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In this article you can see how to Spot Fake Amazon Reviews. Most people use user reviews to sort through the tens of thousands of products that come up in an Amazon search. These reviews are a very important part of buying decisions, especially when the seller or product is unknown. But what if all those five-star reviews are fake or if an unethical competitor is hiding real reviews?
Some Amazon sellers buy fake reviews to artificially boost the rankings of their products or to hurt the rankings of their competitors and get people to buy their products instead of those of their competitors. It’s not hard to figure out which reviews on Amazon are fake. All you have to do is know what to look for.
On Amazon, you can buy millions of different things. It can be hard to decide which of these items to buy, especially if you don’t know the product, brand, or seller. Reviews can help you decide what to buy, but not if they are fake.
ways to Spot Fake Amazon Reviews
Use Fakespot, ReviewMeta, or TheReviewIndex to Spot Fake Amazon Reviews
There are three apps that can help you spot fake reviews. ReviewMeta is the oldest, but it uses the same methods as Fakespot and TheReviewIndex to get rid of obvious fakes.
Add the Amazon product’s URL link to any of these sites where it’s asked for. The smart algorithms will look at all the reviews and tell you which ones you can trust and which ones you can’t.
All three review checkers have browser add-ons that reduce the number of clicks you have to make. Choose the app that you like better. ReviewMeta, for example, has been around the longest and is the best at finding what’s hidden on Amazon. TheReviewIndex, on the other hand, is the easiest to use.
Consider Three-Star Ratings as the Most Reliable Reviews
Most of the time, you can just ignore a product’s rating. Ratings are based on too many different things and don’t mean much. Most people don’t even agree on what four or five stars mean.
Review42 says that more than half of user ratings are five stars and that almost no one gives two or three stars. Even without this strange difference in the overall ratings, it’s hard to believe that Amazon has so many perfect consumer products. Plus, a rating is the easiest way for a company to make its numbers look better than they are.
But these customer reviews can also be useful in another way. Go to the three-star reviews and read what people said about them. Most of the time, those are real and will tell you what’s good and bad about the item, giving you a more accurate picture.
Make sure the item has enough reviews to matter. This should go without saying. You can sort by the number of reviews with the Sort By Review Count for Amazon extension, so you don’t waste time on a product with few reviews.
Check for the Big Tell-Tale Signs
Even though Amazon’s policies on customer reviews have gotten better and the site can now block or remove feedback that breaks its rules, bad actors still find ways to get through, often with the help of click farms that make it hard to trust online reviews.
There are, however, a few ways to tell if a review is fake. People who did this for a living have given away some secrets. And there are researchers who found clues through studies like one that came out in PNAS Social Sciences in 2022. So, make sure:
- Similar keywords in multiple reviews: The companies give these fake reviewers a short description of the product and tell them what they want to hear. This has some words or phrases that the manufacturer is looking for. If a lot of reviews say the same things over and over, you know what to ignore.
- Reviews that are too positive without being specific: Nothing is perfect, but some reviews talk up a product with big adjectives and action words. Don’t trust these.
- Lots of reviews in a short time frame: If an item has a large number of reviews in the space of a few days, that’s a deal-breaker.
- One-off unverified reviews: If someone leaves generic feedback without a Verified Purchase or Vine Customer Review of Free Product tag, and their profile shows that they’ve never reviewed Amazon products before, skip their input.
- Negative reviews with competitor links: Most of the time, people are told to leave bad reviews to help competitors, so stay away from anything that badmouths a product and points you to a link.
Don’t Trust Verified Purchases and Vine Voices Blindly
Amazon adds “Verified Purchase” when a customer buys an item and writes a review about it. There’s also the Amazon Vine programme, which gives the most helpful reviewers on the site free products to try and asks them for their thoughts. This instead adds the tag “Vine Customer Review of Free Product” In fact, any product they review is marked as coming from a reliable Vine Voice.
Both systems try to make reviews more real. They can sometimes tell the difference between fake and real reviews. In some ways, this is Amazon’s own fault. A fake reviewer could trick programmes like Vine Voices and get access to all kinds of goods. Bad people are likely to keep trying their tricks because Amazon gives out questionable rewards for more reviews and offers deep discounts.
FAQ
Can Amazon detect fake reviews?
The company wants to make sure that every review that shows up in its stores is reliable and comes from a real customer. Expert investigators at Amazon use the best tools in the business to find and stop fake reviews.
How do I remove a false review on Amazon?
No, Amazon sellers can’t take away negative feedback on their own. They can only get rid of it if they contact Amazon or ask the customer to delete their feedback. Amazon will only get rid of bad reviews when one of the following happens: Some of the comments use words and phrases that are usually considered rude or offensive.
How long does it take for Amazon to verify a review?
Some reviews can take up to 4 or 5 days to be posted. Amazon is the only one who can decide when or if a review will be posted, so if you’re having trouble seeing reviews, please contact Amazon directly.
Does Amazon manipulate reviews?
Reviews are a place where real feedback about products and services, both good and bad, can be shared. It is against the law to try to change reviews in any way, including by adding false, misleading, or fake content directly or indirectly. We care a lot about how honest our reviews platform is.