Technology

Can You Spot a Paid Product Review? Researchers Are Getting Better at It

Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:10pm by Liz Klimas
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How do you know if that glowing 5-star user review about the product you‘re researching wasn’t just written by a paid professional? New Scientist reports on a paper in ArXiv, an e-print archive hosted by Cornell University, that has the inside scoop from a former member of China’s “water army” — paid posters that flooded the Internet with product reviews.

Cheng Chen and his colleagues conducted a study to “help distinguish a special group of online users, called hidden paid posters, or termed “Internet water army” in China, from the legitimate ones.” In the paper’s abstract, the researchers write that the water army is paid to “influence the opinion of other people towards certain social events or business markets.”

The researchers evaluated the pattern of online posters, which New Scientist reports includes rules for posting so as not to look suspicious. New Scientist reports that the researchers looked at competing antivirus companies that had been commented about by more than 500 users on the Internet. Of these, the researchers believe that 70 could be from paid posters:

These suspected paid posters had a higher proportion of new comments (as opposed to replies), posted more often but for a shorter period of time, and were more likely to post similar comments several times than posters not suspected of being paid.

Sure enough, when the researchers applied these criteria to comments on a second news site, the suspected paid posters they flagged matched Chen’s subjective classification with a false-positive rate of 1 percent and a false negative rate of 10 percent.

In the paper, the researchers state that while they’ve found clues as to the organizational structure of paid posters, more research should be conducted to improve detection techniques and potentially develop an algorithm for software that could detect paid comments.

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Comments (21)

BetterDays
Posted on December 24, 2011 at 9:44am
Obama, the fourth greatest president ever, product reviewed by his greatness himself, buy into it now ! But wait there’s more, for a limited time get absolutely free a one way ticket to a FEMA resort of our choice ( your family to be charged shipping and handling fees or they go too ! ) in sunny Fairbanks Alaska. Spend uncountable days with 1.25 million of your fellows milling around confused while thugs beat you and others into compliance with the great ones globalist enslavement strategy ! Don’t like Fairbanks, why quibble we’ve 799 other fully staffed FEMA club Speds well assign you too, located close to your ( soon to be our ) door stoop ! Call now, operators are on duty in Alexandria Virginia, China and India to take your order!

Five stars ! Awesome president and a wonderful vacation from the mundane at FEMA camp beat down ( please don’t beat me again TSA thugs, oh noooooooooooo).
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Nash65
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:57pm
my friend’s step-aunt makes $85 an hour on the laptop. last month her income was $7961 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Follow the instructions at Online Income Solution and set up your account…http://craz.in/WorkAtHome
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- OhioRifleman
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:09pm
  @ USA Medic
  
  That was funny as hell!
- USAMEDIC3008
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:29pm
  Have to admit I did have a grinnn on my face
  when I hit the reply button
  I can almost see Ohio from my house
  
  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good day.
  
  I’m going to hang a pair of my wifes pantiehose
  over the fire place . hope thay get refilled tommrow night
- lukerw
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:42pm
  @ERIC…
  Lol :)
  Report Post »
- barfield2256
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 8:22pm
  Why does the Blaze tolerate this blatant SPAM? I‘ve seen these ’work at home’ messages in what… 20… 30 posts?
  
  PS: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
  Report Post »
- goofyfoot2001
  Posted on December 24, 2011 at 6:35am
  PLEASE BOOT NASH6 for posting this BUULSHIIT
  Report Post »
- burnteye86
  Posted on December 24, 2011 at 9:17am
  report spam every time you see it. use the button called “REPORT POST”
  Report Post »
- TomFerrari
  Posted on December 24, 2011 at 10:31am
  LOL
  
  Good one!
  (Could have done without the link to the popups, though.)
  
  RESTORING LOVE , July 26 27 28 , Dallas, TX
  http://www.meetup.com/MercuryOneHQ
  Do you GBTV?
  Report Post »
BlazingBlaze
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:54pm
One thing I like about Amazon is they have this “Amazon Verified Purchase” for customer reviews. The paid “reviewer” won’t get this on their review unless they actually bought the product. Now it is possible that the company will pay the reviewer to buy the product and then post the review, it is far less likely to happen.

Also, look at the quantity of 5-star reviews versus 3-star or less. If there are only a few 5-star reivews and dozens of 2-star or 1-star reviews on a product, you have spotted the paid reviewers.

So, spend a little time in the Reviews and look for the patterns. It pays off in the end.
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- Golfendude
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 3:03pm
  Your are are correct… Do the same here…
  Report Post »
- Segosa
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 3:43pm
  These people are smarter than that. You should be too.
  
  Part of being a ‘Paid Product Reviewer’ is to get your reviews into websites like Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and other product sites that require you purchase an item.
  
  The firm you work for purchases the item, you leave the 5 star review of the product, then the firm sell the darn thing on Ebay.com or something like that.
  Report Post »
Charybdis
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:51pm
“Obama has improved the economy that was ruined by Bush.”
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- USAMEDIC3008
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:01pm
  Change Bush for progressives and you
  will be right
  WE have been going this way for
  over 100 years
  Going to take more than someone saying
  Yes WE can
  Remember,Progressives kill 350,000 and
  450,000 babies every year.The rest is just for fun..
  Report Post »
- 1digger
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:07pm
  Only a liberal like Charybdis could support the monumental economic failures of Obama with his double digit unemployment now at 15.6% http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm which is in stark contrast to nearly ‘full employment’ of around 5% under Bush; plus his record 52 months of economic growth. Sorry Charybdis but the economy doesn’t improve with a higher number of unemployed and homeless obama-encampments.
  Report Post »
- OhioRifleman
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 1:08pm
  “Obama disimproved the economy destroyed by Carter.”
  
  -Fixed for you.
  Report Post »
- IMPEACHBHO
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:03pm
  @CHARYBDIS
  lol – I guess some didn’t get your joke.
  Report Post »
lukerw
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:25pm
Chevy VOLT… Car of the Year!
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- USAMEDIC3008
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:54pm
  With all the coal fired power
  plants closing after the first of the year
  (EPA regs) Next years mod. will have 3 options
  Hand crank generator for driver & passenger or
  50 foot windmill mounted on roof ,or
  30 foot trailer covered with solar panties
  
  nuke power station every 50 miles to get wour battery
  recharged or your panties refilled…
  Report Post »
- lukerw
  Posted on December 23, 2011 at 2:46pm
  Let’s do… a Product Review… upon Obama… and the Leftist Propaganda!
  Report Post »
ThePostman
Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:24pm
First clue, they rave about the product being “made in China, so you know it’s good quality”.
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