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Inside Amazon’s Fake Review Economy

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, May 9, 2018.

  1. Melody Bot May 9, 2018
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Nicole Nguyen, writing at BuzzFeed:


    The systems that create fraudulent reviews are a complicated web of subreddits, invite-only Slack channels, private Discord servers, and closed Facebook groups, but the incentives are simple: Being a five-star product is crucial to selling inventory at scale in Amazon’s intensely competitive marketplace — so crucial that merchants are willing to pay thousands of people to review their products positively.
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  2. Kiana May 9, 2018
    Kiana

    Goddamn, man child Prestigious

    At first I was like wow is nothing sacred??? But now I'm like... So about that $$$
     
    Spencer Rhoton, ChiliTacos, Kingjohn_654 and 1 other person like this.
  3. oldjersey May 9, 2018
    oldjersey

    Pro Podcaster Supporter

    Okay, so I can get paid to be a 5 star reviewer? Sign me up I am willing to lay my pride aside.
     
    summertimejesus and Kingjohn_654 like this.
  4. oldjersey May 9, 2018
    oldjersey

    Pro Podcaster Supporter

    Also, most of my online purchases as decided by Amazon review lol. At least it's usually the people with the photo proof that they actually possess the item.
     
    Arry and Mr. Serotonin like this.
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  6. Bayside 182 May 9, 2018
    Bayside 182

    Wolverine Supporter

    I am not surprised by this one bit. I also find that some "reviewers" don't even understand the reviewing process and it hurts some products. I was recently looking at something on Amazon with only a handful of reviews and they were basically all 4 or 5 star reviews and there was a lone 1 star review that said "came three days late, unacceptable" and proceeded to give it one star, so the product had a 3 star rating when it basically only had solid reviews. They don't understand that the product review is not the same as the seller review, oh well.
     
    duritzfan13 likes this.
  7. ineverlose May 9, 2018
    ineverlose

    Newbie

    I've found that this problem is getting worse and worse lately...Amazon definitely has some work to do in figuring out how to curb this. I've had luck using sites like FakeSpot.com when analyzing whether or not reviews seem to be fake.
     
  8. jpmalone4 May 9, 2018
    jpmalone4

    Stay Lucky Supporter

    When I interned at a small record label years ago they gave me prepaid debit cards to purchase their releases on Amazon, award five stars, and write favorable reviews. Not ethical at all but they claimed everyone did it.

    Hats off to these people though - at least, unlike me, they got paid to do this! :uhoh:
     
  9. Ryan May 9, 2018
    Ryan

    Might be Spider-Man...

    Really makes me think twice about buying things from Amazon.
     
  10. ARo24 May 9, 2018
    ARo24

    Regular

    I feel like a dam fool now but it makes absolute sense.
     
  11. summertimejesus May 10, 2018
    summertimejesus

    Birds and Guitar

    Honestly SAME. I need that $$ and this sounds better than writing essays for college students (not that I'm doing that now).
     
    oldjersey likes this.
  12. Shrek May 10, 2018
    Shrek

    can't be made fun of Prestigious

  13. Malatesta May 10, 2018
    Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    tbh given how amazon likes using Most purchased/Best reviewed to inform searches, i wouldn't be surprised if they only at best selectively enforced this to weed out harmful or real shitty products
     
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  15. BBowermaster May 10, 2018
    BBowermaster

    Newbie

    This and to also so they can have a monopoly with their Amazon Vine program.