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Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

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Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#201

Post by xxs »

Meekro wrote: post #118
crazypython wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sellers already pay people to write reviews– and compensate for the product. How is this system any different? > If a seller wanted to keep farming reviews, they would now have to buy up the vast majority of their own inventory in the hopes of being selected. They already have 100 people buy their product and fully pay for it for a review.

It's different because it has Amazon randomly selecting who gets paid to write a review, and the reviewer doesn't have any incentive to lie since they get the $10 regardless. Sellers are currently paying people (in money and product) for 5 star reviews, which is exactly the problem I'm trying to solve.

The seller merely includes a promotion - leave a good review, receive a gift card (or straight up refund for cheaper products).

Your system may have minor chance of success if there was no way for the sellers to contact customers.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#202

Post by yrgulation »

kioleanu wrote: post #182

Amazon has a problem with fake reviews and it seems they are ok with it. I bought a replacement screen from Amazon and it wasn’t working properly. I thought I did something wrong so I contacted the seller/manufacturer and they told: oh yeah, it‘s defective, we‘ll just give you your money back. I agreed and then the person said „cool, now in order to process your request, please click these buttons on Amazon” and they…

Tangentially, my Amazon account had been compromised. The person hacking my account bought amazon vouchers (fortunately the attached debit card was empty as i always keep cards i use online empty until i actually buy stuff).

Four days in a row i was told by different customer support reps that the voucher will be cancelled in a few minutes (oddly enough i couldnt cancel it myself), and none actually did it all the while amazon tried charging my card and asking to update payment details. Since then, around 2 months ago, i stopped buying on amazon all together.

Oddly enough i usually get a notification when i login from a new device, but this time i didnt even tho the voucher was bought by someone in Panama (not sure if they used a real name or not but they sure weren't logging in from my device).

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#203

Post by anon9001 »

masto wrote: post #131
spullara wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are so many people buying counterfeit stuff on Amazon? What are they buying? Why would someone copy it? Are they just looking at price?

Here’s an example from real life just last week. Clorox ToiletWand Refill. Go look on Amazon, I’ll wait here. You’ll find many different sellers, some obviously “third party”, and some that look original but when you delve into the reviews you find stuff like this: https://imgur.com/9vyE8kq I didn’t want to buy a toilet cleaner that would fall apart and make me fish it out of the toilet, so we went and got them from…

Amazon needs to separate out the ebay-style new/used peer-to-peer marketplace from the more trusted "Sold by Amazon" stuff.

Both marketplace types are useful (especially for books), but consumer goods need some kind of notice when you're buying from anyone other than Amazon.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#204

Post by xxs »

st3b wrote: post #133
DNied wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution: only read negative reviews. They're much more telling. As a bonus, they'll often kill impulse purchases, saving me money.

It's not a completely foolproof solution, because competitors with dirty tactics can write fake negative reviews.

Almost no one write 3 and 4 star reviews out of spite.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#205

Post by injidup »

throwawayboise wrote: post #79
injidup wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So easy to say. My local stores all have at least a 25 to 50 percent markup on anything on Amazon. Cameras to drones to computers to auto parts. Amazon beats on price by a huge margin. I'd love to buy tyres and oil from the local shop but the 50 to 100 percent price difference is not worth it.

When your counterfeit Michelins blow out and your engine siezes up on the counterfeit Castrol you may have a different view on prices and value.

You have no way of knowing that the overpriced stuff at the local garage is not fake either. I've had the Austrian consumer affairs department intervene on my behalf a number of times when local garages attempt to overprice on items that were either not required during the service or overpriced. I've had local plumbers try to charge double the price on certain items when they thought I wouldn't notice. Your rose colored glasses are quaint. Everybody is out to make a buck and I wouldn't put it past local shops to buy fake products and charge double for it. I'd rather my fake stuff at a decent price thankyou.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#206

Post by benrbray »

cobookman wrote: post #174
ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

This attitude comes from a place of privilege. You can afford a brand-name coffee maker, many can't. If you look at the median Westerner, most don't have that kind of disposable income to afford those kinds of goods. Amazon offers a cheaper (commodity) price, which drives overall increase in sales. Amazon is going after Walmart, the lower-end market at the cost of loosing parts of the niche higher-end market.

Sorry, what? The situation we're complaining about is more like this:

> Steve can't normally afford nice things, but he saves up to buy a nice coffee maker on Amazon, paying close to $100 and expecting to receive a product that will last decades. However, Steve receives a counterfeit product in the mail that breaks just a few days after the return window.

With most of these products, you're paying full price but getting an inferior product in return.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#207

Post by vievie »

Lifx, people who make "smart" lightbulbs, have gamed the amazon seller system to remove critical reviews -- even those by high rank amazon reviewers. They really don't like their product described as: Hardware Malware.

Amazon is Big Data. They could _easily_ identify generated reviews if they wanted.

They don't.

I myself stopped writing reviews as an emotionally abusive department at Amazon discourages critical reviews _albeit_ 5 star. Community Team is staffed by persons with reprehensibly poor English skills not fit to judge review compliance with vague rules.

Don't trust inarticulate reviews.

Don't trust articulate reviews without line breaks.

Don't trust products with more than 800 reviews.

But wait there's more...

Amazon will cancel your account for returning "too many" items. Catch 22.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#208

Post by lifeformed »

Meekro wrote: post #104

I'm just spitballing, but what do you guys think about this as a fake-resistant review system? To list your product on Amazon as a seller, you pay $500 per year as a "review incentivization fee." The algorithm randomly selects buyers and emails them 1 month after their purchase. They are offered $10 to write a review. The chance of being randomly selected as a reviewer auto-adjusts to target a goal of 50 reviews per…

Sounds similar to sortition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#209

Post by Rebelgecko »

retsibsi wrote: post #167
shalmanese wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. Do they? It's not immediately clear that an Amazon where the average item has 4.7 stars would sell more stuff than an Amazon where the average is 4.2 stars. Consumers mostly compare items against others on the same site and it's possible that all grade inflation does is make the top performing items harder to separate out and makes buying harder. As a counterpoi…

> It's simply resulted in everyone adapting to 5 = slightly above average, 4.9 = average, 4.8 = run away screaming. Just out of curiosity from someone who doesn't use Uber, is this an exaggeration or meant pretty much literally? (Not with regard to running away screaming... but is 4.8 genuinely a terrible score?)

IIRC Uber will put drivers on notice if they're rating approaches 4.6

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#210

Post by SilkRoadie »

impalallama wrote: post #170
ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaining about and decide if that is acceptable assuming it will happen with your purchase, IMHO.

Sort reviews by new. It’s amazing how many “5 star” items have an average of 2-3 stars when you look at the latest reviews.

I was looking for some L plates for my car. A lot of reviews called them “beautiful”... it is a white square with a letter L that sticks to your car... trying to find one which didn’t fall off or damage the car was far from trivial. Fortunately newer reviews mentioned damage or falling off or does the job which gave some steer.

I have been purposefully shopping elsewhere recently. Other sites are usually cheaper and there is less doubt about what is actually going to get received.

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