How much can you really trust online reviews?

Have you ever needed a new appliance, done a bit of research online, and still ended up with a lemon?

Chances are you have been the victim of fake reviews.

It turns out that you can’t trust everything you read on the internet – who knew! – including reviews on well-regarded sites.

Fraudulent product reviews – the practice of creating and selling fake reviews of products and services for posting to online retail sites – is influencing consumer spending around the world.

In 2021, the Fake Online Reviews report, from Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity company CHEQ, defined fake reviews as any positive, neutral, or negative review that is not an actual consumer’s honest and impartial opinion and does not reflect a genuine experience of a product, service, or business.

Some of the sites most susceptible to fake reviews include Amazon, Expedia and TripAdvisor.

According to the report, the trading of fake online reviews has become standardised with groups, commission structures, and loyalty schemes.

Popular plans right now

Review rings

Payments change hands from around 25 cents to $100 per review; some buyers are encouraged to leave a five-star review in exchange for a full refund or monetary compensation.

Other crackdowns have shown bulk packages of reviews selling at US$11,000 for 1000, with ‘review rings’ further enrolling in loyalty schemes to ramp up output.

It isn’t just humans writing fake reviews either. The report found that some of the work is being increasingly done by bots and AI, particularly on travel and ecommerce campaigns, explained CHEQ cybersecurity analyst Refael Filippov.

“A classic fake reviews campaign would start with registering multiple users to the relevant ecommerce platform – this is increasingly done by landing through customer acquisition campaigns designed to get people to buy goods, or book hotels or holidays on a central site,” Mr Filippov said.

“Increasingly, botnets that are used to click on ads can also be the same ones that generate fake reviews, hurting these sites credibility and businesses on them.

“We find a connection between bots that have posted reviews, and we know that they’re bots because of cybersecurity analysis tests performed on clicks.”

How can you spot a fake review?

Check out the time of the reviews. If there has been a sudden spate of good reviews in a short period of time, chances are at least some of them are fake. Also, business will often stuff a bunch of good reviews after a product launch, so see if you can match launch dates to reviews.

Do a bit of cyber stalking to check if the reviewer has written other reviews. A fake reviewer often only reviews one product or service. Fake reviewers also won’t use a real name, often just a generated user name, and won’t use a picture.

Go over the grammar and English. Often fake reviews are written by ‘factories’ in developing world countries.

Check out any comments under the review. Sometimes the business will explain the review is from a competitor, is fake or they can’t find that the reviewer ever even used their product or service.

Sometimes while giving a bad review, fake reviewers will promote the business they have been paid by to write a review as an alternative and this should be a massive red flag.

What can you do?

Make sure you read reviews from a variety of sources. There are many review sites online, don’t just go with the first you come across.

Ask actual people their opinion.

Leave a question on social media for the business in question and see where that gets you. Sometimes people are more honest behind a keyboard (and sometimes not as well).

If you believe a business has been using fake reviews, you can also report them to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Learn how here.

How much to you trust online reviews? Have you been burnt by reviews in the past? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?

Also read: Curb your enthusiasm – a guide to winding back online shopping