FTC Puts Hundreds of Businesses on Notice about Fake Reviews • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by georgeburdell » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 4:52 AM UTC

Maybe a silly question, but is there a special way to report fake reviews, or is it just the normal site? [0] I was semi-scammed (they delivered what was promised, but the quality was awful) by a specialized goods dealer. A few years later, I see the business has attempted to whitewash its Google reviews with recent stellar feedback from obviously-fake people (e.g., "Matthew McConaughey"). I reported them to Google, but I see the reviews are still up as of this writing.

[0] https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/submit-consumer-...

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

#82

Post by ekianjo » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:04 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #26

ekianjo wrote: post #16

Earlier 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.

Reviews were more "expert"-based 20 years or so again in magazines that had some editorial oversight and processes for selecting and reviewing products. Of course, there were far fewer reviews available, companies still gamed reviewers/magazines but in different ways, and there was sometimes outright fraud around benchmarks, etc.

> in magazines that had some editorial oversight

such magazines had massive conflicts of interest and could not be trusted in the first place.

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

#83

Post by strogonoff » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:06 AM UTC

A couple of days ago I realised that I started treating vast amounts of followers or positive reviews as a red flag.

This first happened as I was looking at a Blackmagicdesign product with staggeringly many 5-star reviews and seemingly zero bound to have poor feedback from bad units, mismatched expectations, courier mishaps, etc.?

Those manufacturer could be innocent; outlier where somehow everyone’s satisfied. Still, it’s an illustration of the erosion of trust in a world where buying fake reviews, followers, etc. has become the norm. Platforms, sellers—pretty much everyone profits from it, just not the end customer. For a business (seller, influencer, entertainer, etc.), it looks like if you don’t do it then your competitor will.

I believe many would give this a second thought if an authority has drawn a clear line saying “that’s illegal”. (I’m sure platforms have it in their ToS, but they are rarely read and the implicit consensus is that they’re, of course, enforced when it benefits the company.) Even if it’s difficult to prosecute each case, a few precedents and the understanding of the illegality could do wonders.

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

#84

Post by KingMachiavelli » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

Glad to see the FTC doing something. Sometimes I think the government itself gets too political so it's nice to hear about the government just providing services and protecting consumers.

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

#85

Post by cblconfederate » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

What about SEO? That s fake with equal business value.

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

#86

Post by jdeibele » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

Notanothertoo wrote: post #15

cortesoft wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People either got their reviews from quality, trusted third parties like Consumer Reports, or they got reviews from friends. It would be pretty expensive to bribe consumer reports, and it isn't as cost effective to pay someone to give fake recommendations to their friends as it is to pay for fake recommendations on a website. Although some companies do that; it is called multi level marketing.

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 one has a latch without a bar handle.

They're all "different" so they can't be price-compared and the models don't match exactly the model that Consumer Reports reviews.

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

#87

Post by devwastaken » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:13 AM UTC

Good. Now also fine game companies releasing broken products. Fine any company selling products with "warranty void if removed" stickers. Mass shut down fake sale websites that do not sell the product imaged. I want to see the ftc breaking down doors and deleting entire companies off the face of the earth for their illigal practices. I can dream of course.

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

#88

Post by astura » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:25 AM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #41

lazide wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge portion of those reviews were payola, plain and simple. If a reviewer didn’t provide at least a somewhat positive review (even for complete dreck), they were often blacklisted.

Blacklisted how? 20 years ago consumer reports was considered a trusted source and they purchased everything they reviewed. How are you going to blacklist someone from going to the store and buying your product?

Consumer Reports was (and still is!) so trusted because it is the one publication that lacks the usual conflicts of interest that every other publication has.

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

#89

Post by Moru » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:27 AM UTC

irrational wrote: post #31

Waterluvian wrote: post #7

Random thought: before the Internet were reviews any better? I know there were/are quality reviews like Consumer Reports and such. But were there any crowdsourced reviews? Are we worse off or are we just needing to protect people from their inability to scrutinize a new source of bad data?

Before the Internet? Other than advertisements, any information about a product came from word of mouth (family and friends) or from magazines like Consumer Reports. How would crowdsourced reviews even be generated or disseminated? The only way for large groups of people to talk to each other was in person.

Buying reviews has long been a thing. Snake oil sales persons were standing on markets selling their bottles of oil, they paid people to come up and "buy" a bottle and do a review in front of the crowd.

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

#90

Post by Scoundreller » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:28 AM UTC

zipiridu wrote: post #30

ekianjo wrote: post #16

Earlier 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.

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…

What I find funny is when some multibillion company buys tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, but each post gets like 1 like or 1 comment. Like, hello!!!!!

But maybe it's because of FTC rules: fake followers are legally okay, but fake likes and fake comments could be considered a fake review and therefore FTC violation.