Shill reviewer creating sock puppet accounts and re-reviewing periodically

  • Hi moderators (@Jan in particular),

    It seems that I have someone who is using sock puppet accounts to make the same complaints over and over (probably a competitor–no customer I know of would go to this kind of trouble after a single negative review). It’s not even about the repository plugin, it’s about the premium modules that aren’t even sold here.

    Here is my evidence:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/expensive-4?replies=2

    It’s basically the EXACT same thing as this review from August:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/add-ons-3#post-

    They left the same reviews on AWPCP as well.

    Three things strike me as curious here:
    – They use identical language in both (include the formatting of currency using a 50$ instead of $50 nomenclature–sort of a unique signature of a single person here)
    – They complain using the exact same phrases “does an ok job” and “As for the free plugin, it does an ok job”
    – Each account attacks the same 2 plugins (AWPCP and Business Directory). For good measure, they go and praise one other on the latest one)

    In one of their reviews (https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/whats-up-wordpress?replies=5#post-), for a “new account” and one that hasn’t done any reviews, they have a curious insider knowledge of the review process that they followed to “avoid being labeled a shill”: “I have used the free plugin, as well as another of this authors free plugins and I base my comments on actual usage of the products. I intentionally did not mention any other plugins to make sure it didn’t appear I was shilling for a competitor.”

    This seems strongly suspicious to me–I can’t prove this since I can’t see the email addresses or the source IP addresses of the reviews, but it would be worth checking into if you can look at that.

    I have no problem accepting negative reviews on my plugin and will respond accordingly to them. This just seems like a competitor trying to bash other plugins for their own gain. I’d appreciate any investigation you can do here. This looks like a repeat of an issue I posted several months ago here: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/how-can-you-deal-with-review-shillers?replies=13 Just with different accounts and lacking the praise for the competitor.

    Thanks for your time!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    It doesn’t look like there is something that would grant one account being blocked here.

    Thread Starter Business Directory Plugin

    (@businessdirectoryplugin)

    May I ask why? The content, tone and format of those two reviews is nearly identical, coming from two supposedly different people. Doesn’t that seem strange to you?

    Miroslav Glavi?

    (@miroslavglavic)

    Not everyone will do the currency symbol first

    In some countries the currency symbol is BEFORE the amount while others it is AFTER the amount.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    That would be the only thing going for the suspicion, and that’s too subtle to act on.

    Thread Starter Business Directory Plugin

    (@businessdirectoryplugin)

    If I saw this review happen a 3rd time, using the same language, tone and content, would that be convincing enough? It’s happened twice, so I expect that they’ll try this again.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    We’ll have to consider the evidence at that time again. Generally we only act if it’s obvious.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • The topic ‘Shill reviewer creating sock puppet accounts and re-reviewing periodically’ is closed to new replies.