How To Identify Fake Amazon Reviews

3/23/2019

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I buy on Amazon all the time. We live in the stick, well away from stores that sell a variety of products, so instead of driving an hour, I shop online, and I like it. However, it also means you rely on other people's reviews of products, which can be a bad thing when sellers pay for a ton of fake reviews. (read more)

HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE REVIEWS ON AMAZON

I'm going to post the video I made, so you can watch that if you don't want to read the post. You can watch with or without volume.

FAKE AMAZON REVIEWS - MY STORY

Before you read the rest, I have an update to this post.

If you're worried that the reviews for a product you want might not be legit on Amazon, you might try Review Meta. I am not affiliated with them, but they do appear to do a good job of analyzing reviews and telling you whether they're legitimate, or have a high potential of being fake.

Another option would be Fake Spot. If you feel like maybe a review isn't legit, run the link through one of those two sites and see what pops up. These two options are supposed to do the legwork of spotting fake Amazon reviews.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED:

In a nutshell, I needed an anti-bark collar for my youngest German Shepherd. He's five years old and used to a ton of outdoor time from myself and my children.

Normally, this isn't a problem because we spend several hours a day outside. However, it's been a very wet six months, so we haven't been able to get outside much at all, and though Ty is allowed in the house, it's not the same as being able to run off the energy he has pent up.

So, he's started barking, a lot. I wanted a way to gently remind him that barking wasn't the way to go.

What I found, when I search on Amazon, was a dog collar that I believed checked all my boxes.

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I placed the order, and then patted myself on the back for finding a collar that had SUCH GREAT reviews, and was so reasonably priced.

And then....I sat there and thought about it. How could a product on Amazon with over 300 reviews not have a single bad review?

With that thought in mind, I went sleuthing to see what was actually up with this collar.

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AMAZON REVIEW FAKE OR REAL?

Here are the things you need to look out for when you're trying to figure out if a review is legitimate. These are just the things I went back and took note of, so if you have any more to add, please comment at the end of the post. I do appreciate it.

1. NO VERIFIED PURCHASES - This should have been my first clue. A verified purchase review is what you're after. If you have 300 people telling you how great something is, but there isn't a single verified purchase, something is wrong.

Here's how to find those verified purchase reviews.

Go to the product listing, then scroll down until you see the breakdown of reviews:

Click on the 5 star highlighted blue text. It will take you to another screen where you can then sort the reviews, like this:

Select "Verified Reviews" under "Filter By", and see what comes up, like this:

Not a single verified purchase in over 300 reviews. That doesn't happen, ever.

AMAZON SAME DAY REVIEW

2. TONS OF REVIEWS IN ONE DAY

The second thing you need to watch out for is exactly what the title says. Look at how many reviews have come in on a given day. In my case, on the 19th of March, there were more than 70 reviews put in on the same day.

This is uncanny, way too good to be true. People don't post reviews in huge chunks like that. You might see a scattering of dates, perhaps two or three in a day on big selling products, but 70, out of 315, in one day?

No.

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SAME NAME - OVER AND OVER

3. SAME AMAZON REVIEWER NAME ON MANY REVIEWS

You'll notice on the first page of this Amazon listing that Kellie Walker has left two different reviews. This isn't a copy and paste mistake. There are actually two very different reviews.

Notice that on the second review, she even mentions not having to shock her dog often, even though the product listing is CLEARLY for a "no shock" dog collar.

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ARE THOSE AMAZON REVIEWS FAKE?

If you can look through this list and see that the reviewers are different, the review matches the product, there are actually verified purchases in the listings, etc. Chances are, you've got legitimate reviews.

The most important thing, and the easiest thing, is just to check those verified reviews. That'll save you time, trouble, and frustration.

And, if you just don't feel like doing those things, remember Review Meta and Fake Spot.

Ty

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I'm a mom, wife, dog parent, bird parent, homeschooler, author, quilter, travel lover, and blogger. It's very nice to meet you!

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