Expanding on the point that this isn't just limited to dietary supplements, I ran into what I'm pretty sure is another example of this today. I was looking on Amazon for an inexpensive Android tablet, and came across a brand I'd never heard of: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_pc?ie=UTF8&field-brandtext...

Lots of products with vast numbers of great reviews, interspersed by occasional individuals pointing out seemingly fundamental flaws. There wasn't much mention of the company other than on Amazon, Ebay, and their own site. I did come across one seemingly reputable review by the WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/articles/finally-a-100-tablet-worth-buyin...

They gave it their lowest rating in every category they considered: battery life, camera, screen, and speaker. Not only this, but they also rated it as worse than each of the 3 other tablets they considered in each of these categories.

While I suppose they could be a great tablet at a great price with lots of excited fans, it seems odd that the only major media reviewer I could find came to a totally opposite conclusion. Eventually I came across a 1 star Amazon review that seemed to explain the discrepancy:

Terrible product, even for the price. I can only think the positive reviews are due to the extra offer that came with the tablet for positive reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2QZCEUWC4MQKB/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt...

While it would be interesting to know exactly what that offer was, it removed my interest in researching them any further.