How to spot and avoid fake product reviews on Amazon

Fake product reviews have become a big problem on online retail sites like Amazon, according to money expert Clark Howard.

The consumer advocate points to numerous reports that indicate that the world’s largest online retailer is rife with fake reviews. But how can you tell if a review is bogus?

Fake Amazon reviews: Here’s how to tell

We’ve compiled some ways for you to spot and avoid fake online reviews. But first, here’s what Clark says on the issue:

“Our consumer behavior as a buyer is so influenced by reviews that now there are people, who all they do full time is earn a living by writing fake reviews,” Clark says.

Clark says that the issue of bogus reviews has become so commonplace that a cottage industry has emerged to help facilitate it.

“A lot of companies that are trying to get a product sold in the marketplace, or get you into a restaurant or get you to stay at a particular pace, they’re contracting with these organizations,” he says.

6 ways to spot fake Amazon reviews

Because it’s so hard to tell whether we’re reading an authentic review or not, here are some ways to decipher the real from the fake:

1. FakeSpot.com

FakeSpot.com lets you paste the URL of a review so that it can be analyzed. While it was originally built around Amazon, the site has expanded to other retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy.

Clark says this about FakeSpot.com’s ability to sniff out a fake review: “They’re not always successful at it, but it’s a help.”

Get the FakeSpot browser plugin for Chrome and Mozilla as well as the app for Android and iOS.

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2. ReviewMeta

Like FakeSpot, ReviewMeta lets you copy and paste the review link to view its credibility. The premise behind the site is not so much to decipher fake reviews, but to help shoppers uncover bias in reviews, which can be just as damaging to consumers.

ReviewMeta has a “Pass,” Fail” or “Warn” system that it uses to gauge reviews. Here’s what the site says about that:

“PASS/FAIL/WARN does NOT indicate presence or absence of ‘fake’ reviews.”

Get the ReviewMeta browser extension as well as the app for Android and iOS.

3. Watch for typos and bad grammar

Another way you can spot a fake online review is to look out for typos and bad grammar.

It’s not that every reviewer has perfect typing skills or a high education level, it’s just that online reviews are littered with sentences that seem to come straight out of a translation website. Those reviews could be fake!

4. Beware overly positive reviews

If a product review is superb in every way and the accolades seem too good to be true, a lot of times they are. This overly positive review is often accompanied with a perfect rating that may seem impossible to achieve.

5. Be suspicious of the bland and general

Some reviews are so general that you can’t even tell what the product does or is from the way it’s written. This could be a telltale sign that the review is artificially generated.

6. Look at the reviewer

Another good way to sniff out a fake review is to spot a fake reviewer. Click on the reviewer’s profile to see if they’ve written any other reviews or if they’re simply copying and pasting the same reviews on different products.

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Also, if you’re considering a purchase from a reseller in a marketplace site like Amazon or eBay, make sure you only buy from vendors with a 98% or higher seller rating.

Bottom line

As a thoughtful consumer, it’s ultimately up to you to scrutinize reviews before you buy a product or service. Here’s what Clark says:

“You and I have to understand that whether you’re looking at a place to eat, a place to sleep, a place to shop, or an item to shop for, that the odds are very strong if not overwhelming that the reviews that are being posted are bogus and you and I have to be the cops on the beat.”

If you run across a fake review online, file a consumer complaint online with the Federal Trade Commission or call the agency at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357).

More Clark.com articles you might enjoy:

Dollar Flight Club review: Site promises to alert you to flight deals — does it?

If you like to get alerts and notifications on great travel deals, you may want to join the Dollar Flight Club. The site bills itself as a way for you to save 60-90% off your next international or domestic flight.

I joined the Dollar Flight Club to test whether it would send me some great travel deals via email. In this article, I’m going to show you how the club works as well as what to expect from the site and app.

Dollar Flight Club review: Everything you need to know

I started my research by going to the founder, Jesse Neugarten, and asking him about the Dollar Flight Club. He says that he got the idea for the site in 2015 while he was traveling in Nepal and got stuck in a 7.8 earthquake.

Instead of shying away from travel, the harrowing experience bolstered his love for getting away. “Life is too precious and short not to,” he said over email.

