Productreview has a statement on fake reviews, positive and negative.
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Iâm always suspicious of glowing reviews particularly when there are no negative reviews in the mix, because I am a believer in the axiom âyou cannot please all the people all the timeâ.
It doesnât matter how good you are or how well you think you are doing your job or deliver your service there are people out there who can never be pleased, (sometimes referred to a âprofessional whingersâ) so a honest system will always have some negative feedback even from the best intentioned business operators.
I had some experience with market research some years ago and there was rule of thumb when you researched peoples opinions on any issue if you disregarded the very top positive and very bottom negative answer results from the surveys you got a good gauge on what the majority are thinking and feeling.
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Restaurant reviews never lie though? This restaurant became the number one restaurant in London according to TripAdvisor - the only problem is, it didnât exist. What a funny tale !!! note his admissions at the beginning of the video.
The ârestaurantâ website is here: https://www.theshedatdulwich.com/
Edited to add: a word of warning re some colourful language in the video for those who may be offended âŠ
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Itâs up to you, but youâre welcome to mention names when sharing an honest opinion, and if you do Iâd suggest including a link. That way people can also have a look and decide for themselves. As mentioned in our article above, âa sudden increase in positive or negative reviews over a short time frame that are out of sync with earlier reviewsâ can be a sign of fakery.
I donât think I can improve on the The Shed at Dulwich example, but Iâll add even without some form of trickery that online reviews can be a slippery tool to rely on. This article in the The Atlantic offers an interesting read:
⊠Online reviewers, they found, were more likely to give premium brands higher ratings, and rarely compared a variety of similar devices in the same setting, as Consumer Reports does by default.
Ultimately, the researchers found that consumers tend to accept as true the collective wisdom that Amazon conveys about a particular itemâs durability, safety, and performance. âWe donât want to say that online reviews are completely untrustworthy and have no value whatsoever,â Bart de Langhe, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Colorado Boulder and the co-author of the study, told me. âBut we do want to point out there are strong issues with them, and that in many situations you might be better off relying on expert tests.â
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Here is an interesting run of positive reviews: https://www.productreview.com.au/p/sunboost.html
The last 3 1/2 pages of reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and have appeared in the past 4 weeks, nicely timed for the big TV advertising blitz. Strangely, there are quite a few generic (âDear valued customerâ) responses from Sunboost, even when the reviewerâs name is there for all to see.
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I enjoyed the questions and dearth of answers more than the exuberant glowing reviews! I clicked on some of those glowing reviews and surprise, they joined âtodayâ.
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Hmmm ⊠hereâs an interesting thread - alternative reviews you might say âŠ
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2665198
and another unrelated (or not) site:
There was talk of fake employee reviews recently as well - some investment company from memory 
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In case this is of use, FakeSpot.com analyses reviews on some of the larger review websitesâAmazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Apple App Storeâby product/page.
The results include an assessment of how many of the reviews are fake, a graph of when reviews were added and more.
I have found it interesting and useful.
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I suspect that sometimes reviews arenât fake but perhaps encouraged or incentivised in some less obvious wayâŠ
Recently I was looking for ebike reviews. ProductReview.com lists a small subset of the ebikes available and most have very few reviews. But then we come to Leitner ebikesâstacks of reviews, almost all glowing, and most by reviewers who havenât reviewed other products. The language varies enough to seem genuine, and most are Verified Purchases, but clearly the reviewers joined PR.com just to add this specific review.
Leitner ebikes also appear at the top of ebike searches on productreview.com, with a snippet of one of the (positive) reviews.
And Leitner uses the reviews to call their ebikes âAustraliaâs No.1 rated eBike brandâ which is a great marketing approach.
My guess is that the Australian company buys bikes from China and has them branded as Leitner. The RideOn/Choice review of ebikes from March 2017 doesnât include Leitner, so the brand must not have been on the radar while the article was being compiled. I wrote to RideOn asking them whether they knew anything about Leitner and pointing out the plethora of reviews, but received no reply.
Whatever Leitner is doing is clever, probably even legal. But clearly skews the market.
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Interesting read on the web being woven âŠ
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/04/a-sobering-look-at-fake-online-reviews/
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An article regarding businesses suffering due to fake online reviews.
There cetrtainly are some grubs out there.
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I wish them good luck prosecuting the swarms of fake review posters who live in India and SE Asia!
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Well it seems that Fake Reviews are still a huge problem with TripAdvisor claiming it had over 1 million of them last year. The New Daily has published an article about the fake review problem at:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2019/09/19/tripadvisor-fake-reviews-report
Considering that this topic was created some 3 years ago and the ACCC was promising a crack down on them (fake reviews) the success of their program seems less than inspiring in my eyes.
