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.