“Experiencing and connecting with other cultures is the best way to grow as a human being.”

The ordeal also taught him that he had some growing to do.

A few weeks later, he’d travel hacked his way to a round trip flight from New York City to Stockholm for $210. Then he went to Paris, London and other places.

Soon, friends and family were asking him to find them travel deals and “Dollar Flight Club was born,” he said.

What is Dollar Flight Club?

Dollar Flight Club is a streamlined travel search site that sends you deals based on the region or airport you designate as your “home.”

The site’s strengths lie in its ability to send instant alerts to your email so that you can jump on deals right away.

The site has a free and paid version, which we’ll get into later. No matter which version you choose, you can find some great travel deals stateside and abroad, including some affordable weekend getaways.

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Here’s how to join Dollar Flight Club

• Sign up for the site: You’ll need to enter your email and other personal info to join the site as a member.
• Pick your Departure Airport/Region: If you sign up for the free Basic service, it’s important that you select your correct “Departure Region.” Premium members have the option to select “Departure Airports.”
• Enable notifications: Set your phone or desktop to receive notifications so that you can see the latest travel deals.

What deals can you expect?

Once you’re ready to view the fares, you’ll see a mix of “fresh deals,” which are ones recently added to the site. You’ll also be able to see “past deals” that have already expired.

There are two types of deals you can expect in the Dollar Flight Club: International Deals and Domestic Getaways.

Here’s what you need to know about each category:

International Deals

Once you click on a fresh international deal, a card will pop up that shows you the flight details, including the price for round trip, standard fare and your projected savings.

What it won’t show you are the exact dates. Below the flight info, there’s an option to click on Google Flights to find the best fares.

Domestic Getaways

Domestic Getaways is another option you can toggle to so that you can find flight deals in the United States. It lets you see cheap flights over a three- or four-day period.

The getaways show not only destinations on sale, but the percentage you save if you book the flight.

When I tried the site, it showed me a $109 flight from Atlanta to Tampa that was three weeks away. As I clicked through, I found out that it was on Spirit Airlines.

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Do you have to pay for membership?

As we mentioned, Dollar Flight Club has two versions — a free product called Basic and a $40-a-year Premium service.

The differences between the free version and the paid version are pretty stark. Premium membership comes with way more deals than Basic.

With the free version, I didn’t find the Departure Region to be too useful. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, I was thinking the site would pull from regions around the South at least. But the first flight it showed me originated out of Boston, Massachusetts.

On the other hand, the Premium version correctly pulled deals that only departed from Atlanta.

The Premium version also offers partner perks, mistake fares, secret sales and support, among other things.

How do you book? 

I selected the flight to Tampa and clicked the “Book Now” button. It took me to travel search site SkyScanner.com to complete the transaction.

This means instead of buying the deal on Dollar Flight Club, you’ll have to purchase it on a flight aggregator or airline site.

In some cases, you’ll have to click through at least twice more to confirm if the airfare is still available.

The site tells you that flight availability varies by origin. It encourages you to “play” with the dates to find cheap fares.

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Conclusion

Dollar Flight Club does what it says it does: finds flight deals. But it doesn’t do it all. There are a lot of keystrokes you have to hit to complete the process.

The site allows you to find fares but you can’t book through it. It basically works in conjunction with sites like Google Flights, Momondo, Skiplagged and SkyScanner.com and on carrier websites. Those places are where you book the flights.

Dollar Flight Club: Pros and cons

Pros

Cons

• Site offers pro tips to help you find better deals
• Easy-to-use interface
• The app features guides and resource articles
• Premium members get a “Book Now” button

• Basic members aren’t able to book flights
• The Departure Region isn’t always the one you select
• You will see great deals, but you have to search to find the dates and other relevant information

Remember, if you’re the type of traveler who’s picky about which airline you fly, Dollar Flight Club may not reveal the airline until the tail end of the process.

That might irk some users. But if great deals on flights are your main thing, you’ll enjoy discovering weekend flights for cheap.

The cool thing is that once you sign up, you immediately get alerts for domestic and international deals like this:

While sites like this make it easier to find great flight deals, money expert Clark Howard says before you start the process you should know his #1 travel rule.

