5 Amazing Tricks To Detect Fake Online Reviews

Internet or you call it online reviews sites are a commonplace nowadays and most often we check these in order to understand the real standing of a company. But most of the time I wonder how much it is reliable. Do I really want to trust the internet or the online reviews? Well, people may be doing so or may be influenced by the impression that is being created by the online reviews. But the real truth is most of it are fake and are made and written by the company’s own people or competitors either to manage or destroy their online reputation. This directly or indirectly help the company to cheat customer or to hide their truth from new prospective. Being in real estate industry I have come across many real estate builders and developers reviews written by freelancer and they are ready to write anything about the company just for few money. Now you may be really concerned about what amount of truth is really there in the online reviews of products and services.

Few days back I started digging on this matter and I was actually searching for a possible way to figure out fraud reviews. I came across many articles and studies on how to check fake online reviews? Here are some of the best possible ways

There was a research conducted recently by the research organization Mintel which found that 57 percent of the consumers that were surveyed are skeptic and doubtful about the companies that have only positive comments and reviews. Among the customers surveyed a whopping 49 percent believes that the companies might have been offering incentives for good and positive online reviews and comments about their products. The experts reveal that there are few of the techniques that reveal the truth about the fact as to whether the comments are real or phoney. We try to discuss them below.

1. Computer Algorithm invented for detecting fake reviews

Recently a team of researchers on the subject created a computer algorithm for the detection of fake reviews about hotels and hotel services. The software mainly deciphers the fake reviews from originals by differentiating the languages used in fake write ups. The programme so developed by the developers has been named Review Skeptic and is said to be accurate about 90 percent of the times. But it is found that the humans are not so good in deciphering the truth from fiction. Professor Claire Cardie who has developed the system opined that people are terrible in deciphering the fake from the real reviews on the internet. Visit Review Skeptic to detect between fake and original online customer reviews.

2. Be careful about the language used

The experts note that too much of extremes be it positive or negative should be taken with a pinch of salt. It has been noted that false reviews tend to be using more extreme language to convince readers about their message and make an imprint on the readers. So if someone writes “It is the most horrible product that I have ever used” or “it’s the best of the products that I have ever used” with probably capital letters you should be careful.  The Cornell University researchers opined that in case of travel or real estate reviews most of the reviews are more superficial which describes the overall experience without going into the details of the contours of the place like the floor, spatial details and the like. This certainly makes sense as someone who has never been to the place is expected to write the reviews in such a manner and won’t be able to describe the place accurately.

Snapshot of Online Review of a Real Estate company

As you can see in the above image 3 people have given their opinion on real estate property and out of them two are abusing them without any detail specifications on their properties detail while one person has appreciated their service and has more details.

3. Be skeptical if too much of jargon is used

The researchers on this subject cautions the readers of online reviews about the ones that uses too much of technical jargons and which reads mostly like product manuals or descriptions. This is because the laymen or the common consumers are most of the times unaware about the technical aspects of the products and too much of use of technical language signals that the reviews are fake.

A Snapshot of customer review on Mouthshot reviewing on Bike

The above snapshot is taken from mouthshot, a renowned online review site. Here the customer posted a good technical insight and has compared with the technical specifications of other bikes. Clearly posted by a person to encourage sales.

4. Check the profile of the reviewer

Reviewer Profile

The experts suggest reviewing the reviewer and the profile of the person writing the review. If it is found that the reviewer only writes reviews about that particular company there are bigger chances that the reviews are phonies and they could also have vested interest in these companies and products. Although there are certain review websites which verifies the profiles and the genuinity of the reviewers and the consumers asking details of the invoice and other proofs. Even then these comments can be fake insists the researchers as it’s easy for the insiders of the companies to obtain fake evidences.

Click on the image on your right to expand it, you will find a profile who is very active in giving reviews and has a continuous activity on different sites. It makes everything messy on his profile and looks like the person is working as a freelancer to post comments and reviews.

5. Pay more attention to detail:

The reason for what the product is bad or the writer is writing a bad review for has to specified. If the comment is too generic like “I hated Example Layouts as they are showing unspecified delays in their project completion” is too generic to believe in contrast to someone who writes “Their service is too bad and no one will entertain you after receiving money.”

