- A large proportion of reviews posted on app stores and social networks are fake
- A lucrative business of fake reviews exists
- There are concrete ways to spot these fake reviews
It is a shocking study but unfortunately not very surprising. The British consumer association Which? has drawn up a very interesting inventory of fake online reviews. According to analyst reports, 25% of the top 100 apps on Google Play included questionable ratings. This figure stands at 17% on the App Store.
The motivation for this phenomenon is not hard to find. Indeed, consumers are clearly influenced by positive reviews and this tends to confirm them in their choices. Also, good ratings help these apps move up the rankings better. Which thus noted that an illegal industry of opinion brokers has sprung up.
Faced with these strategies, Internet users are not powerless. Regulations are emerging to better protect them and platforms are trying to hunt down these dubious ratings, without always having great success.
Too many five-star reviews: manipulation
In the meantime, the experts have listed valuable advice to better identify them and it seems relevant to us to relay them to you. First of all, it is necessary to sort the opinions. These are ranked by usefulness on the App Store and by relevance on the Google PlayStore. However, we know that they are likely to be manipulated. It is also possible to sort by date, by subject or by number of stars, and the classification will then be different.
The presence of too many five-star reviews is a warning sign. It is indeed quite rare that a huge mass of customers have an irreproachable experience to the point of all putting the maximum mark. Besides, the best-known apps often have varying ratings.
Also, be wary of very short reviews. If you spot a large number of reviews that are just a few words long, that’s a red flag, experts say. Likewise, if reviews are posted in a very short time, this is also very doubtful.
Finally, it is advisable to carry out the latest updates in order to be protected against the most recent threats. If an app hasn’t received an update for more than six months, it may be best avoided, they point out.
