There was a time when web typography was simply a matter of putting a few fonts together. Modern web design has now evolved to the point where we expect text to do more. We want it to be responsive to a user’s screen, automatically fit into designated spaces and provide other advanced functionality.
With the assistance of some outstanding frameworks and libraries, you can achieve a number of exciting typography effects. Below is a collection of some of our favorites.
The Designer & Developer Toolbox Unlimited Downloads: 500,000+ Web Templates, Themes, Plugins & Design Assets
baffle.js adds an interesting “obfuscate and reveal” effect to desired text. At first glance, text appears scrambled. An animated sequence then systematically reveals the text string. There are a number of decorative uses, but it seems like an awesome basis for a word-scramble game.
One trend we’re seeing in web typography is enabling text to automatically resize to fit into its parent container. Fitty is a tiny script that adds this functionality to your website. It supports web fonts and multiline text. The script will also automatically adjust as the user’s viewport changes.
Textillate.js combines two popular text animation libraries (animate.css and lettering.js) to create one super-powerful collection of text effects. Virtually any type of animation you’re after is possible in one easy-to-use jQuery plugin.
Add beautiful text gradients to your site with React Text Gradient. This React component will check to see if background-clip is available. If so, a gradient is applied with CSS. Otherwise a SVG gradient is used as a fallback.
jQuery.auto-text-rotating isn’t the smoothest name – but this jQuery plugin is pretty darn cool. You can replace text in a string with multiple animation effects available. You’ll also be able to change multiple words within the same line, if desired.
Using ShareSelectedText.js brings Medium-style text quote sharing to any website. All a user needs to do is select some text and an icon menu appears – allowing for sharing on whichever supported services (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr and more) you like. It’s very handy for letting users share parts of your content that’s most important to them.
React Reveal Text is a small library that reveals text with animation. It uses CSS transitions, which means it’s rather simple to configure. And it can be styled just like any other element on your website. This could be a very useful effect for hero banner or landing page intro.
Lettering.js is a jQuery plugin that allows for control on a per-letter basis. It’s pretty simple. Call the script and define a CSS class or ID that corresponds with the text you want to alter. Each letter within that defined class becomes a HTML span with a class of its own. Use CSS to style each letter to the max!
text-balancer was developed by the New York Times and the aim of this simple script is to remove typographic widows from your content. You can run the script just on specific CSS selectors or more generally by using the .balance-text class.
Typed.js takes text strings and “types” them in the browser, deletes them and moves on to the next string. It’s quite simple to use and is a great way to tell a story. You can set up any number of text strings (in the script itself or through use of CSS selectors) and the speed at which they’re typed, along with several handy options.
It’s Your Type
Through the power of scripts like the ones featured above, web typography is capable of going well beyond the typical. We can now exercise complete control over how text looks and functions. With regards to looks, special effects that used to be the realm of print graphics are now fairly simple to replicate on the web. Functionality is boosted by tools that enable designers to create a better, friendlier UX.
For your next project, take a moment to imagine how you can better implement typography to enhance it. Then, take advantage of one of these amazing tools to make it happen.
Fake reviews are increasingly prevalent across many top retailer websites, according to a study from Fakespot, which analyzes online customer reviews for fake or unreliable reviews.
52 percent of reviews posted on Walmart.com are “inauthentic and unreliable,” Fakespot estimates
30 percent of Amazon reviews are fake or unreliable, the study found
About a third of reviews on makeup retailer Sephora and video-game service Steam are also unreliable or fake, the analysis discovered
“My advice is to be very skeptical” when reading online reviews, said Saoud Khalifah, CEO of Fakespot
The fake reviews threaten to undermine the credibility of retailers struggling with the influx, according to Fakespot, which uses algorithms to look for patterns of deception in reviews. Manufacturers are eager to earn 5-star reviews that can push their products to the top of a search result on Amazon, for instance, with some turning to trickery to make their products stand out.
“You need a lot of good positive reviews to convince people to check out their products,” said Khalifah, who wrote a software program to detect fake reviews after getting tricked himself by glowing reviews for a sleep supplement. After the supplement didn’t work, he realized many of those positive reviews were fake.
