MS as a forum is meant for users to write reviews about products that they have bought/used. The idea behind writing these reviews is to help future buyers. If I want to buy a product, I would like to read reviews about other users experiences and based on their experiences and problems faced, I would like to make my purchase decision. But if the review itself is fake! If the review is written by the people behind the product – then it defeats the purpose of MS!!
MS has an option wherein members can rate a review as Not useful if they find it to be a fake review. And if there are many Not Useful ratings for a review, a stamp ‘DISCRETION ADVISED’ is placed next to the review, so that readers understand that the review is fishy.
Every system has loopholes that can be exploited and one classic example is a book titled “Jab Se You Have Loved Me” written by one S R Saha. Now this book is one which no one has ever heard of. There are 17 reviews about this book and the most amazing part is that “THERE IS NOT A SINGLE GENUINE REVIEW ABOUT THIS BOOK”. Every single review about this book is fake and the worst part is there are a number of fake IDs all of whom rush to each review and rate it as Very Useful. So even if the review is rated as Not Useful, the average will never be NU, because of all the fake IDs that give it a positive rating. Please note the following interesting points:
1) All the reviews are written by members who joined on the same day and have written flattering comments about the book and given it a 5/5 rating. Most of these reviews are similar btw.
2) These fake ids never visit any other review on this site and carry out no other activity, but they all rush in like vultures when their fake review is exposed.
3) Apart from fake reviews, some of them even promote the book stating that it costs only Rs.75/- and they even give links to the websites where the book is available.
4) Today I visited the second largest book fair in India (Bangalore book festival 2010), which has more than 300 stalls, I was there for 4 hours and I couldn’t see a SINGLE COPY of this legendary book anywhere, which clearly tells about the market acceptance of this book.
5) Of course, it goes without saying that not one known/experienced MSian has written a review on this book.
6) Lastly, the fake reviews and fake ratings ensures that this review gets a 4/5 star rating and average rating as Useful.
This is clearly a shameful thing and is an insult to all genuine book reviewers. It is also misleading for anyone who sees this review. The very objective of this site is defeated, thanks to these series of fake reviews.
This is of course, not the only category where such fake reviews are seen. But this is the most prominent one!
Now, as someone who has been in MS for a decently long period, I feel that it is time for members to come up and express their views on this issue. I also feel that it is time MS admins stepped in and took a stand on this issue and ensure that visitors to the site are not misled by such spam reviews.
