Online Shopping Reviewers Are Not All That They Seem

851 Words2 Pages

With the recent shift to web based communication, everything, including shopping, has gone online. With online shopping, consumers experience being in the comfort of their own home and they do not have to face bustling crowds. On the contrary, though, online shops allow for customer reviews on their items. The problem that these online stores are facing is that fake users are commenting on items to either boost or lower the ratings. Seventy percent of people trust online reviews (Fake Online Reviews). Online superstores like Amazon.com are popular because of their convenience. Amazon can post items themselves or independent stores can use their website to sell items. Since Amazon sells millions of items online each year, users have to be careful when trusting product reviews. With these faulty reviews, consumers face lack of trust in online stores. There are five ways to spot a fake review, there is software being developed so websites can spot and delete the review, and false reviewers are being fined for writing inaccurate review.
According to a CNET article by Dong Ngo, there are many ways to spot a fake review on an online website. This article states five ways to tell if an online article is illegitimate. The first of these ways is when the review does not state any downsides to the product being reviewed. Regardless how good the item is, most times it has one or two things wrong with it (Ngo). This is not to say, though, that a legitimate review may be a fake one. The next way to spot a fake review is if the reviewers’ names are a random combination of numbers and symbols. When all a user is trying to do is make a fake review, they will not take the time to make up a fake first and last name. The third way to spot...

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...may not always be true.

Works Cited

“Fake Online Reviews Become Growing Problem.” Relator Mag. National Association of
Realtors, 13 November 2013. Web. 18 November 2013.
Marks, Paul. “Software helps spot groups of fake online reviewers.” One Per Cent. Reed
Business Information Ltd.: 16 April 2012. Web. 18 November 2013.
Ngo, Doug. “How to spot fake user reviews while shopping online.” CNET News. CBS Interactive:
26 November 2012. Web. 18 November 2013.
Pfeiffer, Eric. “Woman gets $3,500 fine and bad credit score for writing negative review of business.” Yahoo! News. N.p, 15 November 2013. Web. 18 November 2013.
Smalley, Eric. “Cornell software fingers fake online reviews.” CNET News. CBS Interactive: 26
July 2011. Web. 18 November 2013.
Streitfeld, David. “Give Yourself 5-Stars? Online, It Might Cost You.” New York Times 22
September 2013, A1. Print.

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