Fake reviews ‘flooding’ online retailers

Amazon is only removing a proportion of a flood of fake and suspicious reviews that risk misleading shoppers into buying poor quality products, an investigation has warned.

Which? found that 78,000 reviews for popular tech products have been removed in the last three years. However, it found the vast majority of 12,000 reviews displayed on the first page of certain products were from unverified purchaser s–those who Amazon cannot know if they bought the product – or had suspiciously high five-star ratings, two of the key red flags for fake reviews.

It claimed that high numbers of unverified, positive product reviews could bean indication that a product’s overall rating is being manipulated by fake reviews.

Amazon said the research was “flawed”.