Personally speaking, everyone should be cautious when it comes to false reviews that poses as informative by any marketers or anyother suspicious activity that is marketed and advertised, thus not coming from factual users or customers. But from advertisers.
Please take the time to read the following important information:
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User reviews in skin lightening websites and forums offer powerful credibility
Claims made by websites or companies selling skin lightening products are naturally met with some degree of skepticism. After all, they want to make money. Most people are aware of this fundamental fact, so they typically take product claims with a grain of salt.
But as sellers and products (and even [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) have become less trusted, people have sought out other, more reliable sources of information – such as online user reviews and comments.
Online user reviews and comments in skin lightening forums and websites (like this one) naturally carry much more credibility than product ads do because they seemingly come from a neutral third-party.
People read user comments online and think:
- This is a real person.
- This was written by someone just like me.
- This person has the same problems/issues/worries/desires as me.
- I can trust what they say
- If it worked for them, it’ll work for me.
For unscrupulous or dishonest sellers, fraudulent marketing or spreading product claims through “real user” comments, reviews and testimonials can be a goldmine. Trust sells. And it sells very well.
However, it is helpful to remember that anything you read online, however genuine they might sound, are really just words typed by a faceless someone, whose motives are completely hidden from our view.
Know this: Anyone can type in anything. Let me repeat that, because it is so important. Anyone can type in anything.
Please understand, I am not saying that we should mistrust everyone’s words on the web. That’s no way to live. Besides, I truly believe there are more good people in the world than bad. There are a great many honest online user reviews that have helped countless people, including myself.
But there are also [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] out there, and skin lightening boards, forums and websites seem to be particularly rife with aggressive and manipulative sellers posing as users. It’s important to know that they exist because this will minimize the chances of us being duped out of our money and more importantly, our health and well-being.
How can you tell what’s real and what’s not?
It’s impossible to always tell the real from the fake online. However, there are several things you can look out for to protect yourself.
In skin lightening forums, pay attention to a few red flags:
- People who are exceedingly exuberant about a product. For example, expressing excessive jubilation about how something is “wonderful”, “amazing”, “a miracle”, “completely changed their skin”, etc etc. Pay attention to the kind of language used, they are engineered to target and manipulate the desperate.
- Posts with positive and agreeable replies from newly-registered users. These could be all from the same person. (Unfortunately, many scammers have built up multiple user registrations at forums over a long period of time. Some have even built credible stories and personalities for each “person”. )
- People who get overly defensive, “hurt” or angry when other posters have viewpoints different from their own. This is not normal behavior. If a product works well for person A, but not for persons B & C, most people in person A’s shoes will not care very much and just move on. Excessive anger, feigned “hurt”, indignation and defensiveness are not normal user and consumer behavior. Unless of course, someone’s sales are being hurt.
On skin lightening websites:
- Watch out for likely conflicts of interests. When skin lightening advice is being offered, are they also selling the solution (i.e. skin whitening creams, skin whitening soaps, whitening pills, etc)?
Do you know of any other common red flags?
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Pinocchio's nose grew longer with each lie. It's not so easy to tell when it comes to online fraudsters.
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This post has received an inordinate amount of suspicious e-mails and comments. I feel it is my duty to warn unsuspecting readers.
Suspicious e-mails
1. E-mails from "a lawyer"
To date, I have received e-mails from a (supposed) lawyer representing Au’bede Distribution Inc., the exclusive distributor of Fair & Flawless skin care products. This person, who used a yahoo e-mail address, asked me to remove a specific comment cited below (from a commenter called Charlene) that mentioned the poor effects the cream had on her.
Charlene:
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I am a former Fair and Flawless user. After a month of using the product my face and neck started swelling up like a blowfish and my skin became blotchy. My skin still hasn’t recovered after a year. I believe this contains steroids if you know what is good for you don’t use it!
I refused to take down the comment without sufficient evidence. However, in the interest of fairness, I also asked for product lab test certification that would easily prove there are no harmful ingredients in the product. I said I would be happy to post this proof on the website. However, this person did not furnish this certification and have ceased further e-mails. (To this day, my offer to post this evidence here remains.)
2. E-mails from Nikki2000 and Mandy Sweet
I then received two e-mails from a Nikki2000 and a Mandy Sweet. Both using yahoo e-mail addresses. Oddly enough, Nikki2000 and Mandy Sweet later confessed to me that they were actually the same person. Like the lawyer, the request was for the same comment (Charlene’s comment) to be removed.
However, unlike “the lawyer”, Nikki2000/Mandy Sweet’s e-mails to me were significantly more vehement. But perhaps this is because “lawyers” (even so-called ones) have no choice but to maintain a professional tone, and “regular folk” can just say what they want. But let’s not split straws here… there’s more.
You cannot always trust what you read online. People post online comments under different names all the time to influence any number of things. However, this was just too blatant for me to ignore.
On 17 April 2010, three comments were posted coming from the same I.P address and within the space of 10 minutes (see the screenshot below).
Using three different names, this person encouraged the conversation as if they were three different people. However, he/she carelessly used the same e-mail address (most likely out of laziness because e-mail addresses are not viewable to readers).
You can still read all the original comments as I’ve not removed them.
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Fake comments from the same commenter.
Here are two more suspicious comments with the same e-mail addresses (again, probably out of laziness as these are not viewable to readers) and using two different names within the same day.
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Two more suspicious comments.
I suspect there could be more of such fake comments. Read through them and you’ll start seeing a pattern for some in particular.
Unfortunately, with this update, this person (and others) will now know to mask their identities better. Therefore, I ask you to please exercise caution and take ALL the comments posted to this article with a large grain of salt.
Further information:
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Last edited by Golden Girl on Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:03 pm; edited 4 times in total