Khalifah said his research “tells me that 1 in 3 reviews on any of these platform is highly unreliable. They have been influenced by people at the company [making or marketing the product that’s sold on the website] or written by people hired by the company. There is a lot of bias in the reviews.”
Increase in fake reviews hitting Walmart, Amazon, and other retailers
For instance, companies will send postcards to people who recently purchased a product on Amazon, promising them a gift card to the site if they write a 5-star review that gets published. Other companies hire professional reviewers to post glowing reviews, while some use bots to post fake reviews en masse.
In the case of the postcards offering gift cards in exchange for top reviews, Fakespot’s Khalifah says the customer reviews are still problematic. In some cases, the offers are only valid if the review is posted within a few days of the purchase, but that may not give a consumer enough time to test the product and figure out of it performs as advertised.
“These influenced reviews are degrading the quality of your online shopping experience,” he says.
Legal action
In a statement sent to CBS MoneyWatch, Walmart said it recognizes that reviews are “an important part of the Walmart shopping experience.” It added that it moderates all reviews. “If we do not believe a review is from an actual customer, we immediately remove it from our site,” the company said.
Amazon said it invests “significant resources” in maintaining the quality of its reviews. “Even one inauthentic review is one too many,” the company said in a statement sent to CBS MoneyWatch.
Winery owner sues Google over bad reviews
It noted it has posted participation guidelines for reviewers and companies that sell on its site, and it added that it suspends, bans and takes legal action against those who violate its policies.
Amazon said it uses a combination of investigators and automation to root out inauthentic reviews. “We estimate more than 90 percent of inauthentic reviews are computer generated, and we use machine learning technology to analyze all incoming and existing reviews 24/7 and block or remove inauthentic reviews,” the company said.
Sephora and Steam’s parent company, Valve, didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
How to detect fake reviews
Fake reviews started proliferating several years ago, but show no sign of letting up, Khalifah says. While they may seem like a nuisance, they have the potential to mislead consumers about the quality of products. And consumers tend to rely on those reviews for purchasing advice, with about 84 percent of consumers saying they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, Fakespot said.
Consumers can plug in the URL of a product into Fakespot’s website, which grades the reviews from A to F and provides insights into whether a retailer has removed reviews, a sign that some of the reviews may have been fake or biased. One popular external battery on Amazon, for instance, earned a “D” rating from Fakespot, which determined that fewer than 44 percent of the reviews were reliable.
Consumers can also eyeball reviews on their own for signs of deception. Khalifah says red flags include:
A one-day surge in five-star reviews
Broken grammar
Reviews from reviewers who post hundreds of reviews in one day
It’s not only that companies are faking glowing reviews, but companies are hiring people or using bots to also post fake “bad” reviews for competitors. A sudden rash of 1-star reviews for a product could be a sign of sabotage, for instance.
“We believe the review system is broken,” Khalifah said. “People still don’t realize how much the review system is gamed.”
The Federal Trade Commission is watching, too. On Tuesday it announced its first case against a marketer’s use of phony paid reviews on an independent retail website. Cure Encapsulations Inc. settled FTC allegations it made false and unsubstantiated claims for its garcinia cambogia weight-loss supplement through a third-party website the agency said was paid to write and post fake reviews on Amazon.com.
“When a company buys fake reviews to inflate its Amazon ratings, it hurts both shoppers and companies that play by the rules,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
Consumers who rent a vacation home through Airbnb must trust that the keys will be there for them upon arrival, as much as the host must trust that they’ll be paid in a timely manner, and that their property won’t be damaged.
As the sharing economy grows globally, fostering that confidence and trust between buyers and sellers has become more crucial for platforms to stay relevant and competitive. They must also excel at securely handling payments and personal data, while recommending services at the right moment to enhance transactions along the way.
In the new Payments And The Platform Economy Playbook series, powered by Yapstone, PYMNTS examines the latest developments in the platform economy, and seeks to offer a roadmap for managing risks, optimizing rewards and creating a trusted business environment.
