Some companies buy Google ads to promote these “rating” sites as a quick way to steer customers to expensive off-brand products and potential rip-offs.

How do I know that? My dad fell for it – almost.

This Thanksgiving, my parents visited from North Carolina and—in what was surely a comment on the state of my New York City apartment—my dad suggested I buy a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas. He suggested one called the V70 on Snapbuy.us, on sale for $260.

“It’s been ranked the number 1 vacuum,” he told me. He pointed me to the listing, which had nice product pictures and great reviews.

Luckily, I’m an investigative reporter. I already knew fake product reviews were a dime a dozen, but this seemed to go further. Now that anyone can use artificial intelligence to write persuasive marketing and construct sharp web pages, spin has become harder to detect.

More difficult, yes, but not impossible. Using my dad’s shopping expedition as a case study, I created this list of how to avoid falling for fake reviews and rogue products.

Trap #1: Sponsored Content

I searched Google for “top cordless vacuum 2024.” Among the most sponsored links – technically ads – was one for product-reports.org, which my dad had also stumbled upon.

When you click the three dots next to the link, Google shows that the sponsor was a company called Internet Up GmbH. (We will return to them.)

Melanie McGovern, director of public relations at the International Association of Better Business Bureaus, says people should be wary of sponsored links – which are often the first results in a web search. “Scroll down to the first organic search results,” she said, “because sometimes the ads may not be what you think they are.”

Nate Funkhouser, a Google spokesman, said all ads go through automatic or human review before they are published and that ads with misleading product information violate its policies. Google determined that this ad did not infringe, he said.

Pitfall #2: Claimed experts

The product-reports.org link leads to an article by Oliver Harris that says reviewers tested 87 vacuum cleaners to rank the best.

Only…Harris doesn’t seem real. His picture — a mustachioed man in flannel — appears to be a picture, a search on Google Images shows. Elsewhere on the web, this image supports a Brazilian Pomeranian breeder. And on product-reports.org, the image also represents “Ludwig Scott” on reviews for washing machines, grills and, mysteriously, cat food.

Emails to Harris and product reports were undeliverable.

There are many other red flags that indicate the article is more promotional than expert:

• Advertising writing: Despite the claimed tests of dozens of models, the review is mostly devoted to the wonders of the V70.

• Bad grammar: Many typos indicate that the article was not written by a professional. (“It’s absolutely the star of my review today.”)

• No contact information: The page shows a phone number that does not work. The published address is missing the city.

• Foreign footprint: Although the address is in Georgia, some of its reviews link to German websites and list prices in euros.

• Broken links: The links to, among other things, social media and the “about us” pages are dead.

But as many of us would, my dad scrolled through the rankings and clicked on the product link.

Trap No. 3: The home page

Snapbuy looks glittery. The Vacuum V70 resembles a high-end Dyson, and the product page says it was featured on platforms including Fox News. “America’s #1 Top Rated Vacuum Cleaner,” it says, and features state-of-the-art features.

It looked so good it almost got me.

But I had never heard of Snapbuy. And I saw fresh red flags:

• Media appearances: If something says “as seen”, check it out. (Googling “vacuum V70” site:foxnews.com yields no results.)

• The Inventory: Other Snapbuy ads have the exact same look: unbranded electronics touted as “America’s #1 Top Rated” and hailed by the nation’s top news brands, bolstered by glowing testimonials from—you guessed it—product reports.

• Contact information: The only phone number listed? It’s in Germany. Off hours, a recording in German tells you to call back during office hours. They fall between 3:00 AM to 9:00 AM EST. I called twice during that time, sat on hold and was eventually disconnected both times.

Here’s the kicker: Snapbuy’s terms of service say it’s a trademark of Internet Up, the same German company that paid for the Product Report ad. (In recent weeks, Internet Up has shown nearly two dozen Google ads in the US linking to product-reports.org.)

I contacted Snapbuy and Internet Up via their published email addresses. I also reached out to the companies via Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. I received a LinkedIn message from Internet Up’s CEO, Alan Szymanek, citing email difficulties. On the fifth day of my inquiries, Szymanek wrote to say that “it is not possible for us to process such a large request in just a few days.” Another representative asked for another week to respond.

Trap No. 4: Five Stars

Snapbuy’s page for the V70 has a five-star rating from Trustpilot, a platform that allows customers to review companies.

There are some problems:

• Vague stars: The near-perfect rating associated with this “hassle-free cleaning” product cannot be found on Trustpilot itself. Trustpilot runs reviews of companies, not products. On the ratings page itself, there was a Snapbuy.net with 4.4 stars, but no rating for Snapbuy.us.

• Suspicious Reviews: Snapbuy.net has more than 8,000 reviews, mostly five-star. But many of these sound generic and overly complimentary. Some reviewers said they rated the company before receiving a product.

The one-star reviews – about 9% of the total – are more revealing. Some claimed that Snapbuy did not respond to customer service inquiries about returns. Others said they received low-quality products sold for less than what they paid. “Shame on Oliver Harris,” wrote one.

After I contacted Trustpilot it removed Snapbuy’s stars. It posted a warning that the reviews may not be reliable and that Snapbuy was wrongly using the Trustpilot brand on its website.

Trustpilot’s chief trust officer, Anoop Joshi, says consumers should be wary of sites claiming great Trustpilot reviews that don’t link back to the platform.

So is the Vacuum V70 a decent product? We didn’t buy it, but found much cheaper look-alikes elsewhere: A search for “cordless vacuum cleaner” on Amazon turns up dozens of virtually impossible, vaguely branded products.

Finally, my dad sent me a vacuum cleaner from a well-known brand – with a price tag under $260. I hope my apartment will finally live up to his standards.