This is what Saoud Khalifah was doing when he started to notice something strange about the products he was buying.

這也是 Saoud Khalifah 以前會做的事，後來他開始發現買來的商品似乎有點不對勁。

So I got interested in online reviews when I actually was finishing up my master's degree, and I ordered a few things off Amazon.

當我快要完成我的碩士學位的時候，我開始對線上評論產生興趣，然後就從 Amazon 上訂了幾樣東西。

They were five-star rated.

這些東西都被評為五星。

There were hundreds of reviews, and they were all really, really positive.

下面有幾百條的評論，所有的評論也都非常、非常地正面。

I received the product, and there was something completely off with the products.

我收到了產品，而這些產品出了不小的問題。

The quality was really low.

品質非常差。

It did not last at all.

也用不了太久。

So I went back, read the reviews, and noticed there was a lot of red flags within the reviews themselves.

所以我就回去讀那些評論，並注意到這些評論本身都隱藏了許多的問題和警訊。

There was a huge trend of fraudulent activity within the reviews, and I could tell that they were fake.

在這些評論裡可以看出隱含欺騙性訊息的趨勢，而我能夠辨別出那些假的評論。

Mr. Khalifah now runs a New York-based company called Fakespot, one of several new businesses which claim to be able to help you spot a fake review.

Mr Khalifah 現在經營一間位在紐約名為 Fakespot 的公司，是宣稱能夠幫你偵測出假評論的少數幾種新型態商業模式。

The very existence of such companies highlights a looming crisis of faith in online reviews, which are now at the very heart of how internet shopping works.

這類公司的存在也點出了線上評論迫在眉睫的信任感危機問題，但線上評論卻是現在電商營運的重要核心。

In the U.K. alone, they influence an estimated 23 billion pounds of transactions each year.

單就英國而言，它們每年影響了預估達兩百三十億英鎊產值的交易。

Most internet users are aware of the fact that they have to read reviews before doing a purchasing decision.

大部分的網路使用者都意識到他們必須在確定購買前先看看線上評論。

And without any reviews there most products won't get any sales.

如果一個商品下面沒有任何評論，這樣的產品幾乎完全賣不掉。

That's basically it.

這就是它運作的方式。

So most of these sellers know that reviews are a very critical part of their business.

大部分的賣方都知道評論是他們的生意中很關鍵的一部分。

Faced with these pressures, some companies are now encouraging customers to leave a positive review in return for a free item.

面對這樣的競爭壓力，有些公司現在會鼓勵消費者留下正面的評論來換取免費的贈品。

Others opt for more cynical tactics, targeting competitors with negative feedback.

其他有些公司則選擇採取損人利己的策略，也就是針對競爭對手留下負面評論。

In a statement, Amazon told us that "any attempt to manipulate customer reviews is strictly prohibited."

在一則聲明中，Amazon 告訴我們「任何嘗試操控消費者留言的行為都是被嚴厲禁止的」。

And that it suspends, bans, and takes legal action on those who violate its policies.

它對這些違反政策規定的人採取停權、取締、甚至法律行動。

The U.S. firm added that it "invests significant resources to protect the integrity of reviews in our store."

美國的 Amazon 更進一步說它會「投資大量的資源保護我們網路商城裡評論的誠實性」。

This includes "teams of investigators and automated technologies to prevent and detect inauthentic reviews" at source.

這也包含了從源頭「利用調查人員和自動化科技以偵測及防止不真實的評論」。

The US company has filed lawsuits against more than 1,000 defendants for reviews abuse.

美國的 Amazon 已經向超過一千名濫用評論者提出訴訟。

But Amazon is an enormous global platform for selling, and so any attempt to monitor wrongdoing comprehensively is going to be seriously difficult.

但 Amazon 是一個規模龐大的世界性銷售平台，因此要全面性監控違規行為是極為困難的。

It is a cat-and-mouse game between the platforms, for example, Amazon and the sellers that are on those platforms.

這是平台之間的貓抓老鼠遊戲，例如，Amazon 和使用這些平台的賣家。

So they constantly find new angles, new ways, to exploit their system and find new ways of detecting fake reviews.

他們不斷的找尋新的角度、新的方法來開發他們的系統，並找出新的方法來偵測這些假評論。

So it is definitely a cat-and-mouse game.

所以這完全就是一場貓抓老鼠的遊戲。

When it comes to smaller sellers, reviews can be a matter of life or death.

