How to Spot Fake Amazon Reviews
Prime Day is approaching (again) and you may be planning to spend it looking for great deals on third-party technologies like wireless headphones and phone cables. But for all the convenience, the biggest downside to online shopping is still the inability to see or test products first-hand before purchasing. So to feel like we know what we are getting, we turn to user reviews, which, at Amazon at least, are becoming increasingly unreliable .
It’s still always wise to check Amazon product ratings, but it’s worth going further in your rating. Some of the product reviews on the site are misleading (to be charitable) if not downright fake, and they all deserve some careful scrutiny to determine if they are honest because of user error, a glitch on Amazon’s side, or increasing likelihood that reviews have been bought and paid for, Amazon reviews should not be taken at face value.
How to tell if an Amazon review is fake
Mistakes do happen, and sometimes reviews are accidentally tied to another product. For example, a recent change to the Blu-ray player metadata on the Amazon backend resulted in a lot of reviews of unrelated Blu-ray player products for a short time, which changed its star rating until the bug was fixed. Likewise, it is not uncommon for a user to accidentally leave a review for the wrong product.
Of course, there are also more suspicious motives for unrelated reviews of the wrong product, such as an attempt by a seller to artificially raise (or lower) the star rating of a product in order to attract buyers or dissuade them from buying from a competitor. if a review is intended to be a correct listing, there is no shortage of reasons why it could be fake or misleading – whether or not it is part of a reward racketeering ; “Survey bombing” campaigns aimed at changing the rating of a product; advertising masquerading as reviews; or those nosy positive product reviews that include one star because the reviewer wants to “communicate” that shipping is taking too long, or some other aspect of a transaction that is not related to the product itself. Either way, there are ways to determine if product reviews are trustworthy.
- Actually read the reviews: It is often easy to spot a fake review by the way it is read. If a reviewer seems to have a very different experience than that reflected in other reviews and makes overly positive or negative statements, this is probably not credible. The same happens if a review spends too much time recommending an unclear alternative but does not offer a fair comparison or comment on the product the review is intended for in the first place. And if there are tons of reviews with one or five stars, but the text of each review is hardly longer than a sentence (or even just one or two words), this is another clear sign of fake.
- Look for “confirmed purchase”: Reviews of users who actually bought the product will have a “confirmed purchase” icon next to their name. There is a high probability that these are real ratings / reviews, although this is not a fact given that some unscrupulous sellers will offer “refunds” in exchange for 5-star reviews.
- Read the product FAQs – they often answer common questions, and the responses from users who have purchased the product will again be marked as “verified purchase”.
- Read Non-Amazon Reviews: Seeking off-site reviews , especially from professional reviewers / critics / websites you trust, is always smart. It can help you get a general idea of how a product is being rated elsewhere and help you evaluate user reviews elsewhere. However, just because the reviewer and the user come to different conclusions does not mean that they are lying. Reviews are inherently contextual and subjective, so don’t throw out your opinion simply because it conflicts with broader consensus.
Uncover fake Amazon reviews with FakeSpot or ReviewMeta
Even if you know the signs of a fake review, you will occasionally come across product reviews or ratings that you simply cannot pinpoint the legitimacy. In such cases, we suggest using the FakeSpot app . Fakespot will analyze reviews and / or ratings for Amazon listing products, scoring each review and letting you know how real or fake they seem (it also works with Best Buy, Walmart, Steam, and Sephora online stores). FakeSpot is available online as well as Android and iOS . Alternatively, ReviewMeta works in much the same way .
Report false and inappropriate Amazon reviews
The reality is that one or two fake or misleading reviews can appear on just about any popular product. They can be reported, but a few false ratings are unlikely to affect the overall listing rating. However, if you’ve noticed a particularly egregious amount of fake product reviews, or noticed that reviews for one product are popping up elsewhere, you can use the “report abuse” button next to a review to get Amazon’s attention.
This article was originally published in 2019 and was updated on June 17, 2021 with additional context and links, and in line with the current Lifehacker style.