More Clark.com articles you may enjoy:

Where to watch free movies online

There’s never been a time when there have been so many ways to watch free movies. With so many streaming options at our disposal, of course, we’re not talking about free flicks at the movie theater.

All you need today is a smartphone, tablet or laptop and you can watch movies for free all day and night. But where are the best places to find them?

In this article, we’ll cover how to watch movies for free.

Grab the popcorn: Here’s how to watch movies for free online

When it comes to streaming TV and movie services, everyone from Netflix to Hulu to HBO Now offers free trials that range from seven to 30 days, but after that you pay for a monthly subscription. That’s not the case with these sites!

(While all of these options offer free movies, in many cases, you have to register or put up with ads to watch them.)

Classic movies in black and white are the specialty of Big Five Glories, which features films from back in the day. The site uses a YouTube video player to host scores of old-time films, including some featuring some old Hollywood greats like Charlie Chaplin.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

Crackle is a free streaming service owned by Sony. The platform has plenty of older films (Fight Club, for example), but they all come with ads.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

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If you’re looking for oldies but goodies on the big screen, Classic Cinema Online has it all for free. The site uses a YouTube player to host everything from to silent films to John Wayne Westerns.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

Free Movies Cinema has a number of independent and short films mainly curated from sites like Vimeo. What’s different about this site is that users can upload movies, playlists and other content.

If you’re really looking to deep dive, Free Movies Cinema has fan-made films that you can enjoy.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

If international films are your thing, this is a place for you. GoMovies lets you watch movies from nearly 60 countries. Its menu lists films under such categories as Top Watched, Top IMDB and Genre, to name a few.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

IMDb-TV is a free movie platform that is owned by Amazon and works with your Amazon Fire TV stick. After you watch a movie, you can rate it and contribute to IMDb.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

Kanopy, a site with lots of classic cinema and kids movies, works with your library card. You can stream up to 10 movies a month before a paid plan kicks in.

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• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

PopcornFlix features free movies, TV shows and viral videos culled from the web. Looking for a classic film? There’s a good chance PopcornFlix has it.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

Pluto TV is a free movie site and app owned by Viacom. It works on a number of different platforms like Apple TV, Roku, Playstation, Amazon Fire TV and others.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

Featuring scores of free movies and TV shows, from comedy series to sci-fi flicks to Popeye, Retrovision brings the nostalgia. The site features a durable video player and is organized well.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

If you’ve got a Roku device, the Roku Channel features a mixture of free movies and TV shows from different channels. Of course, the Roku device costs money, but  you can sign up for a free account and still enjoy the “Featured Free” section.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

Snagfilms specializes in full-length documentaries that focus on everything from animals to Amish life — and it’s all free. Be sure to check out the Cult Classics category.

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• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

Tubi TV has been growing in popularity as one of the best free movie websites and apps. Not only does Tubi load quickly, but its movie library is larger than the one at Netflix.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

Vudu has a simple interface that offers you free movies and TV shows. The ad-supported platform categorizes titles by genre and more.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: Yes

The largest video site on the internet, YouTube features tons of free movies. Of course, they’ve also adopted a play-for-a-fee option, you can find older full-length films on the site, usually interspersed with ads.

• Subscription: No
• Signup: No

What you need to know before you watch free movies online

Not every free movie site is legit or legal. We purposely didn’t list several popular pirate sites because of security concerns.

With that being said, here are three tips to stay safe when watching free movies online:

• Be aware of privacy & security risks: Many sites are operated by hackers in foreign countries who have made sport out of infesting people’s computers with malware. Along with recording your computer’s IP address, they may try to steal personal info as well.
• Avoid downloading movies from the web: Because many movie sites (torrent sites) host films that they don’t own the copyright to, downloading flicks from them is illegal. Don’t do it.
• Watch out for other stuff: It really can’t be stressed enough: Along with that free movie may come other stuff you hadn’t bargained for, like pop-ups.

If you want to know another dependable resource where you can watch movies online for a small fee, the Motion Picture Association of America has a Watch it Legally page that lists paid and free film sites.