Inside the Underground Market for Fake Amazon Reviews

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It seems we all need dependable user reviews, even the scammers.

, a company that detects fake reviews and scams. “Today, they're using machine-learning models working from scraped data to scan old reviews and respin the words.”Khalifah started Fakespot from his bedroom after buying a five-star-rated supplement and receiving a product that “looked like someone made it in a garage as a side project.” He began by creating a program that could detect text generators but later began to stir in other attributes found in fake reviews.

You can download the Fakespot app for Android and iOS, or add it to your browser, and use it to analyze reviews across a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, and Walmart. Khalifah says Fakespot employs 20 to 30 machine-learning models when it analyzes a listing and has more than 12 billion reviews in its database.

“We are committed to keeping reviews trustworthy in our stores, and this strategy of shutting down fraudsters is working.” Some fraudsters are using these automated systems, but Khalifah acknowledges there's not much Fakespot can do with fake review recruitment across social media, whether you're on Facebook, Twitter, or Telegram. It’s a problem Amazon has been fighting for years.

“We have teams dedicated to uncovering and investigating fake reviews brokers,” an Amazon spokesperson tells WIRED. “Our expert investigators, lawyers, analysts, and other specialists track down brokers, piece together evidence about how they operate, and then we take legal actions against them. We are committed to keeping reviews trustworthy in our stores, and this strategy of shutting down fraudsters is working.

 

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All the signs were there that it was likely a scam, but I couldn't resist the temptation to click on it, and it turned out to be a scam. lol

Thanks for sharing my research !

Add Fakespot to your favorite browser to avoid fake reviews, unreliable sellers, and counterfeits/shoddy products on Amazon.

A few times the product i bought would offer me Amazon gift cards to write a good reviews for their product, even if it was trash.

This garbage is 10,000 to 1 more common than positive uses of fake accounts.

ashishchauhan Thank you for sharing my research — it really helps amplify and spread the word around!

Thank you IamSimonHill for covering my work! I hope it will help inform policy making against fake reviews, and help companies like FakespotTweets to develop better software!

IamSimonHill and continue to do an excellent job explaining Amazon's fake review problem and how easy it is for Amazon sellers to get fake reviews. Thank you for making consumers more aware of these issues because it's important to know the truth before you buy.

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