I've been deep in the fake review detection space for a while now. Here are 5 red flags I look for before I trust any product listing:

1. Review clustering — If a product suddenly gets 50+ five-star reviews in a 3-day window, something's off. Real purchases don't spike like that.

2. Generic language — "Great product, works as expected, fast shipping" copied across dozens of reviews? That's a review farm.

3. Reviewer profiles — Click on the reviewer. If they've reviewed 40 unrelated products in the past week (blenders, phone cases, dog toys), they're not a real buyer.

4. Verified purchase ratio — A product with 500 reviews but only 30% verified purchases is a red flag. Legit products usually sit above 70%.

5. Rating distribution — Real products have a natural bell curve. If it's 95% five-star and 5% one-star with nothing in between, the positives are likely manufactured.

I built ReviewGuard to automate exactly this kind of analysis across every product page you visit. But even without tools, these 5 checks will save you from a lot of bad purchases.

What's the worst fake-review purchase you've ever made? Drop it below 👇