Fake Product Reviews Get 5 Stars

Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is trying to devise mathematical models that can unmask fake product endorsements. “The incentives for faking are getting bigger,” he said. “It’s a very cheap way of marketing.”

Editor's note: This NYT piece shows how the line between journalism, marketing and public relations has blurred. It is true that advertorials have been around for a long time, but we are now in an era where promotional information masquerades as journalism.  In the past, old-guard media insisted on firewalls that clearly distinguished what was advertising. But that firewall has fallen down as old-style such as newspapers and news magazines have started falling apart. The Web is a perfect venue for deception. It is very difficult to determine who is producing what content and whether that content is indeed authentic.  Advertisers know this and have become extremely clever at covering their tracks. We should all be concerned about this development. - MT

Fake product reviews. It seems they are everywhere these days - Amazon, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor.com. There are so many companies hawking so many things on the Web it seems the only way to stand out is to falsify information about the product by paying someone to write a bogus review. 

Fake reviews are drawing the attention of regulators. They have cracked down on a few firms for deceitful hyping and suspect these are far from isolated instances. “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways,” said Mary K. Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices. “We’re very concerned.” Researchers like Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are also taking notice, trying to devise mathematical models to systematically unmask the bogus endorsements. “More people are depending on reviews for what to buy and where to go, so the incentives for faking are getting bigger,” said Mr. Liu. “It’s a very cheap way of marketing.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/technology/for-2-a-star-a-retailer-gets-5-star-reviews.html