How Dummies Earn Pennies for Fake Reviews

Although the site's now gone to the great dot-com dump in the sky, back in the day quite a few people made a lot of money reviewing products for Epinions.com. Although no one gets any residual income from them any more, the reviews were still out there for years; including more than a few that are clearly fake. Site members regularly advised newcomers that they could make more money writing reviews of expensive products, especially those that "have cords." Since faking reviews of electronics and computers proved pretty hard, the moneygrubbers headed for the home and garden category where they were received with open arms (often by other fakers). That's where a member calling herself hvarmit concocted her tale of using¹ a $200-plus cordless circular saw. The review originally said that she'd used the saw to cut curves before someone advised her that circular saws don't do that...

Anyway, here's some of hvarmit's other bull:

• ...a lot of the work I used to do involved woodworking or constructing... [we think she meant "construction"]
• "It's final features are the 50 degree bevel capacity it has, and the blade can cut 2X materials and, on a 90 degree plane." [No idea - you?]
• "I used it instead to cut some plywood that was a fraction over 1" thick, and this job was much more satisfying. The saw moved effortlessly/smoothly on my lines with no binding. It also cut angles with ease." [plywood a fraction over an inch thick? really? we call "bullshit" - yes, it's available, but most people have never seen any...]
• It has a 3000 RPM capability... ["capability"? whazzat mean?]

So it appears that site like eHow.com and HubPages.com aren't the only websites where basically ignorant people masqueraded as "experts"! Because she made money -- several tens of dollars is not unlikely -- for writing a several-hundred-word long "experienced owner" review of a product she had probably never even seen in person, the Antisocial Network is pleased to award to hvarmit the coveted Dumbass of the Day - maybe she still knows a website where she can review it. Just remember there, ya varmint: it's cordless...

¹ The website is now defunct, but you can see the modified version of hvarmit's post using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   epinions.com/review/DeWalt_Heavy_Duty_14_4v_5_3_8_Trim_Saw_DW935_DW935K/content_476746976900

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