by Tennessee Ledger Staff
If you’re like me, when you make an online purchase you try your best to research the product beforehand. I personally have never trusted many of the online reviews. Amazon insists that it is doing all it can to deal with the problem. Although I may not trust them I still read through a few ad sometimes visit Youtube to find additional information of that particular product.
According to Global News, published on Mar 12, 2019 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has successfully brought the first-ever case against a supplement company that allegedly boosted its Amazon ratings through a third-party firm that crafts fake “verified” reviews. According to the settlement, Cure Encapsulations sold a supplement on Amazon touted as an “appetite-suppressing, fat-blocking, weight-loss pill.” One of the ingredients in the supplement is an Indonesian plant called garcinia cambogia that has been linked to acute liver failure.
According to Digitalinformationworld.com many Amazon reviews are fake. Digital Information World was created with a mission to:
- Create, share and publish the best digital marketing insights, tips and guides in the world
- Find and showcase articles from the newest or most established writers
- Express their love for technology, entrepreneurship and design
- Monitor search and social media trends
Online shopping has made life easier, however, there are multiple incidents that can be quoted to prove that users do not receive the exact product that they order online. From YouTube videos to funny memes and entertainment articles, there is so much data to prove that online shopping is risky. To make it easier and more believable, Amazon and other e-commerce websites came up with an option of a product review. The users who have already received and used the product provide testimony about the product to help the other users. However, writing fake product reviews is now becoming a business.
Product manufacturers and business owners now hire content writers and agencies to write fake product reviews that can help them bring more customers. According to a study by FakeSpot and ReviewMeta, the majority of the reviews posted on Amazon are fake. Apart from fake product reviews, another leading problem that users are facing is review hijacking which happens when the product seller links positive reviews from a completely non-associated product to attract buyers. Most of the sellers get the review hijacking services from countries where they have companies who provide organized services regarding this. Most of the companies are in China and most of the sellers using these review hijacking services are also from China.
The major reason most of the users are unable to determine if a review is fake it is because users don’t conduct thorough research. According to expert even by looking at the reviews the user can tell if it is fake or not. Depending on just one review is not the best practice when buying a product, the buyer needs to go through multiple reviews and see if there is any discrepancy. Along with most of the paid and fake reviews, there are several real reviews and this can simply explain if the review if fake or real.
Another reason most of the buyers fall prey to the fake reviews is because they are unaware of how prevalent this problem has become. According to a study conducted on 2000 amazon users around 75 percent claimed that they fully (or somewhat) trust the reviews, which means that a majority of users are completely unaware of the fact that there is a large industry running on their innocence.
How to Avoid Being Scammed by Fake Reviews
According to an article in HowtoGeek.com iIf you want to avoid getting scammed on Amazon and other sites, you might think the reviews section is your best friend. After all, if there’s a problem with the product other customers would point it out.
But that’s not true, because lots of reviews are fake. Scummy companies have been known to hire fake reviewers to praise products and boost sales, meaning you never know for certain that a review can be trusted.
Having said that, there are tools that help spot such nonsense, and you can learn to recognize fake reviews with time.
Scan Amazon Links For Fake Reviews Automatically
If you’re browsing Amazon or Yelp, and suspect the reviews you’re seeing are fake, there’s a quick way to support your suspicion: FakeSpot.com. This site analyzes the comments and works out whether the reviews are likely to be fake.
