PSA: Incentivized reviews on Reddit (Jun 10, 2021)

This was originally posted on Reddit on June 10, 2021. I’ve made minor formatting changes and corrections, moved some things around for readability, and added a few notes.

GoSelly is a subsidiary of Spigen Beauty, which I think is the US branch of Spigen Korea (source: random pages that come up when you search for GoSelly Spigen). The text in Korean at the bottom of the Google Form mentioned below says Spigen Korea Co., Ltd.

[PSA] Incentivized reviews on Reddit

As a few of you have noticed, I’ve been posting somewhat actively on the sub recently, as I basically share my notes from my own learning process. I also occasionally post reviews and new product updates if I feel like it. Apparently this caught the eye of a recruiter for incentivized reviews, and I received this message earlier today (well, technically yesterday now):

✉️ [GoSelly] Partnership Opportunity

Hi

This is Ahn contacting you from GoSelly.

To give brief information about our company, we are a k-beauty brand and distributor from Spigen (IG: SpigenWorld) established on Amazon and beyond in the US market known for IT devices accessories. We expanded our business to beauty & personal care and have worked with brands big and small such as Kundal, Son&Park to name a few. Sheet masks from our house brand Glam Up have ranked #1 on Amazon and continue to make the bestseller for facial masks. We primarily focus on Korean beauty brands on the digital shelves (Amazon) but have plans to expand our reach and product line.

We are reaching out to see if you are interested in collaborating with us on an upcoming project! This project is to expose and build up reviews on our products on Reddit and will be held every month with multiple k-beauty products, including skincare and haircare. We will gift you a product and ask you to post a review or promotion on subreddits such as "r/asianbeauty".

"If this finds you interested, please fill the form down below!

(Google Forms link)

Best regards, Ahn

Unfortunately for them, the whole reason why I started following this sub is because I got sick of all the incentivized reviews on a popular Japanese platform, @cosme.* This kind of thing is like the bane of my existence. —Okay, probably exaggerating a little there, but it’s at least a huge pet peeve.

* It’s truly rampant over there; I used to think, hey, at least they disclose that they’re incentivized and there’s an option to filter them out when you’re reading the reviews, but (a) I found a bunch of incentivized reviews that aren’t indicated as such and (b) they’re numerous enough to be influencing the rankings there really heavily. I could write a huge post just about this alone; it’s really kind of a sore spot for me because I’m a longtime user and it wasn’t always like that.

Additional note in 2026: I thought I needed to redact this because of how defamation laws work in Japan, but I’ve since figured out that @cosme isn’t directly responsible for the reviews that aren’t properly labeled, especially since the law regulating undisclosed ads was enacted in Japan, so this isn’t an accusation against them. It doesn’t change the fact that these reviews exist, though, and the incentivized reviews that are properly disclosed also affect the overall ratings and rankings, anyway.

To be clear, I consider any reviews that are compensated (or is given an incentive) in any way to be incentivized, including posts that are based on products that were received in exchange for reviews. They can still be harmful even if they’re well-intentioned and clearly declared as being incentivized for the reasons I describe here (excerpted below, with a separate comment merged in):

I think it’s problematic because they generate publicity for a specific product that otherwise wouldn’t have existed, which feels very much like an ad to me; most of us would be grateful to receive the product for free, so we would be positively biased before using it; many of us would probably feel awkward about posting anything negative when we know for a fact that the brand will see it; we might worry about being removed from the program, and want to ensure that we receive more products; we wouldn’t be taking cost-effectiveness into account; we would be making it look like there’s more interest in the product than there actually is; and if the platform we’re posting on indicates average product ratings or has rankings, it would affect that, too (not very relevant in this sub’s case but worth mentioning). Some of this could be unconscious.

I looked at Ahn’s post history, and fortunately they have never posted on this sub, but they have posted a few comments in r/KoreanBeauty that absolutely make them sound like just another average consumer. I know this has to be a thing on any given platform regarding basically anything at all—I mean, we all know about paid Amazon reviews, which probably exist in every country they’re in—but it’s always really upsetting to see it in action. They truly just come across as an enthusiastic consumer with rave reviews for a Kundal shampoo and conditioner set (they use normal-sounding slang and everything), and I would never have guessed that they work for/with them, aside from the fact that they hardly have anything else of substance in their post history.

These comments by Ahn are what I consider to be fake reviews, or reviews by employees (of either the brand or a marketing agency acting on their behalf, or any companies to which they’ve outsourced this) pretending to be consumers. Fake reviews are like a subset of incentivized reviews when you think of their livelihood as a (very strong) incentive for the reviews, but I generally treat them as a separate, even more underhanded (and surely illegal) tactic. I just wanted to illustrate how particularly unethical GoSelly seems to be, and to show that the user probably is indeed who they say they are.

I’ve contacted the AB mods about this, and they’re already on top of it, but I’m sure this isn’t the only program of this nature and that it could pretty much be a game of Whac-A-Mole. I wanted to share this so that everyone knows for a fact that this is a thing on Reddit, too, and to take any recommendations with a grain of salt. Do some additional research on the product before you actually go out and buy it, and it probably doesn’t hurt to take a quick peek at the user’s post history to make sure they aren’t just posting rave reviews about the same brands all the time.

Running count of the people Ahn messaged including me (updated when I’m on my computer) – 15, possibly 16

Brands to be careful about

Not saying you should necessarily avoid them entirely; just make sure the reviews are real.

GoSelly’s brands are Son & Park, Veridique, Elizavecca, CP-1, Jumiso, PINK AGE, GD11, KARATICA, DERMAL Korea, Kundal, LJH, Crazyskin, and Kleannara.

Another unrelated brand called Vegreen has also contacted at least 3 or 4 users. According to one user, the offer consists of the brand sending them two out of their three products and having them post reviews (platform not specified, I think?) only if they want to. This might sound harmless to some, but they also have a post on this sub that seems to have been either fake or stealth-incentivized (or at least some of the comments are definitely suspicious). At least 3 users were or are considering accepting the offer, which means there’s probably a good chance that there are people who have already accepted, so be cautious when you read reviews about their products on any platform.

Other possibly suspicious examples being discussed in the comments are Zeesea and Florasis (though this might be more of a case of people being influenced by sponsored content on other platforms) as well as Estud Protector 3.2, Alpe Di 36 Ampoule, and Vit Roise Creme by Demar3.

Additional note as of 2026: Just want to emphasize that the above was true as of June 2021. I’m sure the list must have expanded since, including GoSelly’s brands.