A third of Amazon book reviews are fake, study uncovers.
With countless products available on Amazon’s marketplace, online shopping can often leave customers overwhelmed, exhausted, and reliant on product reviews to determine the best purchase. However, shady sellers have been quick to take advantage of this, and crowd their reviews with fake five star ratings.
But just how many product reviews are fraudulent? To find out, Scams.info analysed ratings for Amazon bestsellers to uncover which products have the biggest boost by fake reviews.
The most untrustworthy Amazon reviews
|
Rank |
Category |
Percentage of fake reviews |
|
1 |
Books |
37.2% |
|
2 |
Baby |
34.8% |
|
3 |
Large Appliances |
33.6% |
|
4 |
Computers & Accessories |
32.1% |
|
5 |
Women’s Clothing |
31.9% |
|
6 |
Garden & Outdoors |
29.9% |
|
7 |
Men’s Clothing |
26.0% |
|
8 |
Musical Instruments |
25.2% |
|
9 |
Lighting |
22.8% |
|
10 |
DIY & Tools |
22.7% |
Book reviews are the most untrustworthy on Amazon, Scams.info can reveal. Almost 2 in 5 (37.2%) book ratings are fraudulent, the most of any product category. After analysing Amazon’s bestsellers, the experts uncovered that for 59% of products, over 40% of ratings were fake. For 1 in 20 books, over 90% of ratings were illegitimate.
Shockingly, baby products also receive an extreme amount of fake reviews. Over a third (34.8%) of ratings on Amazon’s baby range are artificial, and 1 in 16 products had 90% of reviews determined to be fake. Reviews for high-value items like Large Appliances and Computers & Accessories are also untrustworthy, at 33.6% and 32.1% fake rating respectively.
The most trustworthy Amazon reviews
|
Rank |
Category |
Percentage of fake reviews |
|
1 |
Pet Supplies |
7.9% |
|
2 |
Sports & Outdoors |
10.5% |
|
3 |
Stationery & Office Supplies |
12.1% |
|
4 |
Toys & Games |
16.4% |
|
5 |
Software |
18.5% |
Only 7.9% of reviews for Pet Supplies are fake, the only products with less than 10% fake
reviews, and 29.3% fewer than Books. Those purchasing Sports & Outdoors (10.5%) and Stationery & Office Supplies (12.1%) products can also take comfort in the knowledge that less than 15% of reviews are artificial.
Featured Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash.