In this modern day and age, pretty much everyone depends on the thoughts of everyone else and the real experiences of others, majorly when it comes to helping decide which products to buy and what services are appropriate to use.
Not just goods and services, the movie and music industry suffer from this too. No one wants fabricated opinion of something they are interested in but rather true and descriptive opinions only.
Facts show that majority of the populace use reviews before actually buying or using a service. What happens when those supposed views are false, fake or fabricated?
- Please Read: What exactly is a Fake Review & How to Spot it
They are meant to lure you into certain products and/or services.
This is obviously a technology advanced year and of course the internet is filled to the brim of tips and other recommendations on how to spot these so called fake reviews: aspects like no profile pictures, over the top remarks and complements, flattery, lack of other prior reviews or the use of simple words – the list just goes on and on.
But does that really work regularly? Spotting a fake or false review is not as simple as just looking at it.
Firstly, let’s look at what a fake review is:
On most platforms, a review is considered to be fake when;
- It attempts to sway a consumer’s perception of what is being reviewed on purpose.
- It does not depict an authentic service or a spending experience.
Spotting a Fake Review, How hard do you think it is?
Lets look at an example. Observe the illustration below
Best Service, Very very Good. The Best there is (5 starts)
The reviewer in this example has used some repetitive words, he/she only has one review and may even have no
profile picture or avatar.
So of course the assumption is that the review was placed there with the sole purpose of
definitely misleading you, right? Wrong.
The review is surprisingly AUTHENTIC.
The team of content experts and professionals at the site where this review was picked have had
conversations with the customer who wrote the review and also hold the necessary information needed to prove that a purchase was made.
Note that the review was proven to be authentic after careful research and not by simply glancing at the nature of the review.
Science shows that most people are unable to spot a fake reviews when they see one.
Now the team of Content professionals over at the site where we’ll draw most of our examples from see these
sort of things all the time.
To a normal human eye, they could easily be misunderstood as being fake. The fact is, most human finds it difficult to decern between reality or fiction or in this case what is false and what is true.
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A study showed, using a group of 30,000 people as basis, only about 55% were accurate when asked if a
person is lying to their faces and when just looking only at the reviews, only 60% of said people were able to precisely find a fake review, just by looking at the context they were given.
The records also improved slightly to 69% in tests where these same participants were given more information about the reviewers.
These accuracy rates are far from convincing. Let’s look at yet another example.
Good team, great communication. They ensure you get what you came for
Now this reviewer has written more than one review prior to this, they even have a profile picture and all the
necessary features to mimic a real review. The review is a 5 star review and seems to have given an account of the service provided.
Now, this review on the other hand is FAKE.
Just mere looking at it, what the reviewer said looks straight forward enough no need for any doubt to arise.
However, various investigative process went into disputing the authenticity of the review. Various data points behind all these reviews, things like IPs and so on.
Therefore, it was quite easy to locate this fake review and remove it before it misleads the various customers.
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The Importance of fighting fake reviews
It is important that websites and other related platforms continue to fight fake reviews. These platforms are open to the general public with the premise that everything is accessible and open for all.
Measures have been put in place to curb the ever increasing rate of fake reviews. New techniques and technologies are being formulated to tackle and prevent fraudulent individuals from posting on certain platforms, methods which are a lot more accurate and precise than just looking at the review.
This is not just left to the content teams behind the various platforms but also to you as the customer as well, constructive feedback is always tolerated by these platforms, hence the ‘contact us’ option or the option of a review in general.
It benefits everyone. And yes there will always be those that want to mess with, misdirect, scam or manipulate others that’s just how bad it is but still your best in doing the right thing is always counted on and appreciated.
Statistically speaking, no system is 100% accurate, as these fake reviews are getting a lot more
sophisticated as the day goes by.
A few are bound to slip through the cracks and make its way onto various platforms but the majority of fakes are always taken care of.
In the long run, the massive turn up of genuine reviews always outweighs – overshadows the fake ones.
Therefore we encourage you to always reach out through the contact option on this site when need be to do your part in flagging suspicious reviews and help reduce the risk of others falling prey to fake reviews
Whatever you do, remember this; as the fakes are popping up, so also are the needful new and improved
methods of fighting them.
Feel free to drop your remarks on the published article “How to Easily Spot Fake Scam Reviews on Top Trending Review Websites“. Remember sharing is caring, kindly click on any of the social media icons to share this article with your family and friends in order to keep them safe from Fake reviews.
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