Clever Ways To Outsmart Fake Reviews When You Shop Online, According To Experts

We often rely on shopper reviews when we buy online or book holidays or restaurants. Yet studies find many of these are fake, generated by chatbots or paid reviewers. At least 61% of electronics reviews on Amazon are thought to be fake. One recent report analysed 2.7 million online reviews and found that up to 40% of them are probably fake reviews.

Even cool millenial companies are not immune. In October 2019 beauty company Sunday Riley was warned by authorities. As it turns out, the CEO had ordered employees to post fake glowing opinions, for a period, to boost their sales via Sephora and other online stores. 

In Southeast Asia some unscrupulous merchants pay people to post fake reviews for platforms like Carousel and Taobao. One recruiting company disclosed on TV that it had 80,000 people on its payroll from Singapore, Malaysia, China, and other Asian countries, all busily churning out fake reviews.

So how can you determine which are the genuine reviews and honest retailers? We asked experts to share tips that work.