You shouldn’t believe everything that you read online in general, but this is especially true when it comes to anything to do with online reviews and product ratings. These are generally not posted by people with your best interests in mind, and generally, they are paid to do so in order to make the highlighted product seem better than it is for that company’s personal gain.
It has been shown that up to 70% of the reviews posted on Amazon are fake and are there to make the product look better than it is.
Because online reviews are important to a business’s reputation and it makes the consumer more likely to buy their products, there is widespread fake review planting across numerous platforms online.
Although many of these online platforms are trying to root out the fakes, it is hard to do so.
Here are some reasons why you should not trust online reviews when looking to buy products.
The marketplace to find fake freelancers is open and easy to access
There are various sites available on the Internet that openly advertise fake freelancers to write fake reviews for your product or company is fairly easy to find and thereby very accessible. Any company with a bad reputation or selling a less-than-authentic product can hire these freelancers to inundate platforms with these fake posts and give them a ‘good’ reputation at face value. First-time consumers will see these and assume the product and company are great, which could deceive them. Because these marketplaces are so easily accessible, it is also easy to assume that online platforms are swarmed with fake posts about companies and/or products.
Many companies will give awards for positive reviews
There are numerous companies out there that actively offer rewards to consumers who will post positive messages about their products in exchange for rewards such as vouchers, discounts, and free products. This means that the consumer has an incentive to give very positive messages about the company and/or product, however, these might not always be fully truthful as they are incentivized by the prospect of a reward. This can thereby deceive other first-time consumers who see the reviews and not realize this.
It can be hard to spot fake posts
When someone is being paid to make fake posts, it is beneficial to them to make them sound as good as possible and as real as possible. As a result, these reviews can look very realistic and are increasingly difficult to spot.
Although software can be implemented to spot most of these fakes, some will still make it through and can skew a consumer’s opinion of the company and/or product. Because it can be hard to spot fake reviews, this means that many will get through that are thought to be authentic and as a result, they will flood these online platforms with misinformation.
There are so many fake ones out there
As has been stated throughout this whole article, the number of fake reviews out there is extraordinary. People are more than willing to post them for monetary or financial gain and will do so en masse if require. With many software attempting to filter these out but failing sometimes, it leaves numerous online platforms inundated with these posts. Because there are so many of them out there, you are better off just not trusting any of them at all.
In summary, fake reviews are all over the Internet, and as a result, you can’t really trust any of the online posts you see about companies and/or products.
Shop carefully and be warned.
