Online sellers 'pay for positive reviews' - BongoCyber

Online sellers 'pay for positive reviews' - Social Media Justice Team -  Business News

Some on-line sellers square measure giving individuals free product reciprocally for positive product reviews, associate investigation by client cluster Which? has found.

Its investigator joined many "rewards for reviews" teams and was employed to write down high-rated reviews reciprocally for complimentary things.

Paid-for, or fake, reviews flout rules set by platforms like Amazon and Facebook.

A similar investigation by BBC five live uncovered the change false reviews.

Fake five-star reviews being bought and sold-out on-line

The Which? investigator found 5 sellers WHO gave directions to order associate item through Amazon, write a review and share the link, with the promise of a refund.

The investigator gave associate honest review of the things, however in 3 out of 5 cases wasn't refunded as a result of the reviews weren't positive enough or the vendor might now not be contacted.

The consumer cluster aforesaid that in one example the investigator gave a smartwatch a two-star review. They were told by the vendor to rewrite it as a result of the merchandise was free, thus it "is the default to offer five-star evaluation".

In another, the investigator was told that a "refund are done when an honest five-star review with some photo" when receiving some wireless bluetooth headphones. however when posting a three-star review with photos they were told they'd not be refunded unless they wrote a five-star review.

How to spot a faux review

Do not place confidence in ratings - withdraw deeper and skim the reviews

Check the dates - inspect once the reviews were denote. If several of them were denote in an exceedingly short fundamental measure, it would mean there has been a push for reviews on Facebook teams or different platforms

Fair-minded surveys - tap on a few commentators and check their history. Do they outfit everything 5 stars?

Pattern of ratings - square measure the ratings at completely different ends of the dimensions with little or no in between? it's rare that folks square measure fully polarised a couple of product
Source: Which?


Alex Neill, Which? director of home merchandise and services, aforesaid the sellers were effectively "ripping individuals off" with paid-for reviews.

Reacting to Which?, Facebook stated: "Encouraging or empowering the exchange of fake client audits isn't reasonable on Facebook. we tend to ask people to utilize our news apparatuses to hail content they think may disregard our norms all together that we can make quick move."

Amazon told Which?: "We don't permit audits in return for pay of any sort, and in addition installment. Clients and merchants ought to pursue our survey tips and individuals that don't are liable to activity and in addition potential end of their record."

In April, BBC five live Investigates delineate however it had been ready to obtain a false, five-star recommendation placed on one among the world's leading review websites, Trustpilot.

It additionally uncovered on-line forums wherever Amazon shoppers were offered full refunds in exchange for product reviews. each corporations aforesaid they are doing not tolerate false reviews.