A lot of the reviews that are for the “wrong item” are there because of the seller repurposing the listing.
The seller will list some item that is easy to get good reviews on, like a hammer or something. Then after they rack up several hundred 5* reviews saying “Works great, seems high quality!” they edit the listing to change the item title, description, everything to a new product but keep the reviews.
Then the new product gets a big boost from the high review count and star rating of the previous product.
Another approach is to use 3-4 star reviews. These have a higher chance of being human and often contain common problems.
Online reviews are a total crapshoot even when they are written by actual people, because people are fucking idiots.
“I bought this as a gift so I don’t know how it works” - 1/5 stars.
“This hanger was too small to fit my winter coats so I would up returning it” - 2/5 star review for a universal TV remote.
“This product became sentient and stabbed me in my kidney while shouting racial slurs” - 5/5 star review
A lot of the reviews that are for the “wrong item” are there because of the seller repurposing the listing.
The seller will list some item that is easy to get good reviews on, like a hammer or something. Then after they rack up several hundred 5* reviews saying “Works great, seems high quality!” they edit the listing to change the item title, description, everything to a new product but keep the reviews.
Then the new product gets a big boost from the high review count and star rating of the previous product.
Very scummy.