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November 27, 2012

CNET Community
How do you spot fake user reviews while shopping online?

Dear CNET members,

When you're shopping online, how much do you pay attention to user reviews and user ratings? I don't know about you, but I pay a lot of attention. If I'm buying a product I'm not familiar with, I read through almost all the user reviews. Now, the question is: should those user reviews be trusted? How do you know if they aren't faked by manufactures or product fans/loyalists who will automatically give the product high praise? Or give a competing product a bad review?

In a recent post titled "How to spot fake user reviews while shopping online," CNET editor Dong Ngo offers tips for spotting fake reviews. Although I don't agree with all of his tips -- for example, just because a screen name looks fake doesn't mean it is -- I do agree that it's best to take glowing reviews, or scathing reviews, with a grain of salt. A gut check usually tells me what to believe. Only after reading a few dozen reviews can I usually get a good idea what people think of the product. The bottom line is that I always rely on the wisdom of the masses and never believe just a few.

Now enough about what I think, let me turn the mic to you. Do you agree with Dong's assessment of how to spot fake user reviews? Why or why not? Do you have a special method for spotting fake reviews, or do you trust all user submitted reviews? Are there certain sites that you trust over others when it comes to reading helpful user reviews? When it comes to shopping online, how much do you depend on user reviews for your final purchasing decision? Let us know! We'd like to hear what you have to say.
Lee Koo

Lee Koo
Community manager

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From our community
  Here's what some of your fellow members had to say about this week's topic:
How to spot fake user reviews while shopping online
  "I generally look at the number of reviews and the distribution of ratings (ie how many 5, 4, etc reviews) first. Only one review, if it is a 1 or a 5 I assume it is fake. But if there are 50+ reviews then the distribution tells me whether to bother to read the reviews - and I particularly read the one star reviews then because they often point out when a product has a fundamental flaw or quality issue..."   Read more    
Posted by rknopf
    "Do not agree with you on most of your assumptions. I've written many reviews and there are definitely products which deserve 5 stars without downsides. To imply all products have downsides is nonsense. The review dates are irrelevant. The reviewer name or AKA is irrelevant..."   Read more  
Posted by sfolden
  "Okay then. You just made me realize that several of the reviews I've left on various places for stuff are most likely viewed as "fake" when they really are how I felt about a product. If something I buy is garbage and I leave one star does that make me a faker? No. It makes me a real consumer with a very bad experience..."   Read more    
Posted by MegaProcrastination
  Read all members' responses

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