Incorrect assessments, so-called fake reviews, are being given more and more often
Online shopping is already part of everyday life. According to the Chamber of Labor, 80 percent of consumers base their decisions on reviews from other customers. However, fake reviews are being given more and more often and people often buy them. What else can and should we believe as a consumer?
According to the WKO (Austrian Chamber of Commerce), service portals offer positive reviews at a unit price. Prices start at just $10 at “PromotingTeam” and $70 at “Buy Review Service”. “Reputation management agencies” can write positive reviews on behalf of companies.
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Companies identify false reviews
Amazon and Tripadvisor confirm that they are fighting against manipulated reviews. Tripadvisor, for example, published in its current “Transparency Report” that 1.4 million fake reviews were eliminated this year. At Amazon there were over 13 million attempts that were prevented last year, a spokesman explains to futurezone.
Automated systems and review teams are used to detect abusive and manipulated reviews. For this it is important to feed as much information as possible to the system in order to optimize machine learning. Reviews are compared with existing data and deleted if necessary. Amazon also reserves the right to take action in the event of violations of the terms and conditions for reviewers and sales partners, which may mean a ban, permanent exclusion or legal action.
Avoid fakes or fake reviews in the future
In the future, retailers within the EU will be obliged to inform their customers whether reviews are checked and, if so, how. If a retailer states this but does not fulfill this obligation, this is unlawful. This also applies if a company itself manipulates reviews. This can apply if negative reviews are deleted and only positive ones are published, and the trader does not disclose that they are doing this.
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“It must also be made transparent whether the review actually comes from the consumer and whether he has also used or bought the product,” says legal expert Daniela Zimmer from the AK.
Recognize manipulated reviews yourself
First of all, you can do a little more broad research yourself.
You can compare reviews of a product, a place or even a company on several portals. If you notice major discrepancies or if the texts are strikingly similar to each other, it could be a fake. If reviews contain a lot of superlatives or sound suspiciously “ad-heavy,” it could be that these comments were bought. But noticeably negative reviews can also be faked to harm competitors. Platforms such as “ Review Meta ” or “ Fakespot ” help identify fake reviews.
If you rely on the opinions of influencers, you should always pay attention to the labeling to see whether it may be advertising.
You can also take a closer look at individual users. For example, if positive reviews are given for various places within a very short period of time, they could be bought. It's rare that you travel to several places in just a few days in order to be able to evaluate the hotels of a chain in a wide variety of locations.
However, the basic rule here is: open your eyes and use common sense!
Source: futurezone.at
Article image: Shutterstock / By Profit_Image
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