The incentive for these reviewers is that they get to keep the products they review, and may even get a small payment alongside them. One of the firms Which? looked at was AMZTigers which offers individual reviews for £13, and 50 for £620, with 20,000 reviewers in the UK alone.
In some cases, simply leaving an honest review is all that’s asked, as with Rebatest. This site claims you’ll get “up to 100% cashback for products in exchange for your honest opinion”. But Which? found negative reviews for some of these businesses on TrustPilot where promised refunds for purchased products hadn’t been sent because the ratings weren’t high enough.
“We continue to work to protect the authenticity of customer reviews. We advise customers who doubt the credibility of a review on a product to click the ‘report abuse’ link available below each review. We will then investigate and take necessary measures.” One particular genuine developer of a keyboard app for the Apple Watch took to Twitter to vent about the issue (as reported by TechCrunch).
Not only has his FlickType app been ripped off by other developers (along with promo videos) but they’ve crowded out the search results in the App Store with scores of fake 5-star reviews. This has the effect of making his own, lower-rated (but genuinely rated) app invisible to searchers and there’s little he can do about it.
Clearly, it’s a problem not being able to trust the reviews you’re reading on these platforms. It isn’t always easy to spot the fakes and if you are going to install and app or buy a physical product based on user reviews, it’s worth spending time to read a lot of them and make sure it’s as good as the reviews claim. Independent reviews, such as those you’ll find on this very website, as well as reviews by Which? and other reputable publications, are the best source of information when you’re trying to decide which Bluetooth headphones or laptop to buy. Only when a review is unbiased and honest – and written by an expert – can you trust the verdict and rating.
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Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.
