Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#211

Post by JadeNB » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

IncreasePosts wrote: post #53

bentcorner wrote: post #11

> Mozilla couldn't find a sustainable business model for Fakespot despite its popularity I don't know if it's fair for me to armchair quarterback, but still - what was their business model when they decided to do the acquisition? From the outside looking in barely did anything whatsoever. I browse Amazon using Firefox extremely often and I don't recall seeing any helper UI pop up. Even so, what would have been their…

Mozilla wants to be the "web you can trust" brand, which involves not just shipping a browser but protecting people from the rougher sides of the internet.

> Mozilla wants to be the "web you can trust" brand, which involves not just shipping a browser but protecting people from the rougher sides of the internet.

And also, apparently, selling your data. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43213612, and particularly move-on's comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43213945.

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#212

Post by bluedino » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

dankwizard wrote: post #46

It was falling behind. The dodgy stores were getting more creative and Fakespot needed to play catch up. You've got stores that would include a $5-$20 coupon/gift card in the item in exchange for a positive review. Sure, this didn't 1:1 translate but if a user did it would look like a legitimate review. You've got a plethora of LLMs out there just itching to GENERATE. Then an expensive option I was suprised happened…

> You've got stores that would include a $5-$20 coupon/gift card in the item in exchange for a positive review.

I had a tool manufacturer read a bad review on one of the big box home improvement stores in the US, they contacted me within a day (the store must have gave them my email address?) and offered to send me my choice of replacement tool, for free, in exchange for taking my review down.

Helps me learn which companies not to trust.

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#213

Post by bjord » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:09 PM UTC

okanat wrote: post #165

bjord wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually think there was (or needed to be) one...keep in mind they're a non-profit. I think they just wanted to make the internet a safer place, but semi-extraneous (particularly unprofitable) projects sadly need to be cut aggressively with the rising threat of the google antitrust suit, as they may lose most of their income.

Mozilla Corp is a for profit organization owned by a non-profit foundation.

That doesn't necessarily change the overall mission of the organization, but definitely does give them more flexibility to offer paid options to help sustain development, should they see an opening in the future.

This is more or less taken directly from Thunderbird's website (which I think is a fair comparison): "Thunderbird operates in a separate, for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. This structure gives us the flexibility to offer optional paid services to sustain Thunderbird’s development far into the future."

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/about/

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#214

Post by beAbU » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #114

shawnz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but consider the costs of consuming your space with junk. Now you have less room for things you care about, there's a maintenance burden, and there's a mental burden as well

Yes, but were the vacuums actually good? He left 10 reviews for this company, which may have led other people to buy them, and made this company look better than it is... just so he could stuff his shed full of them? That's kinda fucked up. He even said he felt kinda shady about it, so my guess is that the reviews weren't honest.

What is the difference between doing this, and any product review currently available on youtube?

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#215

Post by alexandre_m » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:15 PM UTC

consp wrote: post #132

nothercastle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer eBay at least it’s cheaper and the sellers care about reputation

With ebay the delivery time for small items is measured in months or >= 200% of the product cost, and you either have to deal with gsp and the shit delivery they use or with DHL's insanely costly customs clearance. Probably only worth it if you live in the US.

If you buy from china, it’s going to take weeks. If you buy from US and live in Canada, you’re going to pay a lot of customs.

In 2007, I bought a used MacBook on Ebay for $870, with shipping it was about $900. That was back when the currency was on parity.

It arrived with $300 custom fees. I could have bought a new one at that price.

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#216

Post by cyberlurker » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:19 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #48

dankwizard wrote: post #46

It was falling behind. The dodgy stores were getting more creative and Fakespot needed to play catch up. You've got stores that would include a $5-$20 coupon/gift card in the item in exchange for a positive review. Sure, this didn't 1:1 translate but if a user did it would look like a legitimate review. You've got a plethora of LLMs out there just itching to GENERATE. Then an expensive option I was suprised happened…

Some company paid be 100 bucks to change my review to be positive so they sent the money via PayPal no problem then I changed the review to say they paid me to write a glowing review and of course Amazon ended up removing the review for being harmful to their customers

I bought a light fixture that had a design flaw that turned it into a fire hazard. I contacted Amazon and provided proof, hoping they’d take the product down and prevent harm to others. They did initially but within a few days the same exact item with matching SKU and photos was listed.