Around the Payments and Platform Economy World
A job marketplace platform in India is looking to connect trained trade workers with employers. Co-founder and CEO Pravin Agarwala of BetterPlace asserted that more than 60,000 workers have been onboarded since its 2015 launch, and more than 1,000 large employers are using the service. The digital platform provides hiring, training, compliance management and payroll solutions to its clients, and is geared toward the facilities management, private security and logistics industries, to name a few.
Further east, Airbnb is taking off in South Korea, with a reported 2.9 million tourists using the platform in 2018, a 56 percent increase over the prior year. While hosts in rural communities are legally allowed to accept both Korean citizens and foreigners as guests, hosts in urban areas can only accept those from outside the country. The South Korean government indicated it intends to ease restrictions on urban hosts, as a homesharing bill was submitted to its parliamentary committee on culture, sports and tourism in 2017 — a move that would help normalize and boost the homesharing industry in the country.
This is not to say, though, that sharing economy platforms are completely ironclad. Cybercriminals have recently targeted apps like Uber and Airbnb to launder money, which is then further used for committing illegitimate activities. Platforms need to pay careful attention to fraud across dozens of markets, meaning the ability to detect and manage fraud will only become more crucial as the sharing economy grows.
Read these and the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker.
Airbnb on Payments, User Friction and Security Challenges in a Global Market
As sharing economy platforms expand globally and become more popular, the pressure is on to cater to consumers, and offer seamless experiences to both buyers and sellers to remain competitive. This means localizing their services and not taking a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to payment methods and user experiences.
With more than 5 million worldwide listings, Airbnb has to stay up to date with local, state and national digital security regulations as it operates in over 191 countries, according to Logan Vander Linden, payments partnerships lead for Airbnb, in a recent PYMNTS interview. In this month’s feature story, Vander Linden explained how Airbnb works to stay compliant in each market as worldwide competition grows fierce.
Find the full feature story in the Playbook.
HomeAway’s Wins and Losses in the Ever-Competitive Sharing Economy
Renting a room or home online — or through a mobile app — is familiar to consumers, who are used to browsing and booking listings with a few taps on their touchscreens. However, that familiarity creates challenges for homesharing companies, which need to capture customer loyalty in an increasingly competitive market. Their user experiences need to be easy and friction-free, no matter the churning waters in the back end.
In the latest Playbook, PYMNTS analyzes how HomeAway is treading the rapidly changing market conditions. HomeAway is navigating the changing regulations, shifting consumer behaviors and all the other challenges that come with global expansion, as it works to stay competitive. To read the Case Study, download the Playbook.
About the Playbook
The monthly Payments And The Platform Economy Playbook series, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Yapstone, aims to help platform payment decision-makers identify and manage the risks and rewards inherent in shaping their approaches, enabling them to optimize their operations and navigate the real-time challenges they face.
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Latest Insights:
Our data and analytics team has developed a number of creative methodologies and frameworks that measure and benchmark the innovation that’s reshaping the payments and commerce ecosystem. Check out the February 2019 PYMNTS B2B API Tracker Report
The maker of a supposed fat-blocking weight-loss pill that didn’t help much with weight loss paid for fake Amazon reviews to push its false and misleading claims, the Federal Trade Commission said in a lawsuit announced yesterday.
It’s the first time the FTC has filed a lawsuit “challenging a marketer’s use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website,” the agency said. The FTC complaint was filed against Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and its owner, Naftula Jacobowitz, in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The defendants have agreed to settle the case, pay a $50,000 fine, and notify past customers that there’s no scientific evidence backing up the weight-loss claims. Customers may get refunds, but it’s not definite.
The FTC said its complaint “alleges that the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims on their Amazon product page, including through the purchased reviews, that their garcinia cambogia product is a ‘powerful appetite suppressant,’ ‘Literally BLOCKS FAT From Forming,’ causes significant weight loss, including as much as twenty pounds, and causes rapid and substantial weight loss, including as much as two or more pounds per week.
