Apr 23, 2019
Craig is on the Jim Polito Show. Today they discussed the phony 5-star reviews in Amazon.
These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com
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5-Star Phonies: Inside The Fake Amazon Review Complex
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Transcript:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
Airing date: 04/23/2019
Inside The World Of Fake Amazon Reviews
Craig Peterson 0:00
Hey, good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. This morning, we
talked about five star phonies I went into in some depth here as to
how does Amazon actually work? How are these Chinese companies
selling products to us? And the problem that's arisen of many of
them apparently getting five star reviews posted for products that
are just junk. So how can you trust it? What can you do? Well,
actually, we did get to that. Yes, indeed, with Jim Polito this
morning. So here we go.
Jim Polito 0:39
This is a much anticipated visit from our tech talk guru Craig
Peterson, talking about something that I myself and many others
rely on.You buying a product on Amazon, you look at the stars, you
say why full five stars? I gotta read these reviews. Is it really
that good? Well, are the reviews really true. Joining us now. Our
friend Craig Peterson. Good morning, sir.
Craig 1:08
Hey, good morning, you know, if you do check those product reviews
before you make a purchase, you're about equal on footing with
about 82% of American adults.
Jim 1:19
Yeah, the guys, we had it, we had a chat, we had a chat about it.
And we all have our own method of checking their reviews, if we're
buying something that we've never bought before, like I, not if I'm
buying like detergent, or, you know, something like that, if I'm
buying a product I haven't bought before I've done my research. And
then you know, I say well this one looks good. I read Yeah, we all
have different ways of reading the reviews. But the question is,
can I believe them?
Craig 1:45
Yeah, and that's a really, really good question. Because if life
has changed. Everything that's changed, you know, used to be, you
could trust the name brand, because you knew they didn't want to
mess up all of the money they've spent on advertising. And, you
know, the name brand was in it frankly, and you know, you talked
about Coke, for instance, and buying all of these other things.
Coke has a name brand they're trying to protect. But when you're
buying on Amazon, and the seller is someone in China, or maybe
someone here in the US or somewhere else in the world, there's no
brand name that you can trust. Right? There's, there's nothing that
you know, so yes, we do look at those stars. And there's a really
good article I put up on my website, and it's from The Hustle. And
it's talking about what's been happening more recently on Amazon
Now, we know Amazon trying to get the prices of everything down as
low as t it can so they can pass some of those savings on to
consumers and, and really kind of put its competitors out of
business. Even Walmart's having a hard time trying to compete with
Amazon out there. So one of the things, here's how it used to work,
and it's still kind of works this way, I have a couple of buddies
that do this. They go online, let's say they go to Alibaba, which
is a kind of, you know, big place almost like eBay for businesses
over in China. They they do analysis of Amazon, what's selling,
what are people looking for, and then they go to Alibaba, they find
a vendor that has a good price, and hopefully a decent quality,
they order a bunch of them, they check them out, and then they ship
them off to Amazon. So this is how this whole thing works. Amazon
has them now in their warehouses, and Amazon charges the seller,
just to have the product shipped and sitting there ready to ship
out. Okay. And then of course, Amazon charges when it's sold. And
you know, there's money exchanging hands all of the time. And
that's what's been happening for quite some time. Well, what's been
happening more recently is some of these Chinese companies are
sitting there saying, why are we like having a middleman in the
middle of all of this. And so these people here in the states that
have been kind of, you know, buying and then reselling on Amazon,
they have been bypassed now, in many, many cases. So you have these
Chinese companies that are just going ahead, and shipping directly
to Amazon here in the US to the warehouses, and so now those
Chinese companies are paying the warehouse fees are paying the
Commission's, but now there's no longer the markup of that
middleman, who was based in the US whose throat, you could choke if
you had to, and who's verifying things? Okay. So all of this has
really changed over the last two to three years in a big way. And
leads us directly to the five stars you're just asking about.
Jim 4:44
And so how do I look, look? And then this isn't, this isn't doesn't
have anything to do with the ethnicity of Chinese people, but you
can't trust China, when it comes to a lot of this stuff. They
don't.
Craig 5:00
Yeah. You're absolutely right.
Jim 5:02
I mean, think about what's been done with dog food, lead paint, all
of these things that came out of China that we really can't trust
them for in terms of manufacturing and businesses. So the five
stars by cutting out the middleman, that five star to just be
bunked.
Craig 5:21
Yeah, it could be. And in fact, that's what's been happening here.
