Summary

In this chapter, we examined the problem of fake reviews on e-commerce platforms through the lens of statistical and machine learning models. We began by understanding the review ecosystem and the nature of fake reviews, including their evolution over time. We then explored a dataset of fake reviews and conducted statistical tests to determine whether they show characteristics significantly different from genuine reviews. Finally, we modeled the review integrity using OLS regression and examined how various factors affect the likelihood that a review is fake.

This chapter introduced you to the foundations of data science, including exploratory data analysis, statistics, and the beginnings of machine learning.

In the next chapter, we will discuss techniques for detecting deepfakes, which plague the internet and social media today.