I have an entire category of items I will never buy from Amazon. They don’t look out for customers ahead of time, only on the backend when you complain.

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#217

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #151

dankwizard wrote: post #46

It was falling behind. The dodgy stores were getting more creative and Fakespot needed to play catch up. You've got stores that would include a $5-$20 coupon/gift card in the item in exchange for a positive review. Sure, this didn't 1:1 translate but if a user did it would look like a legitimate review. You've got a plethora of LLMs out there just itching to GENERATE. Then an expensive option I was suprised happened…

Why did they choose you for vacuum pimp? You got high "consumer rating" or something?

[deleted]

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#218

Post by cogman10 » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #209

colonial wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is awful when it comes to striking down accusatory customer reviews. Last year I (like a fool) purchased some chunky thru-hole MOSFETs on Amazon. Lo and behold, despite the datasheets promising a few amps with 3.3V at the gate, I only got a few milliamps. Obviously counterfeit - but no matter how hard I tried or how much indirection I employed, Amazon always took down my review warning others of this verifiabl…

You can't use the word "counterfeit" or suggest that. But you can absolutely give 1 star and explain you only got milliamps. I have a bunch of 1 star reviews. I've never had anything taken down except when I used the word "counterfeit". Also, I get it -- how do you know if it's actually counterfeit, or genuine but low-quality? There are a bunch of things I've bought that I suspected were counterfeit, then went to my…

Silk is particularly bad. Order anything "silk" from amazon and you are almost certainly getting satin. Put up a review "hey, this is satin, not silk" and amazon will take it down.

Amazon should be busted for false advertising. Millions of products filled with lies and amazon does absolutely nothing to curate (other than removing comments warning others that a product is fake).

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#219

Post by jermaustin1 » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:28 PM UTC

cyberlurker wrote: post #216

dawnerd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some company paid be 100 bucks to change my review to be positive so they sent the money via PayPal no problem then I changed the review to say they paid me to write a glowing review and of course Amazon ended up removing the review for being harmful to their customers

I bought a light fixture that had a design flaw that turned it into a fire hazard. I contacted Amazon and provided proof, hoping they’d take the product down and prevent harm to others. They did initially but within a few days the same exact item with matching SKU and photos was listed. I have an entire category of items I will never buy from Amazon. They don’t look out for customers ahead of time, only on the backen…

My wife has bought a handful of flat-pack cabinets and shelves over the last year, and it has been an experience in frustration, and furniture half assembled for weeks while we wait on a weirdly sized bolt to arrive from china because it was missing, or in one case, an entire door, or in another case a handle had been tapped to the wrong size (too big) for the bolts.

The crazy thing is these $100-250 products ship with instructions on getting 100% of your purchase back if you leave a 5-star review and email them proof you did.

Re: Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

#220

Post by tenuousemphasis » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

user3939382 wrote: post #170

pogue wrote: post #18

I did search around looking for alternatives and the landscape isn't great. There's ReviewMeta.com which doesn't work 100% of the time and is no longer actively maintained as far as I can tell. TheReviewIndex.com I didn't find to be very helpful, as it doesn't index all products and sometimes just refuses to check on listings you ask it to. It seems to have some kind of subscription model, but they don't list the pri…

I’ve basically settled on only buying major brands that I already know from Amazon unless it’s something that I’m okay throwing away if it doesn’t work out. I then judge by my assessment of the bad reviews. IMHO judging these random Chinese products with the nonsense capital letter brands by actual reviews is a lost cause.

>I’ve basically settled on only buying major brands that I already know from Amazon

I wouldn't even do that, unless you can't find it anywhere else. Amazon commingles their returns form 3rd party sellers and Amazon direct. So you might order an item, find out it was actually a broken returned item, and then have Amazon call you a liar.