Amazon fake reviews: the products most likely to have dodgy postings

Certain product types are most likely to be subject to fake reviews. We highlight the Amazon products you need to be extra careful with, and how to spot dodgy reviews.

It’s always good to do your homework before spending money online. Money is tight for many of us at the moment, so you want to make sure you know what you’re getting before you cough up the cash.

For many of us, that means reading reviews of the products and services we are interested in purchasing.

Unfortunately, there has been a significant growth in fake reviews, clouding the picture for shoppers who want to do a little research before handing over their money.

And a new study has picked out the product types that are most susceptible to fake reviews.

The 10 Amazon products most likely to have fake reviews

Certain products seem to be more at risk of being targeted by fake reviews.

Analysis from Scams.info into the product listings on Amazon pinpointed the products which have the highest proportion of fake reviews.

Here are the most at-risk products according to Scams.info:

It’s not just Amazon

It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t just an issue impacting Amazon; fake reviewers have also been found leaving questionable write-ups for products on Google and Trustpilot too.

An investigation by Which? last year highlighted the fact that Facebook groups have been set up to bring together those willing to post reviews on these sites, and others.

While the groups may present themselves as being legit, the investigators found plenty of instances where reviewers were offered free products in exchange for posting a five-star review, which is a pretty clear case of manipulating the system.

Other groups are even more blatant, openly promising that you can get free products in return for those reviews.

While some of these groups have been shut down since, there will be some that have slipped through the net.

Trying to do the right thing

The situation with fake reviews is really problematic for shoppers.

The sensible thing to do before making any purchase is to do your homework, to get a better idea of what you’re likely to get for your money.

And that means checking out reviews, rather than just taking the marketing blurb from the retailer on face value.

That becomes incredibly difficult to do when the reviews themselves are equally susceptible to manipulation.

If you can’t trust the provider to be completely honest, and you can’t trust the reviews supposedly from other shoppers, how are you supposed to make an informed decision?

How to spot fake reviews?

Thankfully, there are some classic warning signs to look out for, which can help you spot and distinguish between genuine reviews and fake ones.

Some people advocate ignoring five-star reviews altogether ‒ you’ll learn more about an actual product from the four-star and below reviews, so long as you actually read what’s written and don’t find yourself swayed by the score.

While I understand the logic of this, it does feel a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater ‒ instead, I’d suggest simply being a little more discerning about which five-star reviews you do put weight into.

Another way around the manipulation of these dodgy reviews is to sort by most recent, rather than the ‘top’ reviews.

That way you will get more up-to-date descriptions of how the product has performed.

When reading the reviews, look out for similar phrasing. It’s not uncommon for fake reviews to all focus on a certain feature, or to describe it in very similar terms.

If a host of reviews are talking about a product in the same way, that can be a warning sign.

It’s also useful to look out for signs of incentivisation ‒ sometimes reviewers will note that they have been offered a gift card or some other form of reward for leaving the review, while you might also spot this in the negative reviews, where the user has been offered a reward for changing their write up.

You might also want to take a look at what else the reviewer has bought, if you are unsure how legitimate their review is.

If they have bought a lot of very similar items, then you’re right to feel suspicious ‒ how many sets of earphones does one person need, for example? ‒ while if all of their reviews are uniformly positive and five-star, then again that can serve as a warning sign.

Finally, it’s important to check that the reviews are actually accurate for the product you’re looking at.

Previously Which? has reported on the trend of ‘review merging’, where reviews for completely different products are listed underneath the item you’re interested in.

Don’t get swayed into buying something on account of five-star reviews for a completely different product!

The clampdown on fake reviews

It’s worth noting that the Government has promised action on the issue of fake reviews. 

Last year it announced it was holding a consultation into tackling fake reviews, with the intention of ensuring that shoppers benefit from reviews that represent “a genuine experience”, with the expectation that firms take greater responsibility over the veracity of the reviews on their websites.

We are yet to hear the final conclusions from that consultation though, and with a general election on the way it’s open to question how big a priority this is likely to be for the Government.