As you know, I have been fighting scammers for the last five years. I have made videos, written articles, and even managed to get some scammers to shut down their businesses. Now they are fighting back.
Not only are they viciously attacking me, but they have also refined their scamming techniques. On the surface, they look like legitimate companies, in fact, they often look like top tier vendors. Below the surface, however, they are the usual Chinese scammers. That being said, I have also caught a few good old Westerners scammers as well. Not many, but some.
The User Review Scam
Scammers have understood that they now need good reviews in order to sell their dolls. Nearly all review software allows website owners to write their own reviews.
But what is a review worth if it is not genuine, and how can you recognize fake reviews? Here are some tips.
Since they struggle to obtain genuine positive reviews, they have found a few solutions:
A) Buyers forced to post a good review. After a terrible experience, the company offers to replace the product, but only if the customer agrees to leave a five star review. This practice is extremely common among Chinese vendors.
B) Vendors write their own reviews.
C) Vendors pay a company to post positive reviews.
D) Vendors sends a sexdoll for free to an influencer in exchange for a good review.
A) BUYERS FORCED TO POST GOOD REVIEWS
How do I know this? For the past five years, I have been moderating three sex doll subreddits with a combined community of more than 300,000 members. I read posts daily, and many users also contact me privately to share their experiences. Over the years, I have seen the same pattern repeated countless times.
B) VENDORS POSING AS CUSTOMERS TO WRITE THEIR OWN REVIEWS
If a vendor is hosting the customer reviews on it’s own website: be suspicious!
Here is an very obvious example of untrustworthy reviews hosted on the same page as the shop:
https://myrealdolls.com/pages/sex-doll-reviews
All the reviews are hosted on the vendor’s website and they only show outstanding 5 stars reviews out of 800+ reviews. This is statistically impossible. No matter how good a vendor is, it is impossible to please every customer. Some customers are just not possible to please.
If a website is using a third-party review platform (like Trustpilot, for example), meaning the reviews are
not hosted on the same domain as the website itself, look for the Verified badge for genuine reviews.
Take a look at these Trustpilot reviews from a popular Chinese vendor.
This is what a verified review looks like, look at the first review on the next image – the second review is not verified.
Things that make you go uh….
Now watch the last unverified review from a customer called “Benoit”, the person left 2 unverified reviews within a few days.
Now it doesn’t mean that unverified reviews are not legit however, you can easily understand that it opens the door to a lot of cheating.
Here are examples of legitimate customer reviews from two top vendors. Notice that most reviews are verified, and the 1, 2, and 3 star reviews are not hidden. These vendors operate transparently, which helps build trust.
This top vendor has received 138 reviews over the past 12 months. Despite that, they still have some unsatisfied customers, and they do not try to hide it.
Same here
Bottom line:
Stay away from vendors that display only 4- or 5-star reviews.
Do not trust unverified reviews or reviews that are not hosted on independent websites specializing in customer feedback.
C) VENDOR PAYS A COMPANY TO POST POSITIVE REVIEWS
Check this: https://marketingfnb.com/en/buying-trustpilot-reviews/ Do I need to say more? Vendors that are paying to get positive reviews are not to be trusted.
Now how do you recognize paid reviews?
I didn’t know exactly how to recognize paid reviews, so I asked chatGPT.
The answer is very interresting, I will paste it here below:
### BEGINING OF CHATGPT’S ANSWER ###
1. Reviews That Are Too Perfect ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fake reviews often look like marketing copy.
Typical signs:
- Extremely enthusiastic language
- Generic praise
- No real details about the product or experience
Example of a suspicious review:
“Amazing company! Best service ever! Highly recommended! Five stars!!!”
Why it’s suspicious:
No details about the product, delivery, or experience.
Genuine reviews usually include specifics:
“The doll arrived in 24 days. Packaging was discreet and the silicone skin feels very realistic. The only issue was the wig quality.”
Real customers mention small negatives.
2. Reviews Posted in a Burst 📈
If many reviews appear on the same day or same week, that is a major red flag.
Example pattern:
| Date | Reviews |
|---|---|
| March 1 | 12 reviews |
| March 2 | 9 reviews |
| March 3 | 15 reviews |
| Before | almost none |
This usually means the company ordered a batch of reviews.
3. Reviewers With Only One Review 👤
Fake reviewers often have:
- 1 review total
- No profile picture
- No other activity
Real users usually have multiple reviews across different businesses.
4. Similar Writing Style ✍️
Paid reviews are often written by the same review farm.
Look for:
- Same sentence structure
- Same vocabulary
- Same length
Example pattern:
“Very satisfied with my purchase. Great quality and great customer service.”
“Very satisfied with the product. Excellent quality and amazing customer service.”
Almost identical.
5. Reviews That Focus on the Company Instead of the Product
Fake reviews often praise customer service or communication, because the writer never actually received the product.
Example:
“Customer service was very friendly and helpful. Great company!”
But they never mention:
- product quality
- shipping
- packaging
- usage
6. No Negative Reviews At All 🚩
A company with only 4-5 star reviews is suspicious.
Even excellent businesses normally have:
- shipping delays
- defective products
- misunderstandings
Healthy review distribution usually looks like:
- 5★ : 70–85%
- 4★ : 5–15%
- 3★ : some
- 1–2★ : a few
If 1-3 stars are missing, they may be filtered.
7. Very Short Reviews
Paid reviewers are often paid per review, so they write quickly.
Example:
“Good service. Very satisfied.”
Real reviews tend to be longer and describe the experience.
8. Look for “Verified” Purchases
Some platforms mark reviews as verified.
On Trustpilot, verified reviews are those where the company sent a review invitation after purchase.
However, even that can sometimes be manipulated.
9. Check External Review Sites
Compare reviews across multiple platforms:
- Trustpilot
- specialized review sites
- forums
- Google reviews
If one site has only 5 stars but forums have complaints, something is wrong.
10. Look at the Negative Reviews
Fake review profiles often never post negative reviews anywhere.
Real users complain sometimes.
✅ The best indicator is not one review, but the pattern across dozens of them.
💡 Since you run review content in the doll industry, I can also show you 5 very specific tricks vendors use to manipulate Trustpilot reviews.
Some of them are extremely deceptive and many people don’t notice them.
### END OF CHATGPT’S ANSWER ###
D) VENDOR SENDS A DOLL FOR FREE TO AN INFLUENCER IN EXCHANGE FOR A GOOD REVIEW
This marketing technique has gained popularity over the last few years. It is not unethical per se; however, how does it help you, as a consumer, determine whether a company is legitimate?
The influencer never had to buy the doll. They never had to deal with customer service. They didn’t have to browse the website or do any real research. Often, it’s the only sex doll they will ever own, so they can’t even compare the quality with other dolls. In reality, they have no clue what distinguishes a good-quality doll from a bad one.
In summary, the market hasn’t really improved over the last five or six years. Today, even some well known vendors, ones people think that they are very legitimate use highly suspicious techniques to gain your trust, a trust they do not necessarily deserve.
