So how exactly are they going to that? Im very skeptical about their ability to detect fake reviews. It sounds like when governments all over the world trying to force people into paying the TV License Fee and saying this can be detected with "special equipment" which was usually some fake antenna, because its just not something you can detect
FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
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Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#152I wonder if they have any intention of going after Amazon - probably not.
FWIW I find useful info in many reviews on Amazon. It's still better than everything else I've seen out there. It sucks to have to spend so much time trying to find the nuggets of honest info, but they are there.... unlike most non-Amazon sites I have had the misfortune to use in the past.
On Amazon it's easy: if it's got hundreds of reviews, it's probably mostly fake reviews.
Even for those products if you spend some time you'll find some nuggets of useful information in there.
Contrast with some furniture site I went to some months ago, where there are only like 5 reviews per product and all of them are so completely fake. They assured me the desk was "very stable" which should have tipped me off already ... Later I noticed this "brand" is all over Amazon and each of their products has hundreds of positive reviews.. they are so easy to spot on Amazon... not so much on other sellers where they rebrand the product, have ten times less product info in the description, less photos etc.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I think 3rd party sellers are half the problem. Eliminating them won't fix everything though, since there are sites where the 1st party itself is dishonest (e.g., yelp), but if you trust the site and it is all 1st party then you're in a good state for reviews, since there's little incentive for anyone to fake them.
Manufacturers or importers/distributors would still have incentive to fake them.
There would be far fewer of them, and the consequences may not be worth it. That is why trust in a Target or Costco vetted vendor is higher than a small time seller named “eBizValue”.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know reviews were more reliable before ? In pretty much all industries people were hacking reviews before especially when channels were more limited. Nobody invented fraud yesterday.
before, people got reviews from friends and personal connections, not a sidebar on google maps.
People still get that. They just also get reviews from others online. Forums have been invaluable to me for finding out information about niche fields where I do not have a person familiar with that in my social circles.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Consumer reports kind of went down hill too. It was the solution though, I remember people paid good money for sun service.
I think a big part of the problem is that manufacturers and big stores do a thing where Best Buy gets model XAB234b, Costco gets model XAB234c, and Home Depot gets model XAB234h. They're almost identical in specs and features. This mattress has 2" of foam while one has 1.5" and another 2.5". Or one dishwasher has the controls on the top while the others have it on the front but one has a latch with a bar handle and o…
The price discrimination has really upped its game. I find that you really have to look at a vendor / brand’s trajectory for clues on how likely you are to being ripped off.
If a brand is in financial trouble, or just got bought, then buyer beware because the costs are going to be cut and one easy way to increase profits today is reduce quality and increase price.
If a vendor is having trouble, then same thing there where they might slack off on vetting their stock and whatnot.
What I see frequently happening is the market diverges into a high quality, high priced option, and then a veritable mess of quality:price ratio options where the typical person has to rely on the quality being proportional to the price as long as the vendor is reputable and has good management (ie not in financial distress or being bled).
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#156There's a whole fraud economy that has emerged in the last decade or so. Its existence has done deep harm to social trust, in my opinion. It extends far beyond just fake reviews of course; it reaches deep into the corrupt business practices and politicians/governments around the world.
How do you know reviews were more reliable before ? In pretty much all industries people were hacking reviews before especially when channels were more limited. Nobody invented fraud yesterday.
It was based upon a tree of trust. And at least there was a synthetic consensus everyone agreed upon. Everyone was misled by state media, but now people switch from one tree of trust to another, depending on predictive power, which leads into conspiracy trees, because they always predict the worst outcome. A clock that screams doom all day long, will never betray you.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is bit simplistic. Before the internet, if you were going to buy something that was supposed to have objectively measurable properties, there would likely be a magazine/zine/journal that would include reviews by domain experts. Shovel? Laptop? Scalpel? Engine oil? Covered, you just bought the magazine. The problem now is that the magazines are generally not as good at covering all the options, many of th…
Before the internet, brick and mortar stores and distributors had 'buyers' who were intimately familiar with products in their particular sector. They would review products and decide how many to order if any. If you wanted to sell some consumer product you'd have to ship pre-production models to the buyers. They would test them and tear them down to see how well they were built. That imposed reasonable quality stand…
It is not solely Amazon. It mirrors the widening gap in income/wealth in society. Walmart and BestBuy were already selling models of appliances slightly tweaked to have inferior components at cheaper prices, imperceptible to people who were not doing deep research online.
Although the veneer of quality Amazon have to third party sellers certainly exacerbated the issue, but I think that is close to exhaustion.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#158There's a whole fraud economy that has emerged in the last decade or so. Its existence has done deep harm to social trust, in my opinion. It extends far beyond just fake reviews of course; it reaches deep into the corrupt business practices and politicians/governments around the world.
How do you know reviews were more reliable before ? In pretty much all industries people were hacking reviews before especially when channels were more limited. Nobody invented fraud yesterday.
Youre right that I can't be sure at a macro level, but I personally found Amazon reviews more useful and accurate relative to the things I actually bought a decade ago than I do now.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does this indicate that by not fixing the fake reviews problem, Amazon can, whenever it wants, get rid of a troublesome competitor? (since the competitors are sort of forced to use fake reviews)
I guess it's double bound: - they can really fix it (e.g. by kicking every fake review mandator) and drown competiting products far below in the search results, leaving "Amazon's choice" ones at the top. With way fewer reviews it will be harder to argue the ranking results legitimacy. - they don't fix it, and as you say, get an excuse to kick any random brand trying to stay afloat on their platform. Either way Amazon…
"Amazon's Choice" are also littered with fake reviews. WSJ did a story on this and looked at hundreds of "[AC]" listings and found majority of listings had fake reviews; many of the fake reviews being the top reviews.
Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews
#160Generally I'd say product reviews are one of those ideas like passwords that work but don't survive introduction to the general public and mass use. The problems of authenticity are obvious, but I've also noticed that people who rely on word of mouth from their friends and colleagues are generally happier. And why wouldn't they be? A colleague tells you this e.g. monitor is perfect for your line of work so you get it…
>people who rely on word of mouth from their friends and colleagues are generally happier.
The problem is that the vast majority of my non-grocery items are not purchased by my friends & colleagues so word-of-mouth information isn't available. E.g. I buy stuff like hi-end camera gear, woodworking tools, audio equipment. Even more common items like books don't work because my friends don't read the same type of books I do.
Even your example of a computer monitor doesn't work in my situation. About 15 years ago, I wanted a large 30" monitor but none of my friends had that so I have to research on my own. Likewise, they also can't depend on my experience with computer monitors because a big external 30" monitor is never something they'd need because they just use the builtin laptop screen.
A lot of times word-of-mouth works great for recommending local restaurants or grocery items such as the Costco brand of paper towels and olive oil being good buys. For all other items that your social circle doesn't buy, you have to research external information sources.