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Tag: Which?

  • Five-Star Review? Maybe Not as Amazon Grapples With Fake Reviews Industry

    Five-Star Review? Maybe Not as Amazon Grapples With Fake Reviews Industry

    Amazon is grappling with an entire industry aimed at providing fake reviews and gaming the system, according to new research.

    Which? is a UK-based company that reviews products and services and helps consumers make educated choices. The company has investigated the state of Amazon reviews and found that fake reviews are being sold in bulk.

    Customers rely on Amazon reviews to make decisions about their purchases. Even when customers ultimately end up purchasing elsewhere, Amazon product reviews often still impact customers’ decisions. Unfortunately, many of those reviews may be fake, according to Which?.

    “More people are shopping online than ever before due to the coronavirus crisis – yet our latest research shows that Amazon is facing an uphill struggle against a relentless and widespread fake reviews industry geared towards misleading consumers,” Natalie Hitchins, Head of Home Products and Services at Which?, said.

    Some companies charge as little as £5 per review, while others charge more, up to £8,000 for 1,000 reviews. Many of the companies provided incentives and rewards programs, along with guidelines to help their armies of reviews avoid detection by Amazon.

    All the sites Which? signed up to gave advice for how to write reviews so as not to arouse Amazon’s suspicion, and in many cases had criteria for reviewers to meet to qualify for rewards. These included leaving reviews that were at least two sentences long, posting an accompanying image or video and not posting reviews until at least four days after receiving a product. Some sites also had no return policies – as returned products are monitored by Amazon and high return rates can affect the chance of an Amazon’s Choice endorsement.

    Which? is calling on regulators to take action against these kind of schemes, in the interest of protecting customers that rely on such reviews to make informed decisions. The company is also calling on tech firms, such as Google and Facebook, to crack down on these companies, as many of them use search and social media platforms to gain reviewers.

    “The regulator must crack down on bad actors and hold sites to account if they fail to keep their users safe. If it is unable to do so, the government must urgently strengthen online consumer protections,” Hitchins added.

    “Amazon, and other online platforms, must do more to proactively prevent fake reviews infiltrating their sites so that consumers can trust the integrity of their reviews.”

    It remains to be seen what, if any, action will be taken. in the meantime, savvy purchasers would do well to take Amazon’s reviews with a grain of salt.

  • Online Security, Are We All Potentially At Risk?

    How safe are we really? One may wonder if large corporations, small businesses, and individuals are all subject to online fraud. Financial Fraud Action UK has recently reported that losses incurred due to online security failures are increasing.

    Though there is no surefire way to safeguard against all potential risks, individuals have options regarding where to invest their money. Choosing the bank best suited to a person’s needs is important in such situations. Which? recently delved into the world of online bank security by researching ten of the UK’s biggest banks.

    The ranking dimensions included the following: login security, logout security, security established for transferring money, avenues in place to change personal account details, the site’s navigational capabilities to use forward and back buttons while logged in, and encryption as well as protection of information against threats.

    Which? listed the banks in the following order from most secure to least secure.

    1. NatWest/RBS – 76%
    2. The Co-operative Bank – 72%
    3. HSBC – 72%
    4. Barclays – 71%
    5. Norwich and Peterborough BS – 70%
    6. Lloyds TSB – 69%
    7. Nationwide BS – 69%
    8. Smile – 68%
    9. Halifax – 67%
    10. Santander – 47%

    Santander ranked last on the list, but responded to the study with positive news for bank members. The statement from Santander read, “We have taken on previous feedback from Which? and enhanced the visible and invisible layers of security in our systems. This means when you log off, you are completely logged off and cannot get back in without re-entering security details. While we ensure online banking is safe and secure, we also have to make sure it’s user-friendly as well, to strike the right balance.”

    Small businesses can align themselves with website security companies as Verio Inc. has recently done. Verio Inc., which provides business solutions to SMBs, has partnered with StopTheHacker to educate small businesses about ensuring security for their websites. Though services offered will vary in the amount of fees, this initiative allows small business to consider online security options starting at $10 per month.

    According to StopTheHacker’s Vice President of Sales, Ridley Ruth, “We are very excited to partner with Verio as they understand the importance of website security. We see that 90% of all the malware in the world is being distributed by legitimate small business websites. This valuable, free website security report will further serve to educate Verio’s customers to this growing problem while presenting products that will help protect them from becoming one of the over 9,500 websites that Google blacklists every day.”

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]