“[T]he reviews the defendants bought were posted on Amazon.com and gave the product a five-star rating,” the FTC also said. “The complaint charges the defendants with representing that the purchased Amazon reviews were truthful reviews written by actual purchasers, when in reality they were fabricated.”
In October 2014, Jacobowitz agreed to pay $1,000 to www.amazonverifiedreviews.com, a website that no longer exists but which “offered Amazon sellers the ability to “‘Push your product towards the top!’ using ‘verified’ product reviews that will ‘help your product rank better in the internal search engine,'” the FTC complaint said. Jacobowitz asked for 30 reviews and asked the operator of Amazon Verified Reviews to “Please make sure my product should stay a five star.”
The resulting five-star reviews, which were listed in the complaint, included the following:
“I started to using this product 2 months ago and I have lost 15 pounds already. Don’t get me wrong, I was originally 150 pounds and 5’6. I haven’t felt dizzy or anything as these 1-star reviews said, which I was worried at the beginning. Will definitely keep buying!”
“Wow. I’m actually still amazed that it worked way faster than I expected. I have lost 20 pounds by using these amazing capsules. The pills help you with your intake of food, cleans all toxins from your body and does not allow fat or sugar to stick. Highly recommended! 3.”
“This product really cuts your appetite! I didn’t eat much and i was already feeling full. I used this product for 3 month’s and I am very glad I did. It helps with weight loss. I really love it.”-
“lost 10 pounds in the past 2 months, while not a single pound from boobs, lol.”-
“made in the USA. safety ensured. 110lb to 100lb in 40 days, its beyond 5 star.”-
“Lost 7 pounds in one month. What more can I say? I was originally 140 pounds and 5’6. Now I felt like a model. lol.”
The FTC accused the defendants of violating US law by making false or unsubstantiated efficacy claims and by making false endorsement claims through the fake Amazon reviews.
Amazon itself has cracked down on fake reviews over the years, in part by suing the operator of websites that sold reviews. Amazon emailed Ars with a statement saying that it “welcome[s] the FTC’s work in this area.”
“Amazon invests significant resources to protect the integrity of reviews in our store because we know customers value the insights and experiences shared by fellow shoppers,” Amazon said. “Even one inauthentic review is one too many. We have clear participation guidelines for both reviewers and selling partners and we suspend, ban, and take legal action on those who violate our policies.”
Pills don’t block fat but may cause nausea
The defendants’ “Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA” pills were sold only on Amazon.com. Each pill contained 500mg of garcinia cambogia extract, which in turn included 300mg of hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and the company recommended taking two pills a day. The company sold bottles, containing 180 capsules each, for $19.99 a bottle.
According to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) fact sheet, weight-loss pill makers have claimed that the hydroxycitric acid (HCA) in garcinia cambogia fruit can “decrease the number of new fat cells your body makes, suppress your appetite and thus reduce the amount of food you eat, and limit the amount of weight you gain.”
In reality, “Garcinia cambogia has little to no effect on weight loss,” the NIH says. The NIH further says that Garcinia cambogia “seems to be fairly safe,” but “can cause headache, nausea, and symptoms in the upper respiratory tract, stomach, and intestines.”
An exhibit in the lawsuit provided this screenshot of the now-deleted Amazon page from February 8, 2017:
Few details on refunds
The FTC has not said how many customers bought the product.
The proposed settlement includes a judgment of $12.85 million, but most of it would be suspended, and defendants would be ordered to pay the FTC only $50,000. The deal letting Cure Encapsulations and Jacobowitz off the hook for most of the financial penalty “is expressly premised upon the truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of Defendants’ sworn financial statements and related documents,” the proposed settlement says.
All money paid to the commission will “be used for equitable relief, including consumer redress and any attendant expenses for the administration of any redress fund,” the proposed settlement says.
But the settlement says it’s possible that there won’t be any refunds if it turns out to be “impracticable.”
