Amazon is one of the most widely used electronic businesses worldwide with a system based on feedback, that is, consumer ratings. However, Amazon has been the center of the target for some controversies about the valuations of its products. For this reason, you have to be very careful, since many of these votes for certain products are falsified with purchased votes.
It all seems a bit convoluted, but a few months ago a cybersecurity company uncovered a massive network of fake reviews on Amazon. Since that time, the debate over the honesty of ratings on Amazon has continued to grow. It is true that the first to take action was Amazon itself, which quickly expelled the brands involved in this fraud.
Normally, users of this type of platform, before making a purchase, usually look at the opinions and reviews of consumers. It is often the main reason why a user decides, or not, to make the purchase of this product. In this way, a bad review can put back the purchase intention of potential customers. In addition, it can also affect the position of the article in the search.
For the stores and sellers that are on the platform this is a serious problem. Because of this, many of them choose to use techniques that go against Amazon’s policies.
Sellers kicked out of Amazon
Amazon has concurred to expel 600 Chinese technology brands and 3,000 vendors, for review fraud. This has been a problem much more than casual for the company, which has decided to eradicate the issue completely. Amazon is the main commercial showcase of the world so all third-party stores know that their products can become popular. If this happens they will receive good scores and as a consequence the possibility of increasing their income.
At the same time, there are thousands of external sellers to Amazon which makes there an exorbitant level of competition in which it is very difficult to stand out. Many of these salespeople have decided to mount a gimmick by smearing customers to get good reviews. Amazon for its part has said enough and has expelled everyone who was involved in the game.
This stance taken by Bezos’s great company represents a notable change in attitude; they had never made statements that gave them a bad reputation. They have also limited themselves to issuing statements stating that they work to control and prevent possible abuses with the Amazon use policy.
Inspection found that some brands were issuing gift cards to customers who had purchased a product in exchange for a good review. In the case of sellers, the method used was exactly the same. They offered the item for free by making a fraudulent cancellation and refunding what had been paid without returning the product. Always of course in exchange for a good review for both the merchandise and the store.
The blockade of Amazon not only excludes sellers and their products from the platform, but also has immobilized funds of some companies.
How to recognize fake reviews
Knowing how to identify false opinions will help you when buying the product you want. From Somos Sinapsis we lend a hand and offer you some guidelines in which you can look to see if the reviews are true or not.
- Long reviews with a number of photos and / or videos. If we come across this type of review, we can start to become suspicious. It is not usual for people to take the subject so seriously as to make very long descriptions including many photos and even videos.
- Misspelled or overloaded language. Another point that may make you doubt is how the review is written. The vast majority of people who write fake reviews are foreigners so Spanish is not their language and they employ translators. If we find reviews in which words are used that do not match our language, it could indicate that it is a purchased opinion.
- Very good or very bad evaluations. Typically, the store or seller forces the fake reviewer to leave a five-star or one-star rating. This will be based on his interests, five stars to promote your article, one star to ruin the competition.
- Similar reviews. There are times when sellers provide templates with what to put in reviews. If we find several reviews that highlight the same information, but with different words, they could be false reviews.
- Verified purchase. When we see that a product has reviews without verified purchase this will mean that the opinion may not have the product.
- Anonymous opinions. Most of the comments that are not named and therefore appear anonymous may have been mechanically generated by a computer.