I thought this was interesting. It turns out that the fake reviews aren’t just a problem for Amazon. Yelp and tripadviser are other sites that have this problem. In the hotel industry, according to the interview, it’s common to pay for negative reviews of your competitors!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-sues-over-1000-people-for-writing-and-selling-fake-reviews/
^Amazon has been identifying any reviewers that were actually purchased the products. I usually only read those reviews.
Wow, that’s interesting especially with the international angle.
IMO a majority of Amazon’s reviews are now fake. It’s a shame because they used to be very helpful.
Any actual data?
I believe that the first reviews out on many products are paid reviews from the company who manufactured the product.
Go read reviews on a few items you are thinking of buying on Amazon and the first reviews are very detailed and lengthy. After the first few they start to sound like regular Joe reviewers so I tend to believe those over the paid for reviews. Most are not fake and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to write reviews and try to do them as often as possible myself.
I don’t know if I believe that.
A big problem with Amazon IMO (and perhaps with other sites) are bandwagon/activist reviewers… You know, when you see 100+ bad reviews about “This company doesn’t pay their workers enough money!”.
Wow, whole businesses dedicated to writing fake reviews. Oh what the internet has spawned . . . They are not going to crack down on the funny ones, are they? People aren’t paid to do those, I’m guessing?
Now they need to get rid of the “Amazon Vine.” As soon as I see that, I don’t even bother reading the review.
@4kidsdad Well, I did say IMO. But I do get well paid by a well known search engine to sniff out misleading or malicious things on web pages. So, I am pretty in tune with the the way fake reviews are written and set up. Now, of course I have not read every review on Amazon. But, for the products I look at I would say roughly 2/3 of the reviews are paid, fake, employees, family members, bloggers who have received the item for free or people trying to sabotage with fake negative reviews. YMMV
edited to add - even verified purchasers are often given items for free or at a reduced rate so I think that even that caveat can’t be trusted.
Some of the funniest Amazon reviews I’ve ever read were the reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey (novel), especially when it was first published.
I don’t get the antipathy toward the Amazon Vine program. Many of the most thoughtful book reviewers on Amazon participate in the program, and, if, like me, you frequently read Amazon reviews, you begin to get a sense of the reviewers who share your sensibilities. And as you note, the Vine reviews are clearly marked. I’ve seen little evidence that a book’s ratings are thrown off by the reviewers’ having received advance review copies of the books.
Do you avoid professional book reviews in the New York Times, Washington Post and the New Yorker, too? You do realize that those publications receive advance review copies of the books they review, too, don’t you?
Lately some products on Amazon have one after another 5-star review with the sentence, “I received this item at a discounted price in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion.” Really annoying. At least they admit it.
The law requires disclosure. I review books I win on a couple of sites, but they require disclosure that I won it. My most “successful” review, in terms of being liked the most, is one of my most critical. The sites don’t care if you pan a book; they just want you to review it.
That’s interesting because I have an unusual first name, and when I went back to write a review, I saw someone with my name had already written a review, shortly after I bought an item.
I can spot many fake tripadvisor reviews. I report them, but tripadvisor just ignores it. Hotels/restaurants ask employees to write reviews and the employees always mention their names in the reviews. Some waitress named Ashley is mentioned in 60 of the last 100 reviews for one Toledo restaurant. Oh, and they are all written by first-time reviewers. Tripadvisor has even gone as far as to start hiding the number of reviews posters have writtten. It makes me wonder why I even bother to post on their web site.
That’s disappointing about TripAdviser. Especially for things like tours, I consider the number of reviews by a reviewer to be crucial info – I ignore reviews when that’s the person’s only review. I rely a lot on the forums on TA for advise. I know TA has issues, but I still feel I have more info now than before, when we had to rely on travel books.
On Amazon I usually start with products with the most reviews. I figure if something has something like 827 reviews, a lot of them must be legit. I might be wrong, but I still feel like I have more info now than 25 years ago.
This is why I always read the negative reviews first.
This is a blessing and a curse. I love getting others opinions and finding out little things (for example on hotels, how close is it to a train stop? What rooms are best, is the wif good, etc.) But then, I find myself spending way too much time on decisions, or letting one negative review influence me. In the past, I would have just grabbed the item off the shelf (or booked a “reasonable” hotel), now I have to read lots of reviews and compare many products. It can be a curse at times!
Wow @Hunt , I knew we’d eventually have something in common… 
I also read the negative reviews first.
Count me in, Hunt and GMT. I scour the negative reviews.