ATLANTA — When you buy something online, do you read the reviews?
Some people do, but it’s getting harder to tell which ones are real.
Nicole Betts is a stay-at-home mom.
She’s always looking for ways to make or save a buck or two.
She said she has received dozens of products for free.
All she has to do in return is leave an honest review.
“I’ve gotten a lot of beauty products, skin care products, and protein powder,” she told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.
But even though she got the items free of charge, that doesn’t mean she automatically gives them five stars.
“If I don’t like the product, I won’t rate it at 5 stars. I’m 100% truthful,” she said.
Betts said she’ll leave written reviews on websites like Amazon or post a product tutorial on TikTok.
“And I can make money from the sales that come from those videos,” she said.
Dr. Cori Faklaris teaches students about trustworthy computing at the University of North Carolina.
She’s quick to note that not every online review can be trusted.
“Reviews are ideally a great social signal for us,” she said. “I am amazed at the flood of information that comes at us every day, and how much of it is sketchy or suspicious.”
The Federal Trade Commission issued a rule last year that bans reviews attributed to people who don’t really exist or users who don’t have experience with that product.
It also prohibits reviews generated by artificial intelligence.
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Even though such reviews are illegal, they still get created and posted.
“It says right at the top, ‘As an AI language model I don’t have a specific cookbook in hand,’” Faklaris said.
Which means it was created by AI. Not all fake reviews are as obvious.
Faklaris has some things to look out for.
“This one mentions the entire name of the product repeatedly. Humans don’t write that way. Any cliches or empty language such as ‘This is amazing and so cool’ could be a human, or it’s often AI,” she said. “This person posted this review at the same time as the account was created. That’s another possible red flag.”
Which is why Betts goes more in-depth with her reviews.
“I like to make sure I add that it’s beneficial to my family, and to my son. It’s great for my skin,” she said.
Betts said she includes pictures and specific details in her reviews.
She wants anyone who reads them to feel confident as they spend their hard-earned money.
“Just make sure you read as many reviews as you can. And you’ll see and be able to pinpoint when ones aren’t real,” she said.
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