The authors document that approximately 5% of product reviews on a large
private label retailer's website are submitted by customers with no
record of ever purchasing the product they are reviewing. These reviews
are significantly more negative than other reviews. They are also less
likely to contain expressions describing the fit or feel of the items
and more likely to contain linguistic cues associated with deception.
More than 12,000 of the firm's best customers have written reviews
without confirmed transactions. On average, these customers have each
made more than 150 purchases from the firm. This makes it unlikely that
the reviews were written by the employees or agents of a competitor and
suggests that deceptive reviews may not be limited to the strategic
actions of firms. Instead, the phenomenon may be far more prevalent,
extending to individual customers who have no financial incentive to
influence product ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]