Don’t let the reviews determine which bestsellers you buy from on Amazon, as nearly half of them are false or unreliable. Researchers recently combed through 33.5 million reviews on the retailer’s site and found that 43% of them were not to be trusted. That share rises to nearly 9 in 10 reviews when it comes to clothing, shoes, and jewelry sold on the platform. Some brands are more deceitful than others, with feedback for products from Apple, Hanes, and Amazon’s own items being the least reliable of all. Amazon says it’s aware of the problem of fake reviews, but that the study’s findings are “inaccurate.” The retailer claims to use artificial intelligence to spot fake reviews and is spearheading a global campaign to crack down on the crooks behind rings that mass produce misleading feedback on products. The FTC earlier this year proposed rules to slap fines of up to $50,000 on businesses that buy or sell fake reviews or manipulate existing reviews.
