act on whatever data they have? People here seem to ascribe a level of omniscience to tech giants that I'm not certain they deserve.

You think everyone on the Internet except people at Amazon knows about this?

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

#89

Post by slantyyz »

acchow wrote: post #83
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 wish Amazon would separate verified reviews (actually shipped item from Amazon Warehouse to this Amazon account who is writing a review) from unverified reviews. Does anyone know why they don't do this?

> I wish Amazon would separate verified reviews (actually shipped item from Amazon Warehouse to this Amazon account who is writing a review) from unverified reviews.

Honestly, that's a useless metric. Since banning incentivized reviews, the situation is actually _worse_ than it was before.

All of the vendors who were sending out products for incentivized reviews now reimburse reviewers after they buy the product and leave a review, which means the review gets a "Verified Purchase" tag. This is against the rules, but it's happening.

In the age of incentivized reviews, those reviews did not have a "Verified Purchase" tag.

Source: Used to be an incentivized reviewer (stopped after rule change).

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

#90

Post by joegahona »

duado wrote: post #45
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…

Shopping on Amazon is like shopping in Chinatown now. The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. This shit must be working, for some definition of working. Personally, anything that touches my child, or goes in my body, is not allowed to be bought on Amazon.

I drew a similar line recently -- no more buying pills or stuff for my dog on Amazon. I wonder if everyone did this how much it would ding their bottom line.
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