How merchants use Facebook to flood Amazon with fake reviews

[dalton99a]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-merchants-secretly-use-facebook-to-flood-amazon-with-fake-reviews/2018/04/23/5dad1e30-4392-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html

How merchants use Facebook to flood Amazon with fake reviews
by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg | April 23 2018 at 1:26 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — On Amazon, customer comments can help a product surge in popularity. The online retail giant says that more than 99 percent of its reviews are legitimate because they are written by real shoppers who aren’t paid for them.

But a Washington Post examination found that for some popular product categories, such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers, the vast majority of reviews appear to violate Amazon’s prohibition on paid reviews. Such reviews have certain characteristics, such as repetitive wording that people probably cut and paste in.

Many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation. The practice artificially inflates the ranking of thousands of products, experts say, misleading consumers.

Amazon.com banned paying for reviews a year and a half ago because of research it conducted showing that consumers distrust paid reviews. Every once in a while, including this month, Amazon purges shoppers from its site whom it accuses of breaking its policies.

But the ban, sellers and experts say, merely pushed an activity that used to take place openly into dispersed and harder-to-track online communities.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I might be wrong to do it this way, but I trust

the "verified purchase" reviews. Others, not so much.
And I never JUST use Amazon reviews.

[Nitram]

2. Whether or not I buy a product from Amazon, I always check their reviews.

If there is something wrong with a product, the negative reviews will publicize it. Like everything on the internet, you have to triangulate information, looking for consistencies and inconsistencies to get at the truth of the matter. Detailed reviews are very useful.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Maybe throwing out the 5 and 1 star reviews?

I find the most honest and useful reviews to read are often in the 2-4 range.

And crap - I've been looking for blue-tooth headphones.

[Nitram]

4. Sometimes the one star reviews are the best. If a number of reviews describe the same product

defect, that's a red flag.