On October 21, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on fake reviews and testimonials came into effect, but users must be aware of misleading reviews. Even though the amount of fraudulent reviews have decreased, reviews are inherently biased because reviews overpresent extreme opinions.
Trustpilot Business, a respected review website, conducted an interview with over 100 Trustpilot users and found that customers tend to write reviews when they either had a very negative or positive experience. Yelp, an app that is mainly used for users to find restaurants near their area, is a perfect example of the bias in reviews. Customers who had a terrible experience at a restaurant will write an overly negative review that is not entirely representative of the restaurant’s service, leading customers to be turned away from that negative review. On the other hand, an overly positive review will overly inflate a prospective customer’s expectations of the restaurant. Therefore, it is important for a netizen to be wary of the language reviews used as overly emotional language is inherently biased, making any emotional review an unreliable review.
Even though the Federal Trade Commission banned fake reviews, there are many businesses that award incentives for a customer to make a great review, such as a thirty dollar gift card. This leads to misinformation to an untrained netizen, causing them to buy a product of terrible quality, essentially trapping a netizen into a scam. Positive celebrity reviews are also unreliable as well because they were paid to endorse the product.
Some reviews are generated by AI, some reviews are made by bots, and there is an endless list of strategies businesses use to pocket a user’s money for a terrible product.
Now, here are some tips to spot fake reviews to help netizens avoid scams.
- Look at the customer name
- If the customer name is generic (e.g. John Doe), be wary of the review. The review may be made by a bot, not a real customer
- Look at how specific the review is
- If the review is very vague or general, then the review is most likely fake and made by a person who never bought the product at all.
- Check for a “verified customer” icon
- A certified customer icon will be a much more reliable review, but it is still important to be wary of verified reviews
- Check for emotional language
- An overly emotional review is biased, leading to misinformation
- Check for spelling and grammar
- Some reviews are made by people from overseas who are not literate in English. Reviews that are written with many grammar mistakes are most likely a fake review.
- If you found a fake review, report it to the Federal Trade Commission
- Helps YOU and other users stay safe on the internet and avoid scams.
The internet is not necessarily a place with endless potholes and traps for gullible customers, but netizens must be vigilant when reading reviews online. That vigilance may save thousands of dollars.
Sources
Media Savvy Teens 
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