Fake Supplement Reviews Still a Problem for the Industry
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cracked down on a supplement company for purchasing fake reviews for their products on Amazon and slapped them with a $50,000 fine. This supplement company paid a third-party website to create fake reviews of their product on the Amazon platform so that the company could maintain a five-star rating with their product. This notion that fake supplement reviews are common these days is actually quite common but not really discussed.
You can go back quite a few years and read stories about how supplement companies were asking for fake reviews on websites like Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com took swift action and made sure the brands they do business with understand this is not an acceptable practice and will not be tolerated. So, brands got smarter with how they go about getting people to post fake supplement reviews.
What is a Fake Supplement Review?
A fake supplement review is a deceptive or misleading review that provides inaccurate information about a dietary supplement. These reviews are not based on genuine experiences or opinions but are crafted with the intent to manipulate perceptions and influence potential buyers. Fake supplement reviews can take various forms, including:
- Fabricated Experiences: The reviewer may claim to have used the supplement and experienced certain benefits or effects that they never actually encountered. This could involve inventing details about weight loss, muscle gain, increased energy, or other purported benefits.
- Paid Reviews: Some individuals may receive payment or incentives to write positive reviews about a supplement, even if they haven’t used it. These reviews are not genuine expressions of user satisfaction but rather endorsements driven by financial gain.
- Competitor Attacks: Fake negative reviews may be posted by competitors or individuals with a vested interest in discrediting a particular supplement. These reviews aim to create doubt or skepticism among potential customers.
- Automated or Bulk Reviews: In some cases, reviews may be generated using automated scripts or submitted in bulk by a single entity. This can artificially inflate or deflate the overall rating of a supplement.
- Inconsistent Language or Style: Fake reviews may be identified by inconsistencies in language, style, or content. Multiple reviews that use similar phrases or have a generic tone could be indicators of a coordinated effort to manipulate perceptions.
- Excessive Use of Marketing Language: Fake reviews may include an abundance of marketing language or promotional terms rather than providing genuine insights into the product’s performance.
Consumers should be vigilant and critically assess reviews before making decisions based on them. Cross-referencing information from different sources, looking for patterns, and considering the overall credibility of the reviewer can help in identifying fake supplement reviews. Additionally, relying on reputable review platforms and verified customer feedback can contribute to making more informed choices.
Why Would People Write Fake Supplement Reviews?
People may write fake supplement reviews for various reasons. Some common motivations include:
- Financial Gain: Individuals or companies may post fake reviews to promote their own supplements or products, creating a positive image to attract more customers. This can be driven by the desire for increased sales and profits.
- Competitive Advantage: Competing businesses may engage in writing fake negative reviews about their rivals’ products to undermine their reputation and divert customers to their own offerings.
- Affiliate Marketing: Some individuals may write fake positive reviews as part of affiliate marketing schemes. They may receive commissions for every sale made through a link in their review, creating an incentive to promote products, even if the reviews are inaccurate.
- Brand Image Management: Companies might hire individuals or agencies to write positive reviews to enhance the overall image of their brand. This can be a part of a broader strategy to build trust and credibility among consumers.
- Product Promotion: Individuals who have a personal interest in promoting a particular supplement or product may write fake reviews to boost its popularity and sales, especially if they have affiliations with the brand.
- Reputation Management: Some companies or individuals may post fake positive reviews to counteract the impact of genuine negative reviews. This is an attempt to balance or overshadow the negative feedback.
- SEO Purposes: Fake reviews can be generated to improve search engine rankings. Positive reviews may lead to better visibility online, making it more likely for potential customers to come across the product.
It’s essential for consumers to be aware of the possibility of fake supplement reviews and to critically evaluate the credibility of reviews before making decisions based on them. Reading a variety of reviews from different sources and looking for patterns or inconsistencies can help in identifying genuine feedback.
What Goes on Behind Closed Doors with Fake Reviews
Brands quickly made changes to how they asked consumers to write reviews. Unfortunately, before all of this came to light, many people were leaving fake supplement reviews without ever even trying the products themselves. Websites changed this by putting “verified buyer” next to the person doing the review which was supposed to make the review more credible (following their actual transaction on their website). However, even that became laughable at best.
The workaround that brands came to find was that in order to get the “verified buyer” tag next to a reviewer’s name, they would need to purchase the product from the website. What happened next may open your eyes to some extremely deceptive practices within the industry.
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Certain brands would contact consumers and tell them to purchase their product from a certain website and wait for the product to ship. Once they received notification that their order (product) shipped, that would provide them the “verified buyer” tag when the would go to review the product. Therefore, once they got the shipping notification, the brand instructed the consumers to write their fake supplement reviews. What did they get in return? Their money back plus free product.
What does all of this mean? It’s very simple and quite shady. A supplement company would tell a consumer that if they provided fake supplement reviews on a certain website, that once the product shipped, they would reimburse the consumer for the full amount paid for the product and then they, the brand, would ship an addition tub or bottle of the product to them from their warehouse for the consumers time and work putting up the fake reviews. As you would imagine, this didn’t go over too well with consumers when the news broke.
Some brands even went as far as in their athletes’ contracts, they mentioned about providing fake supplement reviews and even told them they would be instructed exactly what they should say in the fake supplement reviews. It was absolutely mind-blowing when these contracts surfaced on forums.
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