Fake online user reviews can make you shop wrong or inferior product. This is why you should learn how to identify fake reviews to ensure a good online buying.

(Fake reviews are to the customers what cyber threats are to the businesses in Singapore. Both lead to frustration, loss and regret.)

Are you going to buy a new product online?

Like a savvy customer, you must have checked its reviews. Right?

After all, reviews give an idea about the quality and performance of a certain product. From satisfaction to disappointment, the customer’s reactions are usually varied for the products.Checking other customers’ feedback just increases your buying confidence.

But you shouldn’t blindly trust all customer reviews. This is because some reviews, which are usually positive, are fabricated or fake in order to build a positive image of the product.

May be a 5 stars rating for a hair dryer or plenty of positive reviews for a mobile phone is not true.

By trusting fake reviews, you can end up buying inferior product which later leads to your regret. Therefore,you should be careful while reading customer reviews.

And it is even important as nearly 60% Singaporean shop online (at least once a month).

Read Also: Top 7 Mobile Apps If You Are New to Singapore

Here we have helped you spotting fake online reviews.

RED FLAG # 1: The Review is Not Detailed:

Most fake reviews either brag about the products or come up with a blunt criticism, without anysolid reason. In simple words, these reviews lack reason why the particular product is good or bad. The tone is typically extreme.

For example, have a look at this review about a smartphone…

“Superb and beautiful phone! Best one I’ve ever purchased.”

The reviewer hasn’t mentioned that why the certain phone is superb or what features make it his best purchase ever. It is usually high on the adjectives like best, wonderful, and superb rather than stressing facts or experience. In fact, science has proved a person who is lying, tend to use personal pronouns.

A genuine review reflects user’s experience with the product and covers all the reason that makes the product good or poor. One more thing—a real review is likely to be moderate in the tone.

RED FLAG # 2: Similar Reviews across Several Websites:

You must have come across plenty of similar reviews while researching a product across several websites. Most of these reviews might have similar word groupings and writing style.

It simply means that the information is either being copied or the same person has written them all.

Most reviewers are paid for creating fake reviews to be spread across the websites. Like we said in the previous point, most fake reviews are full of adjectives rather than useful details. Most fake reviews may be posted with the same author’s name across several platforms.

(Tip: Highlight a sentence, copy it and paste into your search engine’s search bar. Press Enter. If you see exact sentences have been used on a number other sites (even it is for different products, this tells that the review is fake.)

RED FLAG # 3: Large Chunk of Reviewsover a Short Period of Time:

If a new product gets thousands of positive reviews in a short span of time (for example, 30 minutes), chances are these reviews are fake.

These reviews are created by bogus critics or paid reviewers to create hype for promotional gain.

RED FLAG # 4: Short and Sloppy:

Other sign of fake reviews is that they are short, repetitive and sloppy. This is because fake reviewers are paid little per review. To make a large earning, they are likely to write quickly and in established form of words. It leads to the reviews being marked with typos, slangs, and lack of punctuation and above all, extreme brevity.

RED FLAG # 5: Repeating or Saying the Entire Name Over and Over:

One more sign to identify a fake product review. A fake review mill can use product name several times across the sentences to improve the SEO visibility of the company. For example,

“The amazing features of ABC Printer 1400X are the best I’ve ever seen. I never want to print any of my documents without ABC Printer 1400X. ABC Printer 1400X is easy to use and doesn’t add to your electricity bill.” 

By mentioning the same name of the excessively in the reviews across the separate sites, many marketers try to manipulate the search results.

Read Also: Top 5 Food Apps in Foodies in Singapore

Bottom Line:

You must have understood how to spot fake reviews. However, you should be proactive as bogus reviews can look like original in coming years. The best way to combat fake reviews is to shop from trusted websites and use (Google Search) Internet for anything suspicious.

Why businesses in Singapore are threatened by the ever growing cyber-attacks? What to do? Find out here…

Remember WannaCry? Remember Messiah? Remember Petya Ransomware?

These are some deadly computer viruses that took down thousands of businesses in Singapore the time they broke out.

From leaking information, locking out the users of their PC to corrupting the databases, they have done severe damages to the companies across the island and worldwide as well.

Read More: 10 Mistakes That Make Your Ecommerce Website a Hacker’s Target

Consider yourself lucky if your business survived the attack or remain unaffected, but for how long?

Your business can be the next target. Why?

Singapore is one of the vulnerable nations to cybercrimes. Singapore Cyber Landscape found that cybercrimes rate was nearly doubled from previous year, as it was up from 7.9 per cent to 13.7 percent. In 2016, the Singapore Government revealed that the nation faces more than one cyber-attack per month.

According to Asia Pacific Defence Outlook 2016 by Deloitte, Singapore is nine times more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Therefore, you shouldn’t overlook the cyber-attacks.

Why cyber crimes rate have been on the rise in Singapore? Despite being Asia’s tech hub, why businesses in Singapore are on the radar of cyber criminals?

Reasons Singapore Businesses Become Target of Cyber Attacks

Lack of Investment in Security Measures:

Many companies are not taking cyber security seriously, despite the potential threats. According to a Quann IT Security End User Study 2017, most businesses in Singapore are not making investment in cyber security measures like device deployment, professional services, cyber awareness and resources for attacks.

Businesses need to recognize the value of comprehensive security plan, solid processes and detection system to detect the threats early and minimise their risk.

Having No Security Features to Detect and Monitor the Attack:

Although most Singapore companies use firewall and antivirus, over half of them lack robust security measures to deal with sophisticated attack, according to Quann. The study further says that they lack advanced security features like SOC or dedicated team to monitor, analyse and respond to the attack.

Having the Highest Internet Penetration Rate:

Singapore is on the way to become the next big tech hub of the world. 90% people have smartphone due to overwhelming Internet speed and government support for IT sector.

On the flip side, the ever increasing Internet penetration rate has attracted the eyes of cyber criminals. For example, people rely on their smartphones for making even nominal payment without caring for the basic security standards or paying platform. As everything is on the Internet, it takes a hacker to break some simple codes to get access to your info.

Read Also: 10 Smart Ways to Promote Your Mobile Apps in Singapore

Being the Launchpad for Cyber Attacks:

Singapore has become the most favourable place to launch a cyber-attack, according to Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli security firm. This is because much of the internet traffic is delivered from other countries. It means that a cyber-attack being delivered from Singapore might have been launched outside the nation.

Cyber Security—It is As Important as Your Business Practices

Given the ever growing rate of cybercrimes in Singapore, cybersecurity is more important than anything else. It is a need of hour to protect your valuable data, detect malware and threat and monitor the functions. These dos and don’ts help you reinforce the cyber security of your business.

Do’s

• Stay Updated with Latest Hacking Threat
• Use Strong Passwords
• Keep Your All Software Updated
• Use SSL
• Update Antivirus and Malware

Don’ts

• Don’t open attachments or links contained in email from unknown sender.
• Don’t download shareware or freeware from unknown sites or sources.
• Don’t give away any critical info to unauthorized person
• Don’t use cyber café or unprotect computer to access or process sensitive data.

So this is how Singapore businesses are prone to cyber-attacks and how to deal with them. Have we skipped something else? Please remind us by commenting below.