Amazon takes legal action against 1000 fake reviewers

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I almost never buy anything without reviews.
Certainly I don't buy books from an unknown author without reviews.

I love random buys

I read the blurb, if that looks interesting enough to me, I'll have a look inside and then I know very quickly whether it's something I want to read or not. I'd never base my choice of reading material on someone else's review. I don't always get it right and I've read some stuff that turned out, in my opinion, to be utter rubbish (mostly due to unnecessary padding and repetitions to stretch the thing to a trilogy as seems to be the fashion nowadays) and yet the books had mostly 5 stars - needless to say, I didn't buy books 2 & 3

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I tend not to read book reviews, but I both read and write reviews of physical goods. I think they're extremely valuable for household items in particular; they often point out pros or cons of a product which aren't obvious from its description.

This is what I do too.
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

This is what I do too.
Apache

One of my main hobbies is photography, and I buy quite a lot of photographic equipment - lenses, etc - for my Digital SLR. I always rely on Amazon reviews to get "real world" feedback of what they're really like. There are very, very expensive lenses (several thousand $ type expensive) which can be almost matched in quality by very much more economical alternatives, and the best way to find out whether the cheaper versions are any good or not is to rely on feedback from people who've actually used them. Even though the alternatives are cheaper, you're often still looking at $1000+, so buying the wrong lens can be an expensive mistake to make. I find the reviews invaluable, and I try to reciprocate by writing reviews myself of the equipment that I buy.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The paid review people can and do buy the product as (optional) part of their "service".

The joke reviews tend to concentrate on a handful of products and they aren't gaming the system for profit so they get a pass as long as they don't get out of hand. Plus it shows Amazon can take a joke. The aluminum foil reviews at the UK site are a good example why they're tolerated. Seriously, what can you review about aluminum foil?

Ah ok, good point.

I don't see much of a problem with the joke reviews, I don't think I've ever came across one in a product I have been looking to buy (and the reviews for bic for her pens, banana slicers, veet for men etc are pretty funny). A minor annoyance if they appear in a product you are interested in, but far less of a problem than fake paid for reviews.

The in-depth reviews some people post on Amazon are incredibly helpful, and the Amazon reviews seem a lot better to me than most other websites. Reviews are not crucial to me when buying, but they do help you make an informed decision. And if the same product is for sale on Amazon and Argos, I'd buy from Amazon because the quality of the reviews are far better.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

A minor annoyance if they appear in a product you are interested in, but far less of a problem than fake paid for reviews.

Not so minor if you're interested in the product. Try to find a genuine review of the banana slicer linked to above - it's a real struggle, and there's no reason to assume that nobody would want to buy a banana slicer.

[DiapDealer]

I use reviews quite a bit. But frankly, I've never really felt particularly put out by fake and/or humorous ones. I just don't find the waters all that tricky or annoying to navigate, myself. Certainly can't say I ever felt like I wound up with an inferior or "wrong" product because of any.

It's not as if eliminating the fake ones will leave only useful ones anyway. Honest and useful were never synonymous. *shrug*

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my main hobbies is photography, and I buy quite a lot of photographic equipment - lenses, etc - for my Digital SLR. I always rely on Amazon reviews to get "real world" feedback of what they're really like. There are very, very expensive lenses (several thousand $ type expensive) which can be almost matched in quality by very much more economical alternatives, and the best way to find out whether the cheaper versions are any good or not is to rely on feedback from people who've actually used them. Even though the alternatives are cheaper, you're often still looking at $1000+, so buying the wrong lens can be an expensive mistake to make. I find the reviews invaluable, and I try to reciprocate by writing reviews myself of the equipment that I buy.

I know what you mean. I use a Canon DSLR and Lenses. And you can save a lot of money buying alternative lens, or waste the same amount. I take a lot of macro photos of jewelry and I have learned that you do not save money buying cheaper macro lens.
Apache

[Cinisajoy]

Hi. Mind if a reviewer checks in.
First off, I always label how I got the book.
Now as to the verified purchases, people can and do shop other stores. 2 quick examples. The progressive bread keeper. I looked for it on Amazon but bought at Walmart because it was $5 cheaper. That is almost 10 lbs of bread flour. So I do actually own the product.
The Oster Bread Machine. I was going to buy it on Amazon but Oster offered me 10% off to go through them. The savings paid for the yeast.

HarryT,
My mother bought the banana slicer because of the silly reviews. She gave it to me and I gave it to my daughter to give to her father.

