The FTC just prosecuted a fake Amazon review for the first time — here's what that means for users via CNBCMakeIt
Thanks to fake reviews on sites like Amazon and Yelp, it can be hard to trust what you read. Now however, the US government has begun cracking down on fake user reviews posted on Amazon.
Fake online reviews are a common problem on e-commerce sites like Amazon and have also shown up on online review platforms like Yelp. Still, roughly 86 percent of consumers still regularly read online reviews, and a majority of people say that positive reviews make them more likely to use a local business, according to a BrightLocal survey.
"The administrative agencies, like the FTC and state attorneys general, are in an excellent position to do investigations and figure out when there are false positive [reviews] out there, and it's good that the FTC is doing that, because it creates a sort of pressure on avoiding false positive reviews," he tells CNBC Make It.
"The wisdom of the crowd on review sites has value for consumers," he says,"[but] you should never take a single review as gospel, whether it be a five-star review or a one-star review." Instead, he says, look for a pattern of reviews.
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