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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

#181

Post by threeseed »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #137
locallost wrote: post #133

Generally 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…

Stop trying to make no passwords happen. It won't happen

It sort of has happened for Apple users.

For all sites whenever you signup for a website a random password is generated. And then when you re-visit the site you use FaceID/TouchID to automatically pre-populate the password. At that point it really isn't a password in the traditional sense.

And for an increasing number of sites it bypasses this step entirely and just lets me use FaceID/TouchID.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#182

Post by dannyw »

playpause wrote: post #179
locallost wrote: post #133

Generally 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…

> one of those ideas like passwords that work but don't survive introduction to the general public and mass use What do you mean? Have I missed something?

The median user's password is guessable, reused across dozens of sites, and likely to be on multiple data dump lists.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#183

Post by lukebennett »

jbverschoor wrote: post #142
wly_cdgr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop trying to make no passwords happen. It won't happen

Email a login link or temp pw. Passwords gone.

What if you are logging into something on a device that doesn't have your email on it? So called magic links are an absolute nightmare.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#184

Post by piokoch »

formvoltron wrote: post #97

Thanks. About 8 years too late to save my business... Scanner911. Killed by fake reviews on Apple's App Store. RIP In reality vast swaths of the world economy are entirely fake, supported with fake reviews, or fake analyst stock calls. It can be argued that much of the value in the technology space is entirely fake. Look at the current insane multiples. My point is that all this lying is supercharged due to Fed print…

"completely useless war", this is true for people living in Afghanistan. From the military perspective ability to test equipment, tactics, soldier's skills in a very difficult territory, without risking too many casulties is invaluable. No other major army has similar combat experience.

Yes, Afgan war costed a lot, but people do the math in the wrong way. The same troops would have to be fed and trained at home too, equipment had to be maintained, etc. so this kind of fixed maintenance and training costs should be subtracted from the overall Afghanistan campaign costs.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#185

Post by zz865 »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #59
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #43

Earlier 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…

I can also remember small local shops having assistants actually know what they were talking about and recommending what is best for you.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#186

Post by raziel2p »

locallost wrote: post #164
jasode wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

That's true of course, but I guess my point is it's better if you have it. I realized this since I know a lot of illustrators, and when I first started seeing them at work I saw a lot of them have the same setup: Macbooks, EIZO monitors, Wacoms etc. At first I thought it was a cult and group think, but eventually I realized they save a lot of time on figuring out what to get. There are probably better things than wha…

There's a risk to this as well, though - marketing becoming more important than quality, and difficulty for new products to make it into the market means stifling of innovation, which can lead to semi-monopolies. In the case of Eizo and Wacom it's probably fine, but Apple are a bit more dubious.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#187

Post by ClumsyPilot »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #135
zipiridu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "fraud economy" was democratized in the last decade but it has always existed. Previously you needed to be rich, powerful, and well connected to have media companies cover your business/product. Now you can buy fake engagement, reviews, upvotes, etc with a few click so everyone does it. If you don't do it you will be outcompeted by the ones who do. I've experienced this myself. I tried buying ads and writing orga…

>>> The "fraud economy" was democratized in the last decade but it has always existed. Previously you needed to be rich, powerful, and well connected to have media companies cover your business/product. Now you can buy fake engagement, reviews, upvotes, etc with a few click so everyone does it. Yes. And this is a pattern we are seeing all over - thank you. It's it necessarily good or bad. just more open, democratic,…

"It's it necessarily good or bad. just more open, democratic, cheaper"

Thats not like a sensible rule of thumb. If we 'democratise' landmines, it would be clearly bad. This is similar

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#188

Post by dismalpedigree »

silisili wrote: post #120
ottodebals wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it much of a hassle to get your money back or is it a single paper to file?

I call Amex, tell them my story, get money back immediately 'pending investigation', and never hear another thing. Don't abuse it, they have top notch investigation. When you spend on a credit card, it's not your money they're stealing. I've used it probably 5 times in 10 years, and never had a problem.

Agreed. AMEX really goes to bat for you. The few times I have had an issue they go after the issue with tenacity. No hassle to me beyond a 2 min phone call.

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#189

Post by netizen-936824 »

threeseed wrote: post #181
wly_cdgr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop trying to make no passwords happen. It won't happen

It sort of has happened for Apple users. For all sites whenever you signup for a website a random password is generated. And then when you re-visit the site you use FaceID/TouchID to automatically pre-populate the password. At that point it really isn't a password in the traditional sense. And for an increasing number of sites it bypasses this step entirely and just lets me use FaceID/TouchID.

Why single out apple? This is the experience for anyone who uses a modern password manager

Re: FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews

#190

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

3np wrote: post #125
bigiain wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, either that or facebook engineers are completely incompetent. Or they're making bank on dating site affiliate fees as a side hustle...

They don’t need to. The increased time you spend in the site as a consequence is enough of an upside to look the other way.

This really isn't true. Remember that FB has many, many users and (presumably) many, many scammers, so one would expect to see lots of scams.

I too get those (messages lately) friend requests, and almost always by the time I read the message the account has been deactivated (when it says FB user).

So, overall, I think they're doing a reasonably good job on this particular problem.

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