Trust #2: Product ratings you can believe

Here are some tools that help consumers sort through misleading marketing noise

Trustworthy sources. You may remember a previous post in which I talked about trust being in short supply these days. The flood of propaganda, marketing messages, and clickbait threatens to drown out trustworthy news and information.

I am also skeptical of a lot of the ratings I see for products and services — tech gadgets and apps, hotels, restaurants, airlines, financial products, household appliances, etc.

Extreme opinions can skew averages higher or lower. Some companies pay people or use robots to trash their competitors or boost their ratings.

So I wondered if there were any tools that can help consumers figure out where to find reliable reviews of products and services. If we want to have free markets, we need to have information that helps us compare quality and prices. Word of mouth is great. But what do we have online?

It turns out that many companies try to boost their ranking in various online ratings with sleazy tactics.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for the Study of Free Markets have researched the issue. Among their findings:

• In 2020, TripAdvisor removed 2 million reviews that its algorithms identified as potentially fake or misleading.
• In 97% of the cases, the companies had paid people to post reviews or urged employees and family members to do so.
• The FTC said removing fake reviews would “increase consumer welfare” by many billions of dollars. This would have benefits for the economy, free markets, and society as a whole.

The UPenn researchers recommended using the free Fakespot site and app by Mozilla It rates the credibility of reviews on sites such as Walmart, Amazon, Sephora, BestBuy, eBay, and Shopify.

Consumer Reports magazine also recommends using Fakespot as well as these tips for identifying fake online reviews:

• Watch out for multiple reviews that use the exact same phrasing: “Wow, this product changed my life!”
• Click on the reviewer’s history. “If a reviewer always gives five stars and uses similar language for different reviews, those may be fake or paid for.”
• Verified Purchase badges on Amazon signal credibility. They mean that the reviewer paid for the product and bought it through Amazon.
• Click on the reviewer’s history. “If a reviewer always gives five stars and uses similar language for different reviews, those may be fake or paid for.”

The Federal Trade Commission has just issued new rules to combat fake online reviews. The rules also prevent brands from buying followers or hiding negative reviews.

I’ve bought cars, household appliances, stereo speakers, and tech products based on reviews in Consumer Reports. It models several practices for producing trustworthy information. They use techniques that the best investigative journalists use.

Their mission statement says it all. I’ve boldfaced the key words: “Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofitmember organization that works side by side with consumers for truth, transparency, and fairness in the marketplace.”

Disclosure: I’m a paid subscriber to Consumer Reports and a donor. They have not asked for a recommendation nor have I received any benefit from them for writing this article.

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Originally published at https://jamesbreiner.substack.com.