Let’s talk about Amazon reviews: how we spot the fakes

The Wirecutter:

Although many reviews on Amazon are legitimate, more and more sketchy companies are turning to compensated Amazon reviews to inflate star ratings and to drum up purchases.

Have you ever seen some random product for sale that’s from some brand you’ve never heard of, and the company has no website—yet its widget has somehow garnered 15,000 five-star reviews since … last week? We sure have. This situation is likely the result of a compensated-review program. Such compensated reviews—orchestrated by businesses that cater to companies that want more public positive feedback—violate Amazon’s terms of use but are difficult to police.

As more of us trust “crowd-sourced” reviews over individual writers, there’s value in gaming those reviews. Here’s a good primer on how to spot the fakes.