Amazon Is Filled with Fake Reviews虛假評論充斥亞馬遜

米歇爾·德貝澤克　陳小俠

Looking at the ratings on Amazon products can help consumers make more informed decisions about what they add to their shopping carts. But shopping smart isn’t always as easy as selecting items with a four- or five-star rating： Factors like the length， quality， and number of reviews also make a difference. And with so many fraudulent third-party sellers working through the site， it’s not always clear which reviews are trustworthy. For people who feel lost every time they browse Amazon， Lifehacker1 recently shared its tips for spotting fake reviews.

This may sound obvious， but to get a feel for2 what you’re purchasing， it helps to actually read the reviews. If every review gives the same bland praise for the product without mentioning anything negative， think twice before heading to the checkout page. Some retailers pay people to leave fraudulent five-star reviews on their products in order to boost their ratings and game Amazon’s algorithm. Reviews that are no longer than a few words are another sign of such scams.

Looking for “verified purchases” badges on reviews can help you weed out3 the fakes， but it’s no guarantee that a review’s authentic： Fake customers sometimes receive the products they’ve been paid to rate. The best way to determine if the review you’re reading is real is to look for personal details and imperfections in the story. Sometimes a three- or four-star review is a better indication of what you’re getting than a too-good-to-be-true five-star review.

If all this seems overwhelming， you can also use artificial intelligence to help parse Amazon reviews. The website Fakespot4 can analyze all the reviews on a particular Amazon listing in just a few seconds， looking for those factors typically associated with deception， like similar wording. It then tells you how many of the available reviews are likely to be authentic.

And if you’re really committed to making the best purchase you can， you can always take your research off Amazon. A product that has a similar ratings on a less popular retail site to what it has on Amazon has likely been reviewed honestly. And if you suspect fraud， you can let Amazon know by clicking “report abuse” next to the review.

查看亞馬遜賣品的評價星級能幫助消費者更明智地選擇要放到購物車的商品。但是明智購物可不總像挑選四星或五星商品那般容易：評論的長度、質量和數量等因素也會影響購物決定。網站上有很多作假的第三方賣家，消費者并非總是清楚哪些評論值得信賴。對于那些每次瀏覽亞馬遜時都感到茫然的消費者，生活駭客最近分享了如何甄別虛假評論的小竅門。

這可能聽起來并不必要，但為了了解要買的東西，生活駭客能幫你看到真實的商品評價。如果某一商品下面都是清一色的空洞好評而未提及任何不好的方面，那么在準備付款前定要三思。一些零售商雇人給他們的產品刷虛假的五星好評，以增加商品的評價星級和提高在亞馬遜上的排名。寥寥數語的評論是這種欺詐的另一標志。

在評論中查找“已確認購買”標記可以幫助去偽存真，但它不能保證評論的真實性，因為有時確認收貨的是賣家雇來刷評論星級的偽消費者。確認所讀評論是否真實的最佳方法是尋找其中的個人使用細節及不完善之處。有時候，三星或四星評論要比好到讓人難以置信的五星評論更能表明所選商品的品質。

如果這一切似乎令人不知所措的話，還可以使用人工智能來幫助解析亞馬遜賣品的評論?！疤摷僭u論篩選網站”僅在幾秒內便能分析某一特定亞馬遜列表上的所有評論，并搜尋那些與欺騙相關的典型因素，如相似的用詞。然后它會告訴你現有的評價中有多少可能是真實的。

如果真想買到最好的商品，也可以常常離開亞馬遜去別的網站搜搜看。如果一個商品在不太起眼的零售網站上的評論星級同它在亞馬遜上的差不多的話，這個評論可能就是真實的。如果懷疑評價造假的話，可以點擊評論旁邊的“報告濫用情況”字樣，以便讓亞馬遜知道。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎選手）

1美國著名的生活軟件類效率博客，主要報道生活及技術領域的小竅門，教人如何利用這些竅門提高效率。? 2 get a feel for sth善于理解某事物。

3 weed out剔除。? 4專門致力于分析和鑒定虛假評論和假冒品的網站。