“If a representative of the Commission decides that direct redress to consumers is wholly or partially impracticable or money remains after redress is completed, the Commission may apply any remaining money for such other equitable relief (including consumer information remedies) as it determines to be reasonably related to Defendants’ practices alleged in the Complaint,” the settlement says. “Any money not used for such equitable relief is to be deposited to the US Treasury as disgorgement.”
“We don’t have scientific proof”
Officially, the defendants did not admit or deny any of the allegations. But they agreed to identify customers who bought the product on or after March 6, 2017, and send this exact email to them:
Subject Line: FTC says company deceptively advertised a product you bought
Dear Customer:
Our records show you bought our Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA product. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, has charged us with deceptive advertising. To settle the case, we have agreed to send this notice to people who bought our product.
According to the FTC, we deceptively claimed–among other things–that our product causes significant weight loss, is a powerful appetite suppressant, and blocks the formation of new fat cells. We don’t have scientific proof for any of those claims.
You might want to look at the attached National Institutes of Health fact sheet on dietary supplements for weight loss. It discusses common ingredients in weight-loss dietary supplements, including garcinia cambogia. It says, “Garcinia cambogia has little to no effect on weight loss.” The fact sheet also addresses other topics, including whether weight-loss dietary supplements can be harmful and choosing a sensible approach to weight loss.
Sincerely,
Naftula Jacobowitz Chief Executive Officer Cure Encapsulations, Inc.
The emails would have to be sent within 30 days after the settlement is approved by the court.
The new year brings new trends and changes in the world of web design. To ensure your business stays current, you must keep your website up to date. So, what are the upcoming web design trends for 2019?
In this post, we’ll cover seven expected trends for 2019. Keep reading to learn more about where you can update your website to fit with the trends!
1. Going bold with color
One of the first aspects you’ll want to evaluate in the new year is your color palette. Colors have a big impact on how your audience views your website.
Your color palette is a big part of your brand identity. People will look at your colors and associate them with your brand. It’s a crucial part of your business, so you want to ensure that you keep them fresh.
One of the biggest trends coming into 2019 is the usage of bright colors. Bright colors capture your audiences’ attention and gets them engaged with your page.
If your color palette is old or outdated, this is a time to update it. You can opt for brighter versions of your color palette to make your website pop. It’s a great way to help your website stand out from the competition.
This brings a unique and fresh aspect to your website. By updating the colors on your pages, you’ll make your website pop.
On another end of the spectrum, an upcoming trend is a black and white palette with bold color accents. Black and white palettes add a unique experience to your website. It allows your audience to see your website in a new view.
You can see textures, shapes, and points of interest differently. With a black and white palette, you can input different accent colors to make different parts of your website more appealing. It’s a great way to create different points of interest on your site.
Overall, you’ll want to take a second look at your color palette and make sure it’s still attractive to your audience.
2. Strong, bold typography
Your typography is a crucial part of how your audience experiences your site. You must have readable typography to ensure your audience can read your text. Bold typography will be a common trend for web design in 2019.
You want to have typography that stands out, but also is easy to read. The type of font you use sends a message to your audience. When you use the appropriate font, you build trust with your audience and ensures they get the message from your text.
Your typography enhances your website’s design. It adds flair and character. As you comb through your site, see if you can upgrade your font choice to make it more interesting for your audience.
3. Minimalism
Many companies are under the impression that more means better. The reality of the situation, however, is that less is more. A minimalist design is the best way to present your business to your audience.
This ensures that you only present the most important information to your audience. It’s easy to dive into detail and go in-depth with your content, but you can end up overwhelming your audience.
The best thing to do is keep your design and information simple. Make all of your information clear and space it out so it doesn’t make your site appear overcrowded. You’ll have a site that looks cleaner and will be easier for your audience to engage with your content.
4. More videos
As videos and media platforms like YouTube rise in popularity, it’s more crucial for businesses to integrate videos into their sites. If you want to remain in competition with your competitors, integrate more videos into your site.
When you add videos to your site, you create unique engagement points. You create diversity on your page and break up the abundance of text on your site.
