A consumer group, ‘Which?’ has claimed that Amazon – the online retail giant – has on its website a whole lot of fake five-star reviews from brands and products that it has never even heard of.
Its probe concluded after discovering that top-rated reviews on vastly popular items like headphones, smart watches and fitness trackers were dominated by virtually unknown brands.
And there were thousands of these reviews that were unverified, meaning it isn’t clear whether the reviewer bought the product, it said.
Amazon has said that to weed out false reviews, it was using automated technology.
It also added that it has invested resources to protect its review system because they know that customers value the insights and experiences shared by other shoppers.
“Even one inauthentic review is one too many,” it added.
But Which?’s probe suggested fake reviews were commonplace..
It discovered that all the products on the first page of results, when it searched for headphones, were from unknown brands – which its experts have never heard of – rather than well-known brands, or household names as they defined it.
The majority (87%) of around 12,000 reviews were from unverified purchases.
One example, a set of headphones by a brand called Celebrat, had 439 reviews, which suggested they were fake and automated because all were five-star, unverified and were put there on the same day.
Celebrat could not be reached for comment.
How you can spot a fake review
Never rely on ratings – go deeper and read the reviews.
Also check the dates – take a critical look at when the reviews were posted. Reviews posted too many and with very little time margin suggests that they were probably automated, too.
Filter reviews to remove unverified reviews. Only reviews marked as verified are those that Amazon can confirm were purchased on its website.
If products have hundreds or thousands of largely positive reviews be wary
Source: Which?
A US-based website that analyses online reviews, ReviewMeta said it was shocked at the rate of the unverified reviews on a lot of unknown brands, saying that they were “obvious and easy to prevent”.
Such reviews influence more than $20b on the United States alone every year, a big reason reviews should not be taken lightly.