The silliest useful reviews had to be on the 5 lb bag of sugarless gummy bears.

On the paid for reviews they are easy to spot.

On the reviews showing up on the first day of sale, the good authors send out ARC's (advance review copies) to some people. Now the thing about ARCs or books given to the reviewer by the author/publisher/other person associated with the book is that the reviewer has to state in the review that they got the book free for a review. That is an FTC rule not Amazon.

[latepaul]

How do you sue someone when you don't know their real name?

[Gardenman]

I never read reviews. I have always thought they were most likely all fake put up by the company selling something.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by latepaul

How do you sue someone when you don't know their real name?

You get a court order ordering their ISP to disclose their details.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I use reviews quite a bit. But frankly, I've never really felt particularly put out by fake and/or humorous ones. I just don't find the waters all that tricky or annoying to navigate, myself. Certainly can't say I ever felt like I wound up with an inferior or "wrong" product because of any.

It's not as if eliminating the fake ones will leave only useful ones anyway. Honest and useful were never synonymous. *shrug*

Or even the 'over the top' five-star reviews. I try to gauge the book or product by the middle of the ratings reviews.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Good news. Fake reviews devalue the entire review process.

Totally agree. Also there are a lot reviews from morons that devalue the process. I've read a lot of reviews where the reviewer did not understand how to operate the purchased item, so they conclude it must be the fault of the product, so they give the product a 1 star rating. I've also seen 1 star ratings because the shipment carrier damaged the box. But by far these fake reviews are the most damaging to the whole system. We can easily read and toss out the moron reviews, but it is more difficult for most people to easily identify fake reviews. I know Amazon and other sites use some algorithms to identify certain phrases that tend to indicate formulaic language was used to create a fake review. But the average person won't have that ability. I would never just look at the approval rating number. I always read many of the reviews from all five of the star rating categories and use common sense to see if any of them raise flags of concern about the product.

I see a lot of ads on late night TV for people to use their service to get lots of "good" 5-star reviews generated for their products that are listed on retail websites like Amazon. This is deceitful. This is purposely trying to fool the consumer. I hope sites like Amazon will crack down on them, but to be honest, I think they might go after the 1 star reviews instead. It is all about the money, and sales are hurt by 1 star ratings. Amazon and other sites have far more to gain by going after low ratings rather than the fake high ratings.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my main hobbies is photography, and I buy quite a lot of photographic equipment - lenses, etc - for my Digital SLR. I always rely on Amazon reviews to get "real world" feedback of what they're really like. There are very, very expensive lenses (several thousand $ type expensive) which can be almost matched in quality by very much more economical alternatives, and the best way to find out whether the cheaper versions are any good or not is to rely on feedback from people who've actually used them. Even though the alternatives are cheaper, you're often still looking at $1000+, so buying the wrong lens can be an expensive mistake to make. I find the reviews invaluable, and I try to reciprocate by writing reviews myself of the equipment that I buy.

This problem would be solved by only allowing reviews from buyers with a "Verified Purchase".

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Or even the 'over the top' five-star reviews. I try to gauge the book or product by the middle of the ratings reviews.

I do the same sort of thing. I tend to look at reviews as a whole. I expect a certain balance. The only thing I might use individual reviews for is verification of technical specs (like when there's a discrepancy between product descriptions and manufacturer specs). Fake reviews rarely mention specs.

What's more; I usually find the negative reviews much more useful. And not always in steering me away from purchase, like one might expect. Negative reviews of books can quite quite often push me toward a purchase, rather than away from it.

For instance: when reviews of a book I'm on the fence about mention a lack of back-story, or a confusion in the early-going, or the author being unusually terse; it gives me hope that the author isn't a student of the brick-by-brick, school of world-building -- where spoon-fed minutiae and pointless infodumps about whose face is on the smallest denomination of the coin of the realm just might NOT abound. As is my preference.

Negative book reviewers also tend to mention authors they were hoping the book in question would have been similar to. Which means the failure of the book to live up to the quality of an author I can't really stand is quite possibly a positive for me.

Good, bad, fake, real: they often times clue me in to the fact that the book in question is the first in a planned series of X. Something the official publisher blurbs tend to leave out more and more often these days (especially with a debut author). Which is also something I also hate to find out only AFTER buying and reading a book.

So I'll take all the reviews, thank you very much. I don't need a filter. Filtering is my job.