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

#251

Post by neilv » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 4:39 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 had one do something that presented a different angle for a complaint...

Some Amazon seller included some US postage stamps as a gift, along with a glossy full-color printed offer to pay me cash or more stamps for a positive review.

So I took the stamps to a post office, some kind of manager looked at them, said they'd almost guarantee that the stamps were counterfeit. So I left the stamps and the glossy offer (with the sellers's contact info) with them, to refer higher up to some kind of investigation.

I'd guess probably it will only lead back to some overseas seller who is untraceable, and who just pops back up under 10 new different names. But maybe someday Amazon will be under some kind of KYC-like obligation, to only permit sellers and other supply chain that can be held accountable for illegal/counterfeit/dangerous/stolen/etc. products.

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

#252

Post by triceratops » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 4:49 PM UTC

Retr0id wrote: post #54

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…

I can understand going for the "free upgrade" the first time around, but why continue racking up more vacuum cleaners after that? Do you plan to sell them later?

> why continue racking up more vacuum cleaners after that?

This guy took bribes to leave fake reviews. He obviously sucks. /s

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

#253

Post by grues-dinner » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

kevincox wrote: post #205

brookst wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fun to be outraged but a more nuanced read is that Amazon is stuck battling all kinds of fraud and it can be hard to differentiate. They also have a massive problem with fake bad reviews where a competitor spams competing products to try to increase sales of their own. They have so many flavors of fraud that it’s very hard to get it right consistently at scale. Not am Amazon fan, and please let’s not do the Redd…

The problem is that they have an obvious incentive to err on the side of positive reviews. Because if every product on the site has a 1 star review few people will buy anything. But if most of them have 5 stars people will be much more eager to purchase.

Not only that, but if you get people buying lemons from scammers, some percentage will forgo the refund process and re-engage with Amazon to buy something else: Amazon gets a cut of that too, plus more eyes on other products during that process. And even if there is refund, the platform will get that money back from the seller anyway.

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

#254

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

bjord wrote: post #213

okanat wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

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

#255

Post by y-c-o-m-b » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:11 PM UTC

Do you even need Fakespot anymore for Amazon? I think we can fairly assume that whatever is purchased on that platform will be junk. I rarely purchase anything from Amazon these days except protein bars or items I treat as disposable. More often than not, when I order legitimate items, I get either counterfeit items or previously refunded items that are certainly not in "new" condition. I go into actual stores these days for any serious purchases.

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

#256

Post by bsdz » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

dankwizard wrote: post #203

bsdz wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to believe you have a dozen new vacuum cleaners in your shed. It's quite an extraordinary claim. Are you willing to share some evidence?

Sure. It's cold, rainy, and midnight but here's what came up in my email when searching "vacuum". It's not all, and you can see some I didn't reply to but - https://imgur.com/a/F0u9xVM

I was looking forward to seeing 12 neatly stacked & boxed vacuum cleaners in a dimly lit corner of your shed ;-)

That said, thanks for sharing the emails/headers.

It's curious that Amazon hasn't flagged you for purchasing & reviewing multiple similar items in such a short span of time. I would imagine it would be quite easy to spot someone who's bought and reviewed 12 vacuum cleaners in a 2 or 3 year window.

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

#257

Post by mh- » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

carterschonwald wrote: post #154

jorvi wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with AliExpress is that you'll get a tip about time X, you click the link and the link is dead. You then search for thing X. You get about 1000 results of X from different sellers, most of them crap imitations and some of them even from stores that copy the name of former store of product X. All of the product pages look identical. One of these Results of X is still selling the actual quality product, but…

Amusingly: when it comes to clones of very fancy western knives, all these problems go away because those duplicates are largely all from the same factory, and there’s even premium cloning brands which have duplicate store fronts

This is true of a lot of product types, but there is often a QC process that happens for the "premier" name brand that they were manufactured for. And these "duplicates" are frequently the irregulars that didn't make the cut.

In the case of knives, they may be perfectly fine. Or QC's spot testing of that batch may have revealed defects in the metal, and a small number of them may shatter unexpectedly.

This is why I'm fine buying some categories of items from AliExpress et al., and not others.

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

#258

Post by varispeed » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

account42 wrote: post #172

varispeed wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some company said they know where I live and they will pay me a visit if I don't remove the bad review (product was dangerous). That was on Amazon.

Did you report this to the police?

No, because we have mickey mouse police here in the UK. I deleted the review.

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

#259

Post by jorvi » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

carterschonwald wrote: post #154

jorvi wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with AliExpress is that you'll get a tip about time X, you click the link and the link is dead. You then search for thing X. You get about 1000 results of X from different sellers, most of them crap imitations and some of them even from stores that copy the name of former store of product X. All of the product pages look identical. One of these Results of X is still selling the actual quality product, but…

Amusingly: when it comes to clones of very fancy western knives, all these problems go away because those duplicates are largely all from the same factory, and there’s even premium cloning brands which have duplicate store fronts

What kind of knives are we talking about?

I have a Leatherman Skeletool and a Buck 110 knife, and both are such high quality for what feels like a reasonable price (especially considering the warranty), I just can't imagine chinesium beating it. Yes, I know Nextool exists, but I would just be too wary that there's gonna be a batch where the factory or QC skimped on quality. Snapping a multi-tool or even worse a knife can have serious consequences.

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

#260

Post by shermantanktop » Wed, Jul 02, 2025, 6:06 PM UTC

the_sleaze_ wrote: post #244

mohsen1 wrote: post #109

مشک آن است که خود ببوید نه آنکه عطار بگوید “Musk is that which smells by itself, not what the perfumer says (about it).” This line is from Saadi Shirazi, the classical Persian poet which has become a proverb in Persian speaking world. Reviews are at this point what the seller wants you to read. As long as Amazon is the seller, and host of the reviews there is no way to trust Amazon would be fair in hosting those revi…

More often than not those sources are getting paid for product placement. Wire-cutter, NYT, JD Power, Wired - they all get advertisement money for "reviews".

Of course. But they have a reputational stake in their recommendation as well.

I take a Wirecutter top pick as meaning something very different from Bobby123's glowing review. Wirecutter may have been influenced by ad money a bit. Bobby123 may not even exist or may be entirely driven by seller compensation. And I'll never see Bobby123 again.