Just look at the websites like Reviewsub or Amzon Review; they let anyone buy fake reviews cheaply or get it free in exchange for a fake review of their own. Even if these websites are closed down, no one stops sellers and fake reviewers from making agreements privately or over social media, like this Facebook group. As fake reviewing is actually a side job for these reviewers, they review dozens of products every month and usually don’t have a personal interest in those products. This causes them to follow identifiable patterns, which anyone with some knowledge can distinguish from genuine reviews. We will be taking advantage of the same patterns and some other things to identify fake reviews; let’s check them out. Note: Any identifying methods below can’t individually confirm a review is fake. You must combine them to confirm if the review is fake or genuine.
Generic tone
A fake reviewer usually uses a generic tone to review a product as they don’t know much about the product’s technicalities. So they use words like “good”, “amazing”, “Awesome”, “worth the money”, etc., to describe the product. Some more advanced reviewers may go into deeper details, but in the end, they won’t add any further information that isn’t already available in the product description.
Review length
Fake reviews are either every short with hardly a line worth of content or consist of a max of 1-2 paragraphs. Fake reviews are not very long because the reviewer has less experience with the product, and they have multiple reviews to write. And if the seller is only interested in a quick 5-star rating and doesn’t incentivize the reviewer much, they will leave a very short and generic fake review.
Review rating
Sellers always instruct the reviewer to either leave a 5-star or 1-start rating depending on whether they want a positive or negative review. These ratings impact the overall rating, so it becomes necessary to give these ratings. It’s not a good giveaway of fake reviews as mostly genuine reviewers also leave the same rating, but it’s worth considering along with other methods.
Look for similar reviews
Many sellers provide a template for fake reviewers to craft their reviews around. It could mean fake reviews if you notice multiple reviews highlighting the same information just worded differently.
Broken English
Many of the fake reviewers reside in third-world countries and don’t have English as their first language. If you see multiple broken English reviews, it could mean that the seller has paid for those reviews.
Check time stamps
This is a really good way to find fake reviews as sellers usually ask multiple people to give a fake review simultaneously. Such service providers offer packages of 50 or 100 fake reviews for a product with a set price, so those reviews are usually done in quick succession. Set the review filter to “Most recent” and scroll through. If there are many 5-star or 1-star reviews posted over a short period, like 1-3 days, then there is a possibility those reviews are fake.
Check reviewer’s history
It isn’t practical to review each reviewer’s profile to see if they are a fake reviewer. However, if a specific review stands out and directly affects your decision-making, then it’s worth checking out the reviewer’s history. Below are some common things you need to look for in reviewer profiles to confirm whether they are a fake reviewer or not:
The reviewer consistently reviews products, like more than 5 products a week.The reviewer always gives a 5-star or 1-star rating.Similar length of every review.Use a generic tone in every review instead of going into technicalities.
If multiple of the above hints are in the reviewer profile, then it probably means they give fake reviews, and you should not trust their review.
Use fake reviews detector website
Fakespot
Depending on the probability of fake reviews, Fakespot gives a rating to the searched product from A to F. Usually, A and B rating isn’t a sign of alarm. This means that at least 80% of the reviews are highly quality. The reviewers don’t have a suspicious history. Although any rating below this threshold should raise suspicion, and you should investigate the reviews personally. Like products, Fakespot also gives the product’s seller a rating based on all listed products. If the seller often buys fake reviews for his products, then Fakespot can tell you whether the seller is trustable or not. If both the seller and the product have a bad rating, it’s almost confirmed that the reviews are rigged. You can also install the Fakespot Chrome extension if you want more intuitive access.
thereviewindex
This one can be a little slow to work as it generates the report on demand instead of having an updatable index like Fakespot, but it offers a profound analysis of reviews. The website has a Spam Test section that checks for fake reviews based on 5 factors. This includes review count per reviewer, high-velocity reviewers, inactive reviewers, unverified review streak, and reviewer history overlap. As you may have guessed, thereviewindex doesn’t help detect fake reviews; it actually detects fake reviewers. So fake reviewers review that product if you find many alerts in the spam section. The website also has a Review Summary section that does a fantastic job of creating custom categories out of review content to learn about different aspects of the product. For example, it will categorize reviews by compatibility, ease of use, space, reliability, durability, price, return, and even specific built-in features of the product.
Don’t forget to report the fake review
It’s straightforward to report a review, click on the Report Abuse button at the bottom of the review, and then confirm the report in the new window that opens up.
Ending thoughts
Furthermore, it would be best to filter reviews by 4 or 3-star ratings as those reviews are most critical about the product features and usually don’t have fake reviews. If you are a product or business owner, you should get it reviewed by a real person or hire a tester.
