Can You Trust That "Unbiased" Consumer Review?

The Internet is a wealth of information about products and services, due primarily to forums where consumers can give first-hand accounts of their experiences.

Savvy consumers usually rely on a simple Google search before making a major purchase. If they encounter largely negative reviews, that's usually a good indicator the product or service isn't worth the money.

But what if a Google search results in both very negative and very positive personal accounts from consumers? Which reviews should be trusted?

Hydroxatone, an expensive, mail-order wrinkle cream has over 50 complaints at ConsumerAffairs.com that are relatively similar. A Google search of "Hydroxatone complaints" will pull up various other sites dedicated to posting consumer complaints that all have similarly negative reviews of the face cream.

But a Google search of "Hydroxatone scam," a term more consumers are likely to use, pulls up a different assortment of websites.

One of the first sites is named "Hydroxatone - Another Skin Care Scam? Shocking Review Reveals The Truth!" and has the URL "hydroxatonescam.com."

Clicking the link takes you to a website that's laid out like a personal blog, but immediately starts in with a sales pitch.

"Are you somebody who would like to try to look the best you possibly can? If so, a product called Hydroxatone should be at the very top of your list of products to carefully evaluate."

Further down the page, they get to the "review" of Hydroxatone, which they claim is "fair and balanced" and not a sales pitch:

"...There is a reasonable chance that you're simply not ready for a product that is powerful. Many people cannot handle the social consequences of suddenly looking dramatically younger than they did before. It creates too much tension and confusion amongst their circle of friends. Everybody will be looking at you and admiring how wonderful you look - but also secretly feeling extremely envious of the fact that you look so wonderful."

Fair and balanced, eh?

While there is no evidence Hydroxatone owns this hydroxatonescam.com, it's safe to say the site is very much in favor of consumers purchasing the face cream.

Other websites offer an attempt at a more personal, more "blog-like" "review" of Hydroxatone.

Smoother-face.com asks "Is Hydroxatone and SmootherFace.com Another Scam?"

Clicking the link takes you to a site set up like a blog, apparently run by a woman named "Sheri." She answers who own question right off the bat:

"Let's make one thing clear right up front...Hydroxatone is not a scam or ripoff."

"Sheri" goes on to gush about what a high-quality product Hydroxatone is, how strong the active ingredients are, and the only downsides to using it are some "key ingredients" are "left out" and that it comes in a glass pot instead of a tube.

"Sheri" does take a few jabs at Hydroxatone's manufacturers, thus appearing like she might be unbiased (because usually companies don't take jabs at themselves in their own promotional material, right?)

But "Sheri" does take every opportunity to shill Hydroxatone's "free 30-day trial," the one thing many consumers complain the most about.

And unlike many blogs that offer unbiased reviews of products, "Sheri" makes no attempt to show her face or give any other identifying information about her.

And perhaps most damning is the link at the bottom of the page, in small, faint gray type, taking you to the "compensation disclaimer" where consumers are told to "assume that all references to products and services on this website are made because material connections exist between the website's owner ("Owner) and the providers of the mentioned products and services ("Provider")."

Is "Sheri" in cahoots with Hydroxatone's makers? It's anyone's guess.

Hydroxatone isn't the only product with seemingly unbiased consumer "blogs" about it.

Do a search for any of the mail-order products that have infuriated consumers by locking them into expensive, confusing auto-ship programs and see nearly all of them have websites or "blogs" that claim to offer an unbiased opinion but end up being one big advertisement.

Are these sites being run by the companies themselves? Or paying ordinary citizens to run them? Who knows? But what's clear; doing your homework online just got a little trickier.