Videos cater well to your on-the-go audience. They may not have time to read all the information on your site, but they can watch a quick two-minute video and get all the information they need.
With Google generating more mixed results that include listings and videos, it’s a great time to start integrating videos into your marketing plan. It gives you an opportunity to engage new leads and gain more exposure for your business.
5. Create micro-interactions
Micro-interactions are surprise events that happen to users while visiting your site. When someone takes a small action on your site and a specific response happens, it creates a micro-interaction.
For example, when someone logs on to Facebook and sees a red box with a number next to their notifications, this is a micro-interaction. It’s something that is interesting and engaging for your audience, and, in this case, gets someone to click on their notifications.
There are many micro-interactions on Twitter, too. For instance, when someone refreshes their Twitter feed, they’ll hear a popping sound. This is also a micro-interaction.
These are small nuances that add to the user experience on your site. You can integrate micro-interactions on your site through scroll animations, chimes, and more.
It’s a great way to create a more engaging and interactive experience and will help your website’s design stand out in 2019.
6. Mobile-friendly design
As you continue to adapt to web design trends for 2019, think about your mobile audience. Mobile browsing is becoming more prominent than desktop browsing. You’ll want to ensure that your web design is mobile-friendly for 2019.
One big emphasis this coming year is making your site thumb-friendly. When people browse on mobile, they use their thumbs to scroll, click, and navigate mobile sites. This means you should focus on adding and placing site elements where they are easy to access with a thumb.
For instance, a hamburger menu, the icon with three lines, is typically on mobile sites. However, the issue is that this menu is often at the top left-hand side of the site. This makes it challenging for your audience to access your menu.
To adapt for mobile users, you may need to put your hamburger menu in another place, like the bottom right corner, so your audience can access your information. It makes it quicker and more efficient for your audience to browse through your site.
7. Focus on user experience (UX)
Your audience is at the heart of your business. To have a successful presence online, you must provide your audience with a positive user experience (UX) so they remain on your site and learn about your business.
Think about what they would want to see on your site or what types of elements would enhance their experience. Whether it’s the navigation, typography, media, or information on your site, you always want to consider how your audience will respond.
Good UX is the difference between earning leads and losing them. You can have an attractive website that represents your brand well, but that doesn’t matter if the UX isn’t optimized. Ensure that your UX is optimized in 2019 to retain your audience’s interest.
Prepare your website for 2019
As the new year comes in, it’s crucial that you keep your website up to date. By keeping up with web design trends, you’ll keep your website modern and fresh. You’ll help keep your audience engaged and interested in your page.
Fake reviews are increasingly prevalent across many top retailer websites, according to a study from Fakespot, which analyzes online customer reviews for fake or unreliable reviews.
52 percent of reviews posted on Walmart.com are “inauthentic and unreliable,” Fakespot estimates
30 percent of Amazon reviews are fake or unreliable, the study found
About a third of reviews on makeup retailer Sephora and video-game service Steam are also unreliable or fake, the analysis discovered
“My advice is to be very skeptical” when reading online reviews, said Saoud Khalifah, CEO of Fakespot
The fake reviews threaten to undermine the credibility of retailers struggling with the influx, according to Fakespot, which uses algorithms to look for patterns of deception in reviews. Manufacturers are eager to earn 5-star reviews that can push their products to the top of a search result on Amazon, for instance, with some turning to trickery to make their products stand out.
“You need a lot of good positive reviews to convince people to check out their products,” said Khalifah, who wrote a software program to detect fake reviews after getting tricked himself by glowing reviews for a sleep supplement. After the supplement didn’t work, he realized many of those positive reviews were fake.
Khalifah said his research “tells me that 1 in 3 reviews on any of these platform is highly unreliable. They have been influenced by people at the company [making or marketing the product that’s sold on the website] or written by people hired by the company. There is a lot of bias in the reviews.”
For instance, companies will send postcards to people who recently purchased a product on Amazon, promising them a gift card to the site if they write a 5-star review that gets published. Other companies hire professional reviewers to post glowing reviews, while some use bots to post fake reviews en masse.
