Paid Amazon Reviews
Ryan Kailath (via Hacker News):
Travis rues the experience, and the stellar reviews that led him to purchase the faulty lock in the first place. He didn’t realize it at the time, he says, but he’s now certain that those glowing reviews were paid for. And that many of the people who gave the trigger lock excellent reviews may never have opened the package in the first place.
Travis is certain of this because he himself is now a prolific paid reviewer. He writes Amazon reviews for money, and he commissions others to do the same — for a company that approached him online.
Update (2018-08-06): Ashley Bischoff:
Pro tip: Sites like fakespot.com and reviewmeta.com can help suss out whether the reviews for a given product on Amazon are fake. 💫
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Paid reviews are annoying. I second the suggestion by Ashley for using fakespot and/or reviewmeta. Pretty sure the latter was a Merlin Mann recommendation on his podcast with Dan Benjamin (Back to Work).
If I may provide a link to the 5by5 site, Back to Work 378: A Hong Kong Phooey Situation, hope that proves useful to someone curious about these sites.
