Watchdog, how was your Amazon Prime Day? Did you find any bargains?
Didnt shop. But I spent the whole day learning about Amazon.
How so?
I took a deep dive into the world of fake Amazon product reviews. I talked to an Amazon official, software developers and college marketing professors. My goal was to learn how to spot fake reviews in order to become a smarter Amazon shopper.
What brought this on?
Keith Swigger of Denton sent me what he calls his bribery card.
His what?
He bought toner for his printer via Amazon and then received a postcard in the mail from the seller offering a $15 Amazon gift card if he would write a 5-star review. The postcard warned do not mention or display this card anywhere.
Whats wrong with that?
Turns out thats not only a clear violation of Amazons rules, but also federal guidelines for truth-in-advertising. When someone asks you to keep something on the down-low, thats not a good sign. I tried without success to contact the postcard sender.
What about when I buy something on Amazon and the seller asks for five stars in either a follow-up email or a note slipped in the packaging?
Both of those are prohibited. Amazon can send you an email asking if youre satisfied, but sellers are not allowed to do that.
Postcards asking for positive Amazon product reviews are not permitted. One Watchdog reader calls this a "bribery card."[Courtesy of Keith Swigger]I didnt know that. How prevalent are fake reviews?
No one can say for sure, but New York University marketing professor Russell Winer estimates that nearly half of all reviews may be fake. Generally, theyre put there by competitors who maybe have inferior products and only give one or two stars, he says. Its the content that gives them away. If its very generic and shows no experience using the product that seems to be the tipoff.
What about fake five-star reviews like that postcard sought?
Those may be bought illegally by the seller. If theres a thousand five-star reviews for a phone charger shipped from China, well, thats a risky buy.
I love Amazon reviews. Theyre helpful.
Me, too. What an amazing innovation. Jeff Bezos hatched that idea. Reviews debuted in 1995 as part of the original Amazon launch. Books were the initial products. According to Brad Stones book The Everything Store, Bezos received an angry letter from a book publisher about negative reviews. The publisher scolded Bezos for allowing books to be trashed. We saw it very differently, Bezos said. We dont make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.
How sad that this noble idea that began as a way to tap into the wisdom of crowds has evolved, in part, to a worldwide criminal enterprise.
What does Amazon say?
Amazon says it spent $700 million last year to protect customers from fraud and abuse, and that 10,000 employees across its 20 international platforms work at it.
I received a statement from Dharmesh Mehta, Amazons vice president of worldwide customer trust.
Thats a job?
Yep. He says Amazon is relentless trying to protect genuine product reviews. In 2020, we stopped more than 200 million suspected fake reviews before they were ever seen by a customer We are always working to improve our processes, but it will require partnerships across the industry and with governments.
When I hear that, I realize fake reviews are not going away.
Thats why these tips Ill share are so important. A study last year published in Harvard Business Review stated, Because there are millions of these sellers and most of them are located in China, identifying and punishing them is likely to be impractical.
Brett Hollenbeck, a study co-author, told me reviews are not that helpful for products that have a thousand or more. You do run the risk of being tricked into buying low-quality products. Amazon as a company is not taking this seriously enough. We find there are so many fake reviews and so many customers who feel they were cheated.
Watchdog, what did you learn that would help me be a smarter Amazon shopper?
First, know the difference between a verified purchase and one thats not. If someone buys the product through Amazon and then writes a review, it shows verified purchase in red letters.
Those are likely real, right?
More than likely, but some sellers send products to people for free and ask them to write glowing reviews. Thats illegal. Ryan Moffet of Pattern.com, a digital commerce company, told me: If reviews arent specific to the product itself, if you see lots of five stars and no specifics, thats a tell-tale sign.
What else?
Dont only look at the star ratings. Read the reviews. For stars, focus on the middle 3s as they are more likely balanced and real. Also, read the 1s, but be skeptical. The 5s are often no help. Also, dont trust reviews all written on the same day. Dont trust reviews that repeat the same marketing phrases. Dont trust reviews that are only 5 stars. And research the product away from Amazon, too.
Fake reviews are not only on Amazon, right?
Yes, this is an industry-wide problem in online sales. But Amazon is so much bigger than everyone else.
What about websites that supposedly help you shop smartly on Amazon?
They exist. One I tested is called ReviewMeta.com. You find a product you want on Amazon, and then copy the URL [web address] into the site. You get a free analysis of a products Amazon reviews, which helps you determine if they are legitimate.
How did they come up with that?
Creator Tommy Noonan told me he was trying to buy a nutritional supplement and read the reviews. These people wrote, I have not used this product yet. It came as a freebie, and theyre asking for five stars. It was like, Are you kidding me? I was pretty miffed at that.
Since then, his servers have downloaded a half-billion Amazon reviews for analysis.
Watchdog, Im glad that Denton man sent you his bribery card. Sounds like your Amazon Prime Day activities were worthwhile.
They were, but I wont ask for five stars because I dont need any trouble.
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