The purpose of writing this blog is to make TGSLayouts customers aware on the fraud and manipulations done by online reviews sites. My intension is to create a complete authenticated site where customers can freely interact with each other and share their views with other. If you find this blog helpful do share us and don’t forget to give a feedback below.

An ultimate cheat sheet before buying land

The poor householder desires of buying a land property with many a wishes of building a house on it for spending the rest of the life peacefully. But on few occasions it turns out to be a curse. That happens because of the legal paraphernalia and few crooked developers trying to deceive the buyers by making false documents and showing that the land is free of disputes when there are flaws in the legality of the land. The common man does not know what to check and what are the most crucial documents that one needs to verify and most importantly what to check. Here is what one needs to know before buying the land property.

Things to know before buying land property

By the time you came to the end of this info-graphic your head will be storming with questions like what is a title dead; what is encumbrance certificate and so on and so forth. To make you understand better on these terms I recommend you to go through with this article "What you need to check before buying land property?"

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Budget 2016 Expectation of Home buyers

Real Estate has a lot of Expectation from Budget 2016

what realty market 

& the home buyers wish from the Union Budget 2016

The government is new with lot of optimism with lots of altruistic and reformative propaganda. It is true that the real estate sector is reviving from its long lull going on for five or six years. The year 2015 was not so prospective with the residential sector not doing so well but the sales figures were slowly surging and the unsold stock reducing to an extent. This imbibed hope for the sector and at that backdrop the commercial sector showed some amount of optimism with sales and absorption rate touching the second highest in history since 2011 in the country. Of course it can be assumed that there is economic growth in the country due to which there is demand of commercial sector realty products and this will surely have an impact on the residential sector as well.

The other sector was the retail where not much of an activity was noticed but the experts opine with the turn of the year 2016 there will be big players entering the market inducing the demand of retail sector real estate as well. As we have discussed in our previous post on what 2016 has in store for real estate. So all these taken together the union budget 2016 is a crucial factor that everyone is looking at with patience and waiting and watching to see what difference it can make to the economy and the realty sector. In this backdrop the customers or the home buyers who are the main investors of the sector who does have a wish list that the markets need to fulfil. Alongside that the government has to facilitate so that market is able to fetch the wish list to the end users. Let us probe and do a detailed enquiry and find out as to what the market wants. 

Talking about the pain points of the home buyer there are of course many. There are many problems that happen in the delivery of the projects, like delays, mismatch of commitments, price increment and hoard of hurdles that the customers have to face. Although there are rules not to sell any land in undeveloped layouts but still there are no provisions for builders who are constructing apartments. Thus it is obvious that for the real estate sector, to grow it has to win the confidence of the end users and the government has to introduce the policies and programmes that would instill more confidence and harbour protection to the investors. 

As of now the realtors have opined that on purchase of an under construction property the tax benefit that the buyer can claim is of Rs. 2 lakhs and that too after the possession of the property if the construction is completed within a period of three years. In case the developer delays further than three years this benefit is reduced to Rs. 30, 000 but they go on paying higher interest. Here you may like to know the mistakes that a buyer should avoid while dealing with property. If one looks at the reality then the buyers who go for their first homes has to additionally pay the rent as well apart from the EMIs also. 

The market watchers suggest that the Union Budget should make such measures and tax provisions for the end user or the home buyer so that it allows the tax benefit from the time the buyers pay the EMIs and not when the possession is given. This will certainly lessen the burden of tax on the buyer and the home loan disbursement will also be at a higher speed. 

Another measure that the government could take is the increment of the tax deduction limits on the loans of homes and the insurance premiums. The government has kept the limit as Rs. 2 lakhs and this should be adjusted in tandem with the sky rocketing prices of the top metros where people struggle to buy a house. Tax concessions on the house or home insurance can also encourage the usage of insurance which would help the economy as well.

There is a need for the self-employed community to be given more tax benefits than ever before as today the number of the start-ups has grown more. Not only that due to the spurt of professional education many are trying to start businesses and their own profession for whom the tax deduction for house rent allowance is just Rs. 2000. This is felt by many as unjust and thus buyers expect that Modi government has to look into the amendment of the Section 80 GG which specifies it and should work on increasing the limit.