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How to Spot a Fake Online Review

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday October 22 2015, @06:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the shills-abound dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Do you trust online reviews? Now that Amazon is suing more than 1,000 people who allegedly offered to write glowing product reviews for cash, you might reasonably be concerned.

Turns out, deceptive reviews are commonplace online—and so are doubts about them. The research organization Mintel found that 57 percent of surveyed consumers are suspicious of companies or products that only have positive online reviews. And 49 percent believe companies probably give incentives for online reviews.

Fortunately, there are a few good techniques that can help you tell truth from fiction.

The article lists several ways to tell the difference. What are yours?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday October 22 2015, @07:55AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday October 22 2015, @07:55AM (#253120) Homepage
    I was reading the article as I sipped my freshly ground morning coffee, and as I read it I realised it was garbage. It was meaningless. Badly written. Not satisfying at all. It pretty much ruined my morning, and my wife's too, as I kept having to read out to her the bits of it which were worst. WOULD NOT READ AGAIN!
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:57AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:57AM (#253132) Journal

    Karma bonus? I can trust this guy!

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by TheSage on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:59AM

    by TheSage (133) on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:59AM (#253133) Journal

    I ordered the fake negative review from the parent. The review used an unconvincing anecdote with badly invented details. Way too easy to spot as a fake review. I was quite angered when I read it on my way to work, and was nearly run over by a speeding taxi whose driver was looking at his phone (probably reading the same fake review). WOULD NOT ORDER FAKE REVIEW AGAIN.

    • (Score: 2) by quadrox on Thursday October 22 2015, @09:36AM

      by quadrox (315) on Thursday October 22 2015, @09:36AM (#253139)

      I ordered the above review of the review from parent. Excellent service - the review appeared quite timely and used an account with enough karma and upmods to have a decent moderation score for visibility, although this could clearly be improved further. All in all though I am extremely happy about this. Would definitely order again!

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 22 2015, @11:45AM

        by Bot (3902) on Thursday October 22 2015, @11:45AM (#253170) Journal

        I parsed the entire thread, I kinda expected someone to fake a fake review in the comments but overall the reading experience has been pleasant.

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        Account abandoned.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @11:53AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @11:53AM (#253174)

        I rate this 5 stars. I recommended it to all my friends and family. It even has multiple uses besides what it's used for. For instance, I ran out of toilet paper after eating a few dozen black licorice candies, resulting in explosive decompression of my one-way bung valve, and these excellent reviews made great ass wipes. It even soaked up the dribblers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @10:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @10:15AM (#253147)

    Only chumps RTFA.