Winery owner sues Google over bad reviews
In the case of the postcards offering gift cards in exchange for top reviews, Fakespot’s Khalifah says the customer reviews are still problematic. In some cases, the offers are only valid if the review is posted within a few days of the purchase, but that may not give a consumer enough time to test the product and figure out of it performs as advertised.
“These influenced reviews are degrading the quality of your online shopping experience,” he says.
Legal action
In a statement sent to CBS MoneyWatch, Walmart said it recognizes that reviews are “an important part of the Walmart shopping experience.” It added that it moderates all reviews. “If we do not believe a review is from an actual customer, we immediately remove it from our site,” the company said.
Amazon said it invests “significant resources” in maintaining the quality of its reviews. “Even one inauthentic review is one too many,” the company said in a statement sent to CBS MoneyWatch.
It noted it has posted participation guidelines for reviewers and companies that sell on its site, and it added that it suspends, bans and takes legal action against those who violate its policies.
Amazon said it uses a combination of investigators and automation to root out inauthentic reviews. “We estimate more than 90 percent of inauthentic reviews are computer generated, and we use machine learning technology to analyze all incoming and existing reviews 24/7 and block or remove inauthentic reviews,” the company said.
Sephora and Steam’s parent company, Valve, didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
How to detect fake reviews
Fake reviews started proliferating several years ago, but show no sign of letting up, Khalifah says. While they may seem like a nuisance, they have the potential to mislead consumers about the quality of products. And consumers tend to rely on those reviews for purchasing advice, with about 84 percent of consumers saying they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, Fakespot said.
Consumers can plug in the URL of a product into Fakespot’s website, which grades the reviews from A to F and provides insights into whether a retailer has removed reviews, a sign that some of the reviews may have been fake or biased. One popular external battery on Amazon, for instance, earned a “D” rating from Fakespot, which determined that fewer than 44 percent of the reviews were reliable.
Consumers can also eyeball reviews on their own for signs of deception. Khalifah says red flags include:
A one-day surge in five-star reviews
Broken grammar
Reviews from reviewers who post hundreds of reviews in one day
It’s not only that companies are faking glowing reviews, but companies are hiring people or using bots to also post fake “bad” reviews for competitors. A sudden rash of 1-star reviews for a product could be a sign of sabotage, for instance.
“We believe the review system is broken,” Khalifah said. “People still don’t realize how much the review system is gamed.”
The Federal Trade Commission is watching, too. On Tuesday it announced its first case against a marketer’s use of phony paid reviews on an independent retail website. Cure Encapsulations Inc. settled FTC allegations it made false and unsubstantiated claims for its garcinia cambogia weight-loss supplement through a third-party website the agency said was paid to write and post fake reviews on Amazon.com.
“When a company buys fake reviews to inflate its Amazon ratings, it hurts both shoppers and companies that play by the rules,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
As feds take aim at fake online reviews, here’s how to spot phonies
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission is taking action against a company that used fake online reviews to sell its product.
According to the FTC, Naftula Jacobowitz, the owner of Cure Encapuslations, Inc. paid amazonverifiedreviews.com to write and post fake reviews about “Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA” capsules, which was marketed as an appetite-suppressing, fat-blocking weight loss pill.
According to court documents, Jacobowitz demanded 30 fabricated reviews to boost his overall rating to 4.3 out of 5 stars. The FTC also accused the company of making false and unsubstantiated claims about the product.
Now, Cure Encapsulations and Jacobowitz are facing a $12.8 million judgment, which will be suspended upon payment of $50,000 to the FTC.
The company’s settlement with the FTC also prohibits the defendants “from making weight-loss, appetite-suppression, fat-blocking, or disease-treatment claims for any dietary supplement, food, or drug unless they have competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing supporting the claims,” according to the FTC.
Cure Encapsulations is also required to notify consumers who purchased the supplement.
The Better Business Bureau’s Paula Fleming says fake reviews for products and services run rampant online.
“It’s just unfortunate that consumers don’t know who to trust anymore,” Fleming said. “It doesn’t only hurt the business, but it hurts the customers.”
