Deceit on the Internet: Shopping Reviews -- Reducing Fake Amazon Reviews.

Fake and deceitful reviews on shopping sites is a common occurrence. Amazon.com is the largest internet shopping site, and gets a tremendous number of reviews on a tremendous number of products and services that might be sold on Amazon. Undoubtedly, many of these reviews are fake and false. Some parties may almost be in the business of promoting their product and hurting competitors' products by fake reviews posted on Amazon by themselves or their flacks (shills). We have extensively reported on one such party in this blog.

We are aware that Amazon has procedures in place to try to prevent or reduce such bogus reviews. However, there is little doubt, that a substantial number of fake reviews get by Amazon's people who examine these reviews (we shall refer to them as Examiners). We feel that much of this is because of Amazons dedication to allowing a variety of expressions and opinions to be expressed. And Amazons criteria for allowing a review on its site is loose and often subject to interpretation by its Examiners. Unfortunately, the quality of Amazon's Examiners goes all over the place, from intelligent and willing to understand the circumstances for or against a review, to people who are incapable of going beyond a very literal reading of Amazon's rules, with no other considerations allowed. These latter Examiners have a favorite phrase which is often used - "This does not violate Amazon's rules."

This blog entry is not intended to be a critique of what may be wrong with Amazon's review policies. Our objective is to reduce deceit on the internet. So let us present an opinion expressed as a comment by Helen Smith on August 4, 2013 to our blog entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle" which we posted on this blog on August 2, 2013. Helen's comments are reproduced below:

Helen Smith   August 4, 2013 at 9:10 AM

Hi,

I am repeating a comment I posted on an earlier entry on this blog, as it is applicable anywhere a seller is trying to prevent fake reviews. My suggestion relates to fake reviews on Amazon.

What you have said in an earlier blog Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle is so correct. I quote

"They have been very vociferous in their proclamations, many of them based on Chummie's deceit. They have screamed at anyone who called their bluff, or pointed out their flaws, or suggested any changes in their aggressive and deceitful practices and behavior. Chummie's response was often to invent even more deceit with which to threaten persons or parties that they felt threatened by. All with the intent to continue on their road of deceit.

They are obviously after DryBuddy, which must be scaring Chummie silly with their product(s). From what I have read in your entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Part 2," Chummie will be facing a major competitive problem shortly.

With Chummie's established track record of deceit and manipulating reviews on sites like Amazon, I would bet that Chummie will be flooding Amazon with fake negative reviews on any product that DryBuddy places there. Other competitors might as well.

I am an Amazon seller in a completely different area. I have also had to endure fake negative reviews from competitors. I would suggest that DryBuddy considers doing what I do.

The review must come from a buyer who is both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name." Using just "Amazon Verified Purchase" lets people buy an inexpensive item and provide a fake review. And for a bad-mouthing competitor like Chummie, it may be worth spending $30 to be able to lie about your product. So by itself it is not reliable. But when you add "Real Name" to it, now will have only proper reviews from people who are willing to back up their review truthfully with their name.

For people who may have purchased the item directly from you, explain that they will have to use the "Real Name" on Amazon which matches their credit card "Real Name" when they ordered from you. Else it is probably a fake review.

Using both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name" has worked for me. Several genuine customers have informed me that my explaining this and branding an inappropriate review as a possible fake for these reasons has been very acceptable to them. And for people who want to lie, brand them and forget them. They may bring your Amazon rank down, but there isn't much you can do about fakes and liars, unless you also want to be like Chummie and massively flood Amazon with fake positive reviews.

I hope that this helps you and every other seller and buyer on Amazon and similar sites to try and keep reviews honest. I shall post it on some of your other blogs as well, and you may post this comment as a blog entry anywhere on your deceit related sites.

I appreciate the big effort that you have put into revealing deceit in the bedwetting alarm industry. We need this in other areas as well.

Good luck, and God Bless you.

Helen's idea merits consideration. State on your Amazon placement that if a buyer wishes to offer a review on Amazon, the purchase from Amazon must be made using the buyer's "Real Name" - the name on the credit card used for the purchase at Amazon. Although it is not impossible for such a name to be false, it is very likely to be a true name. Further state that a reviewer must have a "Real Name" as well as be an "Amazon Verified Purchase" for the review to be considered valid.

If the item can be purchased directly from the seller's site, the seller should state on the site that it must be purchased using the same name as on the credit card being used on the purchase. It must then be reviewed on Amazon with the same name which Amazon would certify as being a "Real Name." The seller could verify that this is a valid purchase from his/her site, since Amazon would not have labeled it as an "Amazon Verified Purchase."

Reviews that do not meet these criteria for proof of actual and valid purchase would be branded as "FAKE."

Explain this on your site and on your Amazon placement. People who do not wish to give or use their real name can still buy from either Amazon or the Seller's site using a pseudonym. But any review on Amazon would be label FAKE. As part of this FAKE label, state why the review has been so branded, since the buyer did not follow the conditions for a purchase which would be considered to be valid for a review on Amazon. These instructions would have been posted on both Amazon's and your site.

We recognize that Helen's idea may be difficult to follow for products sold by many sellers who do not have access to all sale records. But for numerous sellers selling unique items or limited to just selling on Amazon and/or their own site, it might work.

We do not know if this would be acceptable to Amazon. And although we understand Helen's viewpoint, there is some possibility that a potential customer may take umbrage for whatever reason. But, as stated earlier, if the customer does not intend to post a review on Amazon (and most don't) then using a pseudonym is not an issue at all.

As we said earlier, this merits consideration. Your feedback is welcome. Please make your feedback productive, participative and honorable, whether you agree with the idea or not. Suggest improvements to make it more feasible. It is important to all persons, buyers, sellers and Amazon, that reviews not be fake and prejudicial.

Please remember that our objective is to reduce and try to eliminate deceit on the internet. Reducing fake and bogus reviews on Amazon would be a substantial step in that direction, an objective that only the rogues can object to - and they would not do that publicly.

Thank you.