Is this phishing & if they got one thing right, what do I do about it?

[Sooz]

I'm with Paddy (and the rest of you good folks here, too!) about discounting reviews that say they've received something free in exchange for an unbiased opinion or review or whatever.  Riiiiight. 

I totally ignore all of those... and back when I was reading them for entertainment, no one had a single bad thing to say about the product!

[Xairbusdriver]

I'm not sure how admitting/telling that you got an item free makes your review fake/false/bad. Seems to me the folks who are not reporting their free item reviews are the liars/cheats/frauds. Shouldn't the authenticity of the review be based on what is said and how that comports with other known facts? How do you decide that comparable reviews/comments by others are any more valid or even honest? 'jist sayin'

Since I avoid Amazon anyway, I couldn't care less about any reviews. Plus, the interweb is 95% useless for actual reviews, in my opinion. I put much more faith in reports on various forums as long as I have some history with a particular member.

[Paddy]

I think the issue with the freebie stuff for a review is just that...basically, "keep giving our stuff good reviews, and we'll keep sending you free stuff." Or that's the tacit understanding, methinks. And just the fact that you got it for free could well influence how you feel about it.

[Sooz]

What Paddy said!  "And just the fact that you got it for free could well influence how you feel about it."    If you get something for free, you are psychologically predisposed/influenced to say something nice about it, so you can keep getting stuff for free. 

However, to anyone here to whom I have offered a variety of treats from cookies to lasagna (my love-language of saying thank you is with food), you don't have to say anything nice about what you're eating because the smile on your face will say it all!   

Smiles,
Sooz

[Xairbusdriver]

I always cross my knife and fork on the empty plate. I’ve heard that it’s an indication that you enjoyed the food. I generally don’t do that at places that serve plastic utensils.