In some cases, companies pay for positive reviews to boost business. In other cases, the goal is to tank the competition.
“What we have seen is competitors logging on and using alias email addresses and writing negative customer reviews,” Fleming said. “It’s actually increased year over year.”
Consumers can sift through the fakes.
“What I encourage people to do is go to a verified source,” Fleming explained. “A verified customer review means that the business has been contacted and that it is indeed a customer of that business.”
According to the BBB, consumers should also:
Avoid anonymous reviewers, especially if the user profile was recently created
Watch out for scripted reviews or similar phrases in multiple reviews
Research products and services beyond online reviews
BBB research shows 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
There I was, sitting alone in a nearly empty restaurant. I’d just come out of a meeting with a longtime client who informed me that their corporate parent had decided to move in another direction. They were my second-largest source of revenue. I was stunned.
I started thinking about the future and how I’d manage to pay the bills. How could I possibly make up for the lost income? The thought crossed my mind that I may have to go out and get a side job to supplement my freelance business. I was humbled, frustrated and scared.
What I didn’t realize those many years ago was that things would turn out just fine. In fact, the whole episode ended up putting my career on a much better path. Here’s how.
To be honest, I hadn’t been exactly thrilled with the work I was doing with this particular client for quite a while. They were wonderful people – don’t get me wrong. It’s just that the work itself no longer fit with what I really wanted to do.
They were actually one of my first clients, way back when my business was just starting up in the late 1990’s. The gig was to design and maintain a series of websites for local radio stations. It was sort of a high-profile client that I could use to cement my place in the market. And the pay was good.
Designing each site was a great experience. While they were just old-school, static HTML entities, I had a certain amount of creative license. The client was happy and so was I.
It was the day-to-day grind, however, that was really getting me down. I’m someone who really likes to know what I’m going to do and when I’ve got to have it done by. Yet, the radio industry was anything but predictable. Projects would come in at the last minute and need taken care of quickly. I was able to do the work, but it was a great source of stress.
Anyway, after a bit of feeling sorry for myself about losing a big client, I realized that this could be a real opportunity. Sure, I was losing some revenue. But I was also gaining the freedom to take things in a more desirable direction.
Knowing that I would no longer feel trapped gave me a much more positive outlook on the future.
Comfort Led to Complacency
Looking back, I see that I’d been stuck in a rut when it came to work. It seemed like I was always busy, but in such a way that I dreaded heading into the office. I never knew what kind of last-minute surprise would be sent my way.
That led to a lot of stagnation and stunted my growth. Sure, I had moved on to building sites with WordPress, and was excited about it. But then there were always these legacy projects taking up precious time that I could be spending on something more fulfilling. But I just accepted it as being how things were then and how they’d be in the future.
Then suddenly I found myself with all of this extra time on my hands. I was no longer quite as overwhelmed with my situation. It led me to re-invest time in learning. And, fatefully, it gave me an opportunity to pursue another passion: writing.
For the first time in years, I started feeling really excited about web design.
A Gradual Change
With a newfound passion for what I was doing, I went about the process of revamping a career that was more in line with where I wanted to go.
The first step was figuring out what type of projects I wanted to work on. I realized that I really enjoyed working with WordPress, and so I marketed myself as someone who worked exclusively in that space. Over time, I began booking more interesting projects and thus increasing my knowledge. Things were going in the right direction.
And, when it came to writing, I started sending in occasional articles to a certain bespectacled design magazine. I wasn’t expecting much. My hope was simply to find a place that would get my voice out there. Apparently, it worked – I’m still here!
That’s not to say that any of this was easy. In fact, it took years of building out my portfolio and learning how to say “no” to projects that weren’t a good fit. And there were plenty of lows to go along with the occasional highs.
So, no, your business probably won’t transform overnight. But if you take anything away from my story, I hope it’s that you don’t have to settle. You can reinvent yourself and push your career in new directions. And, lastly, know that something really good can come out of a tough break. I’m living proof.
