7 Tips From The Experts On How To Spot & Prevent Fake Reviews
PeerDive
It may shock you to learn that eight out of every ten customers believe that they have read at least one fake review in the past year. Furthermore, equal numbers of every ten clients say that they are not sure how to spot a real review from a fake one online.
We can all agree that spotting a fake review from a real one is important because those reviews significantly influence our buying decisions. Unfortunately, wherever it be an online blog, Amazon, or review platforms such as Yelp or Google, no one seems safe from fake reviews or comments.
Our review experts at PeerDive have put together this guide on the seven tips you need to know to spot and prevent fake reviews.
The Scale of Fake Reviews
Over 93% of all consumers say that reviews affect their purchasing decisions. As consumers, especially when making a significantly large purpose, we want to know as much information as possible before making the big purchasing leap.
A report by the Guardian found that over 3.6% of all reviews on TripAdvisor were flagged as fraudulent. Whether they come from a competitor's business, fake online reviewers, or any unsolicited posting, trusted review sites such as TrustPilot, Google, and Facebook are littered with fake reviews.
How Do Fake Reviews Affect Businesses
The biggest issue with fake reviews is that they greatly mislead customers. Whether it is not intentional, having fake reviews on your site creates a lot of confusion for the end customer resulting in a loss of trust for the business.
Fake reviews hurt the business, but they also create a large amount of mistrust toward the brand's reputation. For example, imagine if all the reviews online say a product is great, and you decide to make the purchase only to find out the product is not satisfactory; how would this affect how you perceive the brand?
How To Spot & Prevent Fake Reviews
The entire review model is based on the end credibility of whoever is writing the review. Regardless of the website, figuring out how to sport reviews generally follows the same process. With some due diligence and general knowledge of the subject, you can quickly identify what is not a fake review.
While some online sites have a filter in place to help detect these reviews, here are some tips to help you do your due diligence.
1) Lack of Specifics Mentioned
If a review sounds vague, I would immediately flag it on suspicion of being fake. Fake reviews often lack a point of reference or do not reference anything specific. For example, there might be a one-star review posted on Google but no comments on why that business deserved one star. Changes are that this review was posted by either a competitor business or someone who was paid to leave a fake review on that profile.
Instead, for legitimate review, try to see why that person was specifically unhappy with that product. As an example, what sounds more legitimate? One review that says “didn’t work” or a review that says “this product “X” came in with a broken motor and lid. I tried to plug it in, but it ended up falling apart after one use. I had to return it due to all of these issues I was having”.
2) Watch For Certain Words
Look for online reviews that overuse trust words such as “I” and “Me.” Online reviews will often overuse these words to make you build trust in them. The more singular they can make a review sound, the more believable it might come across to an average consumer. Genuine customers will tend to favor nouns and write reviews so that they would have a conversation with someone.
3) Keep A Look Out For Competitor Brands
Unfortunately, this is a common practice that happens across all industries. For example, a business might try and deter customers from going to their competitors by leaving fake online comments about that business. It could be from the staff member or directly from the owners. This is commonly referred to as “customer jacking.”
A business will sometimes use the practice of customer jacketing to have its name blasted all around the pages of its competitors. Rather than promoting the positives of another business, their competitor will purposely leave a fake negative review and say how much they loved their product instead.
Be on the lookout for reviews that repeatedly mention another business or even offer a promo in a comment. That is a clear indication that the review is fake.
4) Check For Grammatical Issues
Be on the lookout for reviews that have multiple grammatical or spelling errors. A majority of the fake online reviews that specialize in promoting fake reviews in exchange for payment are outsourced from counties where English might not be their first language.
Most of these companies are focused on quantity over quality for these reviews. So be on the lookout for a large amount of misspellings and grammatical mistakes. This is a clear indication that a third-party platform outsources the review.
5) Look At Their Profile
These online reviewers tend to use the same languages over and over. It might sound like they are copy-pasting their reviews because they are focused on quality over quality. Look for how often they post reviews online and what type of products they are reviewing. If their reviews are all over the board, it might be a fake profile.
The majority of fake bulk reviews use thousands of accounts from offshore firms. The display name might be a random strand of numbers and letters in some cases. That is a clear indication that the profile is fake.
6) Watch Out For Black & White
Many internet users might have strong options one way or the other. However, a review that sounds too good to be true or too bad might be an indication that the review is fake. Real reviews will reflect the true experience with that one particular brand. People typically do not 100% love or hate the product. If a review fails to mention why that review is either too good or too bad, that could be a red flag to the authenticity of that review.
7) Check The Date
A business that tends to focus on leaving fake reviews will generally focus on one specific event, such as a new product release. The date that a review is posted can be a dead giveaway to the authenticity.
A large amount of reviews the day after a product is released can help the business gain a lot of SEO traction in a short amount of time. While plenty of customers leave a review right after a product release, this is far from the norm. A dead giveaway to check if the review is fake is if the review was posted before that product was released.
About PeerDive:
Peer Dive is a popular online directory created exclusively for businesses to leave and view reviews on individuals before offering their products and or services. Peer Dive was created to help local businesses and their communities make the most informed decision on who they want to do business with.