Suspicious Google Reviews

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networkn

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#261746 12-Dec-2019 21:41

So, a fair bit recently I have been looking for various things, and I like to use reviews to gauge how a firm is to deal with or a restaurant is to eat at.

For travel and restaurants, TripAdvisor is my favourite, but google reviews is one less step.

I have recently discovered a bit jump in the average rating of many places I've looked at and reading the reviews, I often will see a lot of 1 Review Reviewers giving 5 star reviews.

Recently we wanted a heat pump, magically my facebook feed started getting some "good deals" offered by companies I'd not heard of before. Investigating google says they have 4.9 stars of 170 reviews. When looking they are almost all (but not entirely) 5 star reviews by people with foreign-sounding names (Which isn't a problem on it's own). No mention of this company at ALL on nocowboys for example.

Same thing with a local pizza place that opened recently. 4.7 stars average, 90 reviews, most looking pretty suspicious.

Not sure what point I wanted to make, just sharing in case anyone else has anything to add I guess.

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#2374472 12-Dec-2019 22:45

If people keep paying for it. People will keep doing it

Obvious when new apps hit the store/markets. Even google service updates aren't safe. They get repeated 'great app!' 5* things. Even for such things as the printing service etc.

https://www.fivesquid.com/search/google-reviews

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#2374473 12-Dec-2019 22:49

How timely! This came across my youtube feed today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqSeutfwb2Q

Reminds me of the guy who got his restaurant to number 1 in London on tripadvisor without serving a single person.

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#2374477 12-Dec-2019 23:09

I spend my days playing whackamole on a forum that hasn't implemented good anti-linkdrop measures. More often than not the username can be found with a time ~past month search doing reviews on tripadvisor

Batman

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#2374501 13-Dec-2019 06:56

there are professional reviewers who don't actually consume the service or use the products. they just write good things and get paid.

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#2374530 13-Dec-2019 08:07

Batman:
there are professional reviewers who don't actually consume the service or use the products. they just write good things and get paid.

And the converse, where they write bad/trash reviews to try and bring a business down.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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#2374579 13-Dec-2019 09:49

Here is a recent Consumer NZ article: How to spot fake reviews

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

networkn

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#2374583 13-Dec-2019 09:56

Interestingly, I contacted the manufacturer of the product I want about the company with lots of 1 review reviewers giving 5 stars, and they assured me they are legit, do considerably volume, and are highly regarded.

We have asked them to provide a quote.

It makes using reviews more about luck than actual good quality information. May as well not bother.

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#2374645 13-Dec-2019 11:45

I would have thought that in this day and age most people would treat online reviews with plenty of suspicion. I'll take personal recommendations from family and friends over online reviews any day!

networkn

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#2374646 13-Dec-2019 11:46

MurrayM:

I would have thought that in this day and age most people would treat online reviews with plenty of suspicion. I'll take personal recommendations from family and friends over online reviews any day!

I do treat them with suspicion, hence the topic :)

neb

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#2374727 13-Dec-2019 13:17

MurrayM:
I would have thought that in this day and age most people would treat online reviews with plenty of suspicion.

I think it's a case of using common sense, the fake reviews are typically five star, praise something over the moon, and are fairly generic without mentioning specifics indicating they've used the product. On Amazon, look for 4 and 2 star reviews that go into actual details on the product, the 4-star are for people who like it but with legit criticisms and the 2-star are people who are unhappy but not just venting, which is what the 1-star reviews will be, and often over irrelevant stuff like being sent the wrong item.

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#2374773 13-Dec-2019 13:45

You really have to treat reviews as trash and unreliable, especially on Youtube .
A short term review of 1 single unit means nothing. If they bought 1000 , then we'd see something more realistic.
Many people wont post a review unless the thing is bad and they are angry (or its fantastic). Most people dont bother posting reveiws with av stuff that simply does the job.

The YT reviewers rely on being given FREEBIES to review. No freebies & their YT channel dies . So they usually wont dare giving bad reveiws , as then they will
have trouble getting the freebies to review.
If they have a link to buy the thing they are reviewing, it will often be a masked link. They get paid for people who click or buy via that affiliate link.

Reviews on seller websites, bad reviews simply get removed . The only exception is Amazon ?

Ive been caught, bought a item based on a glowing YT reveiw. Turns out the thing had major issues with one of the major features it was selling on ( a DVR function on the device).
Glowing reveiws, yet a forum topic for that device filled with users complaining about the issues . Bad enough the seller was refunding those who kicked up a stink.

neb

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#2374775 13-Dec-2019 13:49

Oh, yeah, YT reviews, or more accurately product placements, are completely worthless, they make money by pushing stuff they've given. Anything with a title like "Top ten X of 2019" is a giant red flag that it's pure product placement.

The exceptions are when they're from tech geeks who do a regular tech segment involving tearing things apart and showing readings from oscilloscopes and the like, their focus is the tech, not selling the product.

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#2374809 13-Dec-2019 14:50

neb:The exceptions are when they're from tech geeks who do a regular tech segment involving tearing things apart and showing readings from oscilloscopes and the like, their focus is the tech, not selling the product.

Sometime they're just as bad - or perhaps worse as they seem to be more believable and "independent" - when they're either still on the payroll or have some other reason to have strong bias.

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#2374827 13-Dec-2019 15:36

Fred99:
neb:The exceptions are when they're from tech geeks who do a regular tech segment involving tearing things apart and showing readings from oscilloscopes and the like, their focus is the tech, not selling the product.

Sometime they're just as bad - or perhaps worse as they seem to be more believable and "independent" - when they're either still on the payroll or have some other reason to have strong bias.

I was thinking of people like EEVBlog or the Scottish guy who does similar videos, uhh, bigclive, or the Czech guy who can't go more than ten minutes into a video before he's reverse-engineered the entire circuit and is tracing through a pencil-and-paper circuit diagram with giant ink skull-and-crossbones on bits he doesn't like, guys who like taking things apart and seeing how they work. You know that if they've pulled it apart and critiqued it without finding too many problems it should be pretty good.

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#2374866 13-Dec-2019 16:21

Local pizza place put their website live before opening their first store... They had all these amazing testimonials from their long time customers all over it.....

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