Amazon Fake Products and Fake Reviews 240
rsk writes "The first time I came across fake reviews on Amazon, it was hilarious. Using Amazon's Window Shop app, I came across a great category, 'Peculiar Products,' and was more than happy to look through it. Almost every one of the products I found on the list (Uranium Ore, 1 Gallon of Milk, Parent Child Test, Fresh Whole Rabbit) were fake, with thousands of reviews on them. As a shopper, I wasn't aware of how easy it was to apparently fake product reviews and it bothers me. When I'm shopping, the first (and a lot of times only) place I visit is Amazon to read the reviews if I'm in the market for something. I don't expect the reviews to be the word of God, but I do assume a certain level of legitimacy for most of them. While this won't affect my use of Amazon (especially not at this time of the year) I would like to bubble this up to Amazon's attention so some time is spent on improving the quality of the reviews."
Maybe fake reviews only for fake products? (Score:4, Interesting)
The article complains that obviously fake products are allowed to have fake reviews, and then makes the assumption that fake reviews must be allowed for real products. This does not necessarily follow. It might; but it seems a bit more likely that Amazon just might put a little more care into reviews of real products than into fake ones. I have no idea... I'm just pointing out the fallacy.
Re:Maybe fake reviews only for fake products? (Score:4, Interesting)
No, fake reviews are allowed for all products because nobody is regulating the provenance of a review except the community itself through the review rating buttons.
Fake products attract obviously fake reviews because it's fun.
Real products attract non-obviously fake reviews because the reviewer is getting reviewer-grade points, or has a financial or social benefit to gain from astroturfing the product.
Re:This one's been posted on Slashdot before... (Score:3, Interesting)
What I find exceptionally absurd about this is that author of the article, Riyad Kalla, is complaining about fake reviews on Amazon, but the TFA has a link to another article in the "related articles" section, by the same author, celebrating that Denon one you mention [thebuzzmedia.com]. So he finds fake reviews hilarious, except when he doesn't. And writes articles about them in both cases.
Amazon reviews...they know about it. (Score:3, Interesting)
At the same time, it was another way Amazon was trying to put some parameters around its reviewer community. A lot of them out there are very picky about their status as reviewers, and many voiced concerns about people who were just going online and writing reviews for anything and everything. The way I figure it, most shoppers will be able to tell the difference between a well-thought out review, and a lot of the brief first impressions, one-liners, and flames ("It didn't work out of the box--I'll never buy from that company again!") that abound.
For the record, I am a regular reviewer at Amazon, but don't get my undies in a bunch about the interal squabbles. I'm happy being a top-2,000 reviewer for now, and hope to make the top 100 someday. Contrary to Amazon's advice, which states that shorter reviews are most helpful, some of my highest rated reviews are quite long and fairly detailed. I always try to include information that might make a difference in someone's purchasing decision--the same type of information I was often seeking before making a purchase.
Re:Steering Wheel tray (Score:5, Interesting)
How to use Amazon reviews (Score:2, Interesting)
Skip the positive reviews. 5 star ratings are worthless. If it's an expensive item, people are going to have a favorable opinion because they have to justify to themselves why the TV/card/widget they just dropped a few paychecks on is the greatest they've ever had, and it's perfect in every way. Many people never also own a competing product to give first hand experience why they opinion is justified. You also get the "astroturf" reviews from people who have a financial interest in pumping up the product -- many are right out of press releases. At 3 or 4 stars, people start telling about how good it is, except for a couple issues that nag them (short battery life, cheap knob broke off, missing a feature a competitor has, etc). 1 and 2 stars usually are for broken products/QA issues. It's often a shipping or DOA complaint,but sometimes there are a bunch of low because the as-sen-on-TV product really is a cheap piece of crap that doesn't do what it claims. Lousy customer support complaints also live here.