對於比較小規模的賣家而言，評論就是決定生死的關鍵。

Kevin Williams founded Brush Hero, a company that sells brushes used to clean cars.

Kevin Williams 創辦了 Brush Hero，一間專賣清理車子的刷子的公司。

Reviews have an incredible effect on revenues.

評論對於公司的收入有非常大的影響。

We went through a period in the last year where we had a number of negative reviews that weren't necessarily fair but appeared on our listings.

我們去年經歷了一段時期，當時有好幾條不太公正的負面評論出現在我們商品的評論區中。

And it immediately had a 20 to 30 percent impact on the individual unit sales.

接著馬上就造成了單位產品銷售額約百分之二十到三十的影響。

But worse than that, it affected the relevance of those products in the Amazon search engine.

但更糟的是，它影響了在 Amazon 搜尋引擎上的相關性排名。

For Utah-based Brush Hero, there is a tipping point for negativity.

對於位在猶他州的 Brush Hero 而言，負面性評論造成了一個臨界點問題。

Even a few critical fake reviews could encourage genuine customers to pile on.

就算只有幾個關鍵的假評論都可能使真正的消費者產生從眾效應，留下不好的評論。

Once the review level drops below, say, a 3.5 out of five, we've noticed a vast increase of negative reviews that start occurring because it's just easier to pile on.

一旦評論的平均分數從滿分 5 分降到 3.5 分左右，我們發現負評就會因為從眾效應而大量增加。

What that leads to is not just a loss of sales on Amazon and a loss of velocity on Amazon.

這樣的現象不只導致在 Amazon 上的銷售虧損及傳播速度的減緩。

It also impacts sales all over the place because consumers are relatively savvy.

它也影響到了所有地方的銷售狀況，因為消費者相對來說更精明了。

They're looking for review scores when they're buying off Amazon or Amazon.

他們在買 Amazon 上的東西或不是 Amazon 上的東西時都會先看評分。

So it decreases the efficacy of our advertising through Facebook, through other social media channels, through Google, whatever it is.

所以它拉低了我們在 Facebook、Google 以及其他社群媒體所投放的廣告成效。

There is also a sense that the source of the reviews is difficult to address.

另外一個問題是評論的來源難以追蹤。

Amazon can do a lot to improve its review system.

Amazon 可以做很多事來改善它的評論系統。

I don't believe that they're doing a great job in tracking where reviews are coming from.

我不認為他們在追蹤評論來源方面做得很好。

It seems to me that Amazon should have the statistical ability to identify those... those bad reviewers and vet them out of the system, and they haven't yet.

就我的角度而言，Amazon 應該要具備能夠辨別系統內劣質評論者的統計能力，但他們還沒這麼做。

So where do the bad actors come from?

所以這些偽裝的劣質評論者是從哪裡來的？

For Mr. Williams, the problem has one obvious source.

對於 Mr Williams 來說，這些問題來自於一個明顯的地方。

The sense is that it's coming from China.

問題來自於中國。

When Amazon started to solicit Chinese sellers directly, it seemed to open the floodgates to a mountain of bad actors.

當 Amazon 開始直接招募中國的賣家時，似乎也打開了引入偽裝劣質評論者的大門。

Despite his experiences, Mr. Williams is himself a devoted user of the platform.

儘管有這些負面的經驗，Mr Williams 自己本身仍是這個平台的忠誠用戶。

Absolutely, it's changed the way I look at reviews.

沒錯，這個問題改變了我看待評論的方式。

I'm highly analytical about it.

我現在都會去分析它。

I am an avid Amazon shopper.

但我同時也是一個狂熱的 Amazon 買家。

I have to admit that even though I've had lots of problems on Amazon, it's a major sales channel for me.

我必須承認即便我對於 Amazon 有很多問題和不滿，它仍然是我們公司的主要銷售管道。

And as a consumer, I purchase things nearly every day on Amazon.

而身為一個消費者，我幾乎每天都會在 Amazon 上買東西。

The tangled web of online reviews is a challenge for Amazon, the companies that sell on it, and those of us buying.

對於 Amazon 而言，由賣方和買方構成的複雜的評論網絡是一個挑戰。

But it's also just one part of a bigger story, the difficulty we now have trusting anything we read online, even as we spend more of our time in front of computers.

但這也只是整個大局裡的其中一小部分，真正的難題是我們現在難以相信任何在網路上讀到的東西，即使我們花了更多時間坐在電腦前。