Fake Reviews

[Deleted member 4366]

There was an article on the BBC News at 10 tonight about fake reviews. There's now a whole industry set up where you can get $5 for making fake reviews of products. I believe that we've had a few on this forum. One or two (or maybe more) have been caught. I'm naturally suspicious, so I've questioned a couple, wherupon the OP disappeared and was never seen again. Maybe they just felt unwelcome. It's a bit uncomfortable accusing someone or being accused. How much does it go on?

 

[RobF]

What surprises me is the person promoting the product thinks it is worthwhile to make a false post.

 

[timidtom]

There was an article on the BBC News at 10 tonight about fake reviews. There's now a whole industry set up where you can get $5 for making fake reviews of products. I believe that we've had a few on this forum. One or two (or maybe more) have been caught. I'm naturally suspicious, so I've questioned a couple, wherupon the OP disappeared and was never seen again. Maybe they just felt unwelcome. It's a bit uncomfortable accusing someone or being accused. How much does it go on?

It certainly goes on, or used to go on, with reviews of Ebooks - by people who had never clapped eyes on what they were supposed to have read. Similarly with hotel reviews on TripAdvisor. I've read terrible reviews of excellent hotels we've stayed in which I suspect have been knocking copy originating from nearby rival establishments. But surely members of this distinguished forum are honest and un-corrupt? It's not a commercial forum? Of course not ...

 

[mike killay]

I think that the danger is that if we leave a fake review in the forum, sooner or later, someone googling the name will come to the forum and read a glowing review of what we all know is a piece of junk.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

We've had fake reviews of some respected brands on this forum. It's not just done for crap bikes.

We get a lot of free adverts too, where stooges come on and say something like, "I want to get an electric bike. I've seen one that seems to have a lot of nice feature. What do you think?" with link provided. The genuine people would probably name the bike, but leave out the link.