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Some of the most popular Amazon products have entirely fake reviews

You could be buying poor quality products due to fake reviews.
Credit: LOIC VENANCE
A picture taken on December 28, 2016 in Vertou, western France, shows the logo of US electronic commerce and cloud computing company Amazon. / AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCE (Photo credit should read LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)

When buying online, many customers turn to reviews to decide and compare products - however, in a new report from the Washington Post, many of these reviews on Amazon are fake. The Post found that merchants and sellers will buy "fake reviewers" to boost sales of their products. Products with lots of reviews and high ratings determine their visibility on that all-important first landing page.The Post’s investigation also found that in categories, especially in tech and nutrition/diet products, fake reviews took up almost half of all the user generated comments.

Facebook seems to be where most of the fake reviews are coming from, both on Amazon and on Google Maps. Unfortunately, both companies have filed several lawsuits already to crack down on "review solicitation" websites, that offer money for positive ratings on products. Currently, the review process is a volunteer-based initiative, and those who work on it say the problem is only getting worse.

The end result is that you could unknowingly be purchasing poorer-quality products. The advice to combat this? Look at the reviewer if it sounds too good to be true - their profile on these sites will almost immediately give them away.

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