Ten ways to spot a fake supplement review

Reviews are a critical part of the online shopping experience.

A good review can make a business – equally a bad review can destroy one.

When it comes to supplements, reviews take on an extra edge due to the claims some manufacturers, suppliers and companies make when marketing their products.

Many supplement companies are happy to treat the customer with mixed respect in others way on top of this.

Some business produce their own ranges, which can mean:

– They don’t source any known brands
– They package their products in their own branding
– They always try to sell you supplements they say are better (which oddly enough, no other store or company seems to stock).

The above can mean the products come from inferior sources, or worse, are packaged with false ingredients and claims.

Other companies, especially in Australia, have other methods to attract reviews, including one major nutrient business that offered reviewers the chance to “win back” the purchase price of their order.

So what are the 10 ways to spot a fake or dishonest supplement review?

1. There are just too many.

If a company has thousands of reviews, they will not be genuine.

There is just no way in the digital world that a company attracts that many reviews.

However this can also mean… (see below)

2. When you actually read the review, they talk about a different product

Here is an example.

Unflavoured Creatine.

“Nothing beats have one of these protein shakes morning, afternoon and night. I love the chocolate taste!”

Enough said.

3. They say all reviewers are verified buyers.

A big red flag across any review site.

Anyone who leaves a review for a site will be a verified buyer. If a company is putting such a badge on their site, it isn’t a good sign.

A bit like that 250 pound bodybuilder with 5% bodyfat who says on his bio:

“Lifetime Natural!”

4. The reviewer has reviewed before.

This can be revealed in many ways. If the reviewer has left 10 reviews, you might click on them and find they have left three reviews for the same company.

Equally if a reviewer has left plenty of reviews for alot of companies and only voted five stars for every service they have used, this should ring some big alarm bells.

They might be getting free products.

As everyone knows in life, nothing is perfect and everyone likes to complain!

5. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Again, just like in life, when someone gushes about a product in a way that seems, almost non-human, it is likely they are just a fake reviewer or even worse, a content bot.

Like we mentioned above, there is no such thing as a perfect product and if every review seems to be gushing, then alarm bells should be ringing.

6. The spelling, grammar or overall inflection is just plain terrible.

“I has never left a review before so I was very nervous about leaving this one but I can not help myself! I will defo recommend this product to everyone I know, and to everyone I don’t know. Defo buy this product, I would never lie!”

Well, that speaks for itself.

7. Key details are missing – or the claim is just silly sounding.

Another example:

“This product from this company is the best I have ever taken ever. I take this product all the time, every day and every month, and never have had any side effects.

8. Check the frequency of the reviews.

A few things here.

If reviews are done in a clump around the same date, then a long gap, then another clump, then it is likely that the reviews are being paid for.

The other thing is reviews every single day.

Very few people will ever leave these.

9. They start talking about things other than the product.

When it comes to supplements, a honest review will talk about the products, it won’t start going into detail about other things – such as telling you what you should do in regards to training or life in general.

10. Sometimes you just have to rely on other details…

Every watched a good movie and seen it was poorly rated on IMDB or Rotton Tomatoes (or vice versa)?

Remember when you are reading reviews you are relying on the opinion of complete strangers.

Fake reviews can have false names or no photos, but there are other details you can rely on to trust where you buy your supplements.

Things that help include:

– Longevity of the business
– They stock global products, notably supplements from USA
– The reviews talk about the people behind the business
– There are trust icons on the website such as money back guarantee, ingredients listed, etc
– All of their products are properly packaged (no home brands, no brands with the companies logo)