Are the online reviews playing you?

Time and time again, I hear from friends that they bought a ‘thing’, selected a book, went to a place, went for a movie or have spent their hard-earned money and invested their time based on the online reviews. Many times they come disappointed.

In this day and age where we want quick answers and quick gratification, we want something and we want it now. This is even easier with the Internet. But before we take the plunge, some of us want to confirm if their decision is the right one and they go and check the reviews. They do that on Amazon, IMDB, shopping sites, financial products, builders, buying perfumes, restaurants, food items, buying cars, boats, checking online people references etc. Essentially we get reviews for nearly everything. Again, the connectivity comes handy and people are just one search and few clicks away before they can dive into reviews of their desired products or services.

Although this mechanism to make informed decision is great but has a big (but an easy) flaw! The reviews can be faked and relying on those reviews can cost someone tens to thousands or a lifetime of savings and agony. You will survive if you buy a book based on fake reviews or waste 3 hours of your life based on fake reviews but imagine investing thousands or millions based on star rating given by an rating company?

When was the last time you identified some fake reviews?

So if it is too true to be true, check again! Just don’t blindly follow the star rating but open the bonnet to check further details! Fake reviews most times are easy to spot. Assess the risk of you making decisions based on the ratings. Don’t let the online reviews/ratings play you, dig deeper.

Who is (or should be) taking accountability for the fake (or inaccurate) reviews? In some countries there are laws which forces business/platforms to take ownership of checking on false reviews but who is checking on Businesses if they are following through? You won’t pick a life parter just based on online reviews then why not extend the same due diligence on some other things in your life!