This is a little bit of an in depth research that was done. And
again, you can see the articles and all the details. They've got
statistics and everything else about what's been happening out
there. But he's talking about one of the highest ranked iPhone
chargers, and it had an almost 4000 5 star reviews, and Amazon's
Choice Label on it you saying in the article, and and he goes on to
do a little bit more investigation because he was able to hop into
this private Facebook group and talk with us Amazon seller named
Lian Xi from I'm just guessing the pronunciations here, but what is
joins out China? And she said, hey, listen, if you buy something,
if you buy my product, which was an iPhone charger cable, charger,
if you buy my my cable, I will reimburse you for the purchase and
give you a $10 commission, if you go ahead and give me a five star
rating on Amazon. Now, this is this has been a problem for a while.
We have these influencers looking at Kim Kardashian and others who
are online, who are pouting products who are saying we are the ones
to you know, to believe. And I'm wearing this mascara because it
stays on all day without ruining, right? And is this an ad? Is this
not an ad? Is this a paid compensation? Where does the line start
and stop? And that's what the Federal Trade Commission's been
trying to figure out. And now, on top of it, we apparently have
these Chinese resellers who are paying people to to do this. And,
man, this has been a big deal for a long time. Okay. And, and the
products break almost immediately. And yet it has 4000 5 star
reviews. So what are you supposed to do?
Jim 7:25
And you know, you used a good example, like a cord, an iPhone
charging cord, like an aftermarket one, not one of theirs. We know
if you get a cheap one, it busts in no time at all. It doesn't
work. And if I see a great price, and a five star rating on Amazon,
I'm going to be inclined to buy that.
Craig 7:46
Yeah, but read these things. I guess some of these are amazing.
Here's another example. This is from this bodybuilding enthusiast
guy named Tommy Noonan. And he's looking at these testosterone
boosters on Amazon, and you noticed that a product had 580 reviews,
and every single one was five stars. And then he decided he read
them. And this has always been the giveaway for me. And we've
talked a little bit about this before, you know the languaging
that's used. And it's like the morning did the democrats and out
their talking points. And every single one of them is saying the
exact same thing. So that's number one. And number two is people
were reading things like I haven't tried this product, but and then
they leave a glowing review. So I went on Amazon and I searched
actually I just went to Google and search Amazon. And I found tons
of reviews just like this. I never use this product but.
Jim 8:44
So what you do is, yeah, and I've done that to see, I've done it
before, to see if someone has lifted what they've written from
somebody else. And I just cut and paste and drop it in Google and
you see it comes up somewhere else. So you say you cut and paste
that review, put it in there, and it pops up in a million different
locations. Identical wording.
Craig 9:09
Yeah, exactly. And it's, it's easy enough just to look and see even
within one product, or most of these almost exactly the same
wording. And now it's gotten even easier, Amazon has something else
called Mechanical Turk. And Mechanical Turk is designed, it's
fantastic for businesses, if you have something that needs to be
done by someone. And it's a very repetitive task. And maybe you
want to pay a cent or five cents to find me a picture of a kitty
cat with this or that. That's what Mechanical Turk is all about.
And with Mechanical Turk, you can even though this is against the
policies, okay? But you can even have people post things, find
things put things up. So all of this huge, beautiful infrastructure
that's out there on the internet is being misused, and they're able
to help thousands of people. You can have immediately, I could have
5000 followers for your Facebook page tomorrow, if you're willing
to pay 100 bucks. And the same thing's true with Amazon reviews now
I'm afraid.
Jim 10:12
Well Craig, this has been great information very helpful to people,
because so many of us who are shopping there. Now, folks, this
information more in depth plus other information, plus when there's
a big hack. You want to be on Craig's list, you want to be one of
the people who's able to get a text from him and get this
information. So here's what you do. You text my name, Jim to this
number.
Craig 10:46
855-385-5553. That's 855-385-5553.
Jim 10:56
Standard data and text rates apply. And he will not bother you. He
will not sell your name to somebody else. Craig, always a pleasure.
But especially today, this was great information.
Craig 11:09
Hey, thanks, Jim. Take care.
Jim 11:11
Take care. All right, when we return a final word.
Craig 11:15
I guess the bottom line here is things aren't always as they appear
to be. I do spend some time with the reviews myself. And obviously
I think everybody should nowadays. And what I didn't mention with
Jim is that Amazon has a lot they could do in order to stop this
from happening. But is it really in their best interest? I think
ultimately it is. And they have been cracking down a little bit but
I think there's still a lot more Amazon could do to become a
trusted place to buy online. All right, Take care everybody. Have a
great day. We'll be back tomorrow. Bye bye.
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