How to spot a FAKE review

[strutaeng]

Hello members, I normally don't start new threads, but I just realized the're a bunch of fake reviews everywhere on-line: both positive and negative. I've even seen many on this site that are suspicious...

I hardly ever leave reviews because most of the stuff I buy is old USA made stuff, LOL.

Can you post obvious FAKE reviews so the rest of us know what to look for...

For example, a group of six reviews go like this, "I LOVE IT," "WOULD BUY AGAIN," "SPECTACULAR," without giving any specific details and NO bad thing.

 

[mtwaterguy]

While I agree that reviews without substance don't give a reliable review, that doesn't make them fake.

 

[Subyroo651]

I've seen it before, some businesses have dedicated folks to keep their public image clean.

 

[Stuey]

It's really hard to tell, even for me.

I got duped a couple of times on my own site. What some big brand marketers do is copy/paste "real testimonials" on forums and blogs, possibly retailer sites as well. Luckily many use their office computers so I can trace suspect reviews to corporate offices.

It's not the obvious fakes you have to look out for, but the subtle ones.

And then there are the companies that pay for good reviews, even from the media. A certain company stopped talking to me about product review opportunities after I explained I don't accept compensation for reviews and conduct my reviews honestly and objectively. They then offered another writer/reviewer cash for a positive and favorable review.

Oh, I'm sure there are shills here as well. A while back an employee from a well-talked-about brand posted outstandingly bad images taken of a competitor's product after industry-standard tests. He didn't represent himself as a rep for the competing brand and didn't say where the images came from. And nobody asked, they all went OMG, WOW, and the thread would have continued had I not already known about the images.

Generally, established members here are less likely to be shills than newly registered members. You can usually look at a person's other posts to see if they're heavily biased in favor of one brand or not, but that doesn't always mean anything. A lot of guys here have personal preferences, which is okay. Actually, there are very few without biases. It's the ones that are paid to have a bias that you have to be careful of, but a lot of times they know better than to play tricks here.

 

[cdods]

The approach I take is to not worry about fake reviews, I look for common threads. I tend to ignore postive reviews and focus on negative ones to see if there is recuring issue raised by different people on differtent sites and in different ways.

For vendor reviews, I focus on the vendor response as much the specific problems raised in the review.

I've this gives pretty accurate results.

 

[Zeke]

Stuey, that was good info. Thanks.

 

[Stuey]

Stuey, that was good info. Thanks.

You're welcome. =)

For big purchases, or when dealing with unfamiliar products or bands, I tend to look at forums. This helps me filter out squeaky-wheel-syndrome reviews, shill/fake reviews, and neophyte reviews via other sources such as retail sites.

The best protection against fake reviews is buying from a store with a good return policy.

 

[Danglerb]

Fanboys are worse than shills, they have more time to kill posting reviews, making counter claims on other reviews. Use some common sense and take all reviews with a grain of salt.

Some sites like Amazon now include a field in the review for "verified buyer".

Worst place are local review sites like Yelp where shops and restaurants get reviewed. Makes reviews almost worthless, and its essential to look at other reviews the person has made to see if they are credible.

Also MANY people who make reviews don't have a clue about the item or place they are reviewing. Ridiculous prices seem reasonable to them, sloppy work undetected, give the food 5 stars because the waitress was hot, etc.

 

[Fat50]

My cousin gets paid pretty good for leaving positive reviews on products she has never seen or touched. Enough that she quit her job and does this full time now.

 

[1982fxr]

It's really hard to tell, even for me.

I got duped a couple of times on my own site. What some big brand marketers do is copy/paste "real testimonials" on forums and blogs, possibly retailer sites as well. Luckily many use their office computers so I can trace suspect reviews to corporate offices.

It's not the obvious fakes you have to look out for, but the subtle ones.

And then there are the companies that pay for good reviews, even from the media. A certain company stopped talking to me about product review opportunities after I explained I don't accept compensation for reviews and conduct my reviews honestly and objectively. They then offered another writer/reviewer cash for a positive and favorable review.

Oh, I'm sure there are shills here as well. A while back an employee from a well-talked-about brand posted outstandingly bad images taken of a competitor's product after industry-standard tests. He didn't represent himself as a rep for the competing brand and didn't say where the images came from. And nobody asked, they all went OMG, WOW, and the thread would have continued had I not already known about the images.

Generally, established members here are less likely to be shills than newly registered members. You can usually look at a person's other posts to see if they're heavily biased in favor of one brand or not, but that doesn't always mean anything. A lot of guys here have personal preferences, which is okay. Actually, there are very few without biases. It's the ones that are paid to have a bias that you have to be careful of, but a lot of times they know better than to play tricks here.

well c'mon mate, who tried to pay you?

 

[SlowPoke-Canada]

Hello members, I normally don't start new threads, but I just realized the're a bunch of fake reviews everywhere on-line: both positive and negative. I've even seen many on this site that are suspicious...

I hardly ever leave reviews because most of the stuff I buy is old USA made stuff, LOL.

Can you post obvious FAKE reviews so the rest of us know what to look for...

For example, a group of six reviews go like this, "I LOVE IT," "WOULD BUY AGAIN," "SPECTACULAR," without giving any specific details and NO bad thing.

Great Post!!! I would read it again in a heartbeat!!! A+++++++++!!!

 

[Kevin54]

My cousin gets paid pretty good for leaving positive reviews on products she has never seen or touched. Enough that she quit her job and does this full time now.

Whoa ......post up some info!!!!! I'll leave reviews for money

 

[Zrexxer]

What bothers me more than possible "fake" reviews are companies that just cull out any negative ones on their websites. I know that Northern Tool does this, or used to.

 

[neophyte]

A while back I was looking at reviews for a power tool used for wood joinery that was manufactured by a particular company. That particular tool had gotten poor reviews in a magazine test due to some parts being machined improperly. At one point many of the reviews for the item tended to be very negative, and the website I was looking on gave it a fairly low average rating. More recently I came across it again during a Google search and the reviews have gotten far better with a whole lot of 5 star reviews. Some of the positive reviews specifically dismiss the negative ones saying the problem doesn't exist, or that reviewers were being overly critical or misinterpreting how the tool is used. Reading thru the positive reviews I got the distinct impression a number were shill reviews. The reviews just reminded me of the way dishonest people I've known would have phrased things. It may be possible that there was simply a bad batch of that particular tool, or that the company fixed the problem. The tool was yellow, black, and silver in color.

 

[General Geoff]

My cousin gets paid pretty good for leaving positive reviews on products she has never seen or touched. Enough that she quit her job and does this full time now.

I'm saddened, though not surprised by this.

 

[ddawg16]

I read a lot of the reviews on Amazon....the paid ones are pretty obvious.....they are usually the ones that go into WAY too much detail.....and have words like "Impressed", "Polished", etc.

Lets be honest.....who really have that much time to write a review....if we do it's because it's outstanding or a piece of junk.

A typical review from me...."Works as expected" or "Piece of ****".