The article points out that ads to seek Fake Review writers can be found on job web sites. The New Daily ran an investigation in Feb of this year (2019) and also gave hints on how to spot fake reviews in the following article:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2019/02/01/how-to-spot-fake-reviews/
Does anyone have any other hints on how to detect fake reviews?
Do you know how to report them?
Are your reports actioned and if so are they fast or slow to react to your report?
Maybe thatâs a poll CHOICE could run. Also perhaps CHOICE could prepare and provide a guide on how to spot fake reviews and how to take action when fake reviews are found??
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I completed a survey on MSN this week and pointed out to them all the ads on their homepage and at the bottom of articles which are for the Bitcoin scams but nothing has changed.
The most common one features an image of various persons with the caption âThis Online Job Is Reliable And Pays Weeklyâ.
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Yes, weâre due to update our advice in this area. Thanks for the suggestion 
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Re Amazon and some others, they give products to some of their customers for testing. The customer has to sign up. In the case of Amazon they need to be Prime subscribers. The giveaway of partiality is a username with a very large number of reviews that are almost all 5 stars. If they gave much less they would be out of the program. Their unwritten role is there is always something good to say about their free products.
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DIY checking for fake reviews can take quite a bit of time Iâve found: apart from the language used (general vs. personal/anecdotal), looking at other reviews by the top reviewer/s seems to be the best method. If they only have 5-star reviews (or perhaps some 1-stars of competitors products); only 1 review; lots of âgenericâ reviews; or for TA, reviews that donât form any pattern (e.g. geographicalâdate location) these are all give-aways. Also, look for verification of purchase if available (relevant for Amazon and ProductReview.com.au, but perhaps not for TripAdvisor).
However to save time, I usually just go straight to the 3-star reviews to find out the pros and cons of an item. These are 99.99% genuine and they usually give a balanced view.
Often I will still buy an item rated only 3 stars if the cons are ones that arenât relevant to me, and at least I know that the pros are genuine.
2- and 4-star reviews are also more likely to be genuine than 5- and 1-star reviews and can be worth reading. But total star ratings are rarely worth anything now (thatâs where fakespot.com^ comes into its own, for re-rating products without the fake reviews, and itâs now available via website, browser extension/s and apps).
^ ReviewMeta.com serves the same purpose but Amazon only at this stage.
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A worthwhile project.
Iâm now wary of all reviews and consider most to be unreliable. I often ignore or donât bother with them. Perhaps that too is a successful outcome for the seller or business. How many products and businesses would fail if all reviews were consistent and honest?
I will however read individual consumer reviews on Choice. The intent and contributors are transparent.
Notes:
Most often the product reviews we might consider include accommodation, eating out, and service providers. These three areas seem the most open to abuse.
Where ever possible first preference is now word of mouth.
Reviews left on a businessâs own web site are always considered to be unreliable/filtered.
Reviews that are objective and qualified or in context appear more reliable or may simply be restating key marketing points in slightly different language (fake). The closer they resemble the key marketing points, the less likely they are genuine.
Reviews that are emotive in their language are best avoided, however some of us are inclined that way and often speak from the heart. And so does a lot of marketing speak. As we tend to respond to emotion through our own personality traits, is there ever going to be an effective way for all individuals to spot the fake?
Past purchases, extent of use, depth of understanding may all Influence a review. And we may communicate a little differently across a broad spectrum.
Iâd wonder how a review can be put into context?
For a can opener it might be that most reviewers could offer a reliable opinion. However do we know what other models/types of can openers each reviewer has recently used? For one reviewer it may be the best ever, for another only second best, and for a one handed user useless.
As products increase in complexity EG digital cameras, the diversity in view points and experiences likely increases. A camera can be set to Auto for life and used only for point and shoot. Or the user can obsess over white balance, depth of field, exposure, etc etc. Give an average consumer a high end Canon or Nikon what will they say in a review? Give a professional photographer a Sony Alpha to review, how might they consider the product; as another high end camera, or against their own professional needs? In comparison for the novice user choosing a Canon over a Nikon over a Sony in a similar price range might simply be splitting hairs. ( And likely to if raised at the photography club start a Holden vs Ford style battle.)
All I can suggest for anything higher tech or expensive the most experienced reviewers write professionally for publications. Context is still relevant as reviews may be written to reflect the interests of the readers, and most often the advertising income from product placement. Itâs rare to ever read a bad review in a publication that relies on advertising income.
For me itâs about more than just knowing a review is genuine.
Fortunately for some products and services there are Choice reviews that objectively compare a much wider range of products than many of us could ever hope to trial at home. It narrows the field.
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I did this quiz on the ABC a few weeks ago and scored 10 but it was tricky. I think because I regularly write reviews on Trip Advisor myself, it helps me to know what is likely to be true.
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