Why you should be suspicious of that verified Amazon customer review

Ecurb said:

I now buy local first, even if it is not the exact thing I was looking for.

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I went the other way. I used to support the local economy but that changed when I bought a moderately high end pen from a local retailer. I couldn't try anything out in the shop but I described what I was after and the salesman found a pen that he said met my requirements. He told me to return it if there was an issue. I took it home, unwrapped it, tried it out and immediately thought it was utter cr@p. I took it straight back to the shop but was told I needed to return it by post to a different country! I now buy do nearly all my shopping on Amazon.

Right now, its pretty easy to spot a bot review on most platforms (Steam, Amazon, etc...) by reading it. The generic wording , praising the product with 1-2 sentences looks like was written by a 5 year old.
Also how many other reviews they've posted (easier on Steam).

But with AI, its gonna get much more difficult to spot them.
Just 1 of 10,536,466,995 problems with advances in tech....

3* and 4* reviews seemed to be the most nuanced

Another tell is the 5* fake reviews seem to be in batches , posted 12th April , 12th April, 13th April , 14th April.

I use recent reviews the most , as fake normally at start , with Steam games , recent says current state of the game
With PC tech a spate of 1* can be a bad batch eg hard drives

With TV programs/movies I look at median rating, kind of ignores all the 1* ( woke crap, nothing like the book ) and 10* reviews ( stuff out of India or Turkey get bombed with lots of 10* - just assumed patriotic fervour )

lots of PC accessory tech has 30 products all looking the same , just rebranded base product out of China , so if buy go with cheapest large seller ( all use the collective rating of all 30)

Once you get over 1000 reviews enough info to extract fakes and get a real review

Gezzer said:

IMHO Amazon is a perfect example of capitalism gone wrong in every sense of the word. So the fact that their review system is being gamed comes as no surprise. I have friends that try to use the site exclusively where as I'm the opposite, it's my last resort when there's no other source for a product. And even that is because Amazon games things to create that result. Sure some things are cheaper, but how much and is it worth the fall out it creates? Not in my book.

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I agree with every word, and would also like to add something. Their website's filter system is total junk. Almost as bad as Aliexpress in that regard. Ebay's is pretty much the best for me, although they insist on including sellers from the US when I try to filter to only other regions.

johnofo said:

I bought a water bottle on Amazon and was asked to write a review in return for a £10 gift voucher (cost of the bottle). Product was good for what it was so I did. Proceeded to be asked if I would write more reviews in return for free products and I did.

I've had 3 water bottles, an electric air duster, a light up alarm clock and a dehumidifier all for free. Can't complain! All the products were pretty good and I ended up with at least £200 of free stuff.

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Sad to see you have sold your soul to the Devil. It's a slippery slope my friend.

maxxcool7421 said:

I only read the negative reviews and form a opinion based on the ''pool'' of 1 star and 2 star reviews.

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Same here. The negative reviews are where the real info is at.

Amazon's a company without a shred of decency.
Convenience does NOT make it okay....

I've NEVER bought from them and never will.