What it looks like

A website that looks like a consumer magazine. Ratings out of ten, a comparison table, an “editor’s choice” ribbon. Somewhere near the top is the logo of a well-known consumer testing organisation, or a “Best of” award from a body you have never heard of. Every product in the table is mediocre except one, which is available at a discount through the link.

The social media version is shorter: an ad on a major platform showing a trusted watchdog’s logo beside a cheap amplifier, implying the watchdog endorsed it. Consumer organisations in more than one country have had to issue public warnings that their logo was used without permission on exactly these ads.

Why it works on us

Because we have learned not to trust the seller, so the seller builds a third party. The review site exists to be the independent voice you were looking for. It costs a few hundred dollars to set up, it ranks in search because the seller pays for that too, and it says what the product page cannot say with a straight face. The stolen logo finishes the job: someone reputable checked.

How the machine is built

• The site is owned by the seller or an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is legal and common, and honest sites disclose it. The counterfeit ones hide the relationship, or bury it in a footer, while presenting themselves as journalism.
• The competitors are props. The other products in the comparison are chosen to lose. Sometimes they are discontinued models. Sometimes they are fictional.
• The logo is copied, not licensed. Consumer testing organisations license their marks under strict rules and audit the use. A logo pasted onto an ad is theft, and the organisations say so when they find out.
• The awards are self-issued. “Best Hearing Aid 2026” from an awarding body whose only web presence is the badge itself.
• The reviews are recycled. The same sentences appear across a dozen sites with different names and the same product at the top.

How to spot it in ten seconds

1. Click the logo. A licensed trustmark links to the organisation’s verification page. A stolen one links nowhere, or to the product.
2. Search the organisation’s own site for the product name. If the watchdog never tested it, the watchdog never endorsed it.
3. Find the disclosure. Scroll to the footer. Look for “affiliate,” “compensation,” or “we may earn.” Then ask why it is in the footer and not at the top, the way honest sites do it.
4. Count the winners. One product winning every category on a review site is a storefront, not a review.
5. Look up the site’s age. A “trusted since” claim on a domain registered three months ago is its own answer. Domain registration dates are public.

We stopped trusting the seller, so the seller built the reviewer.

What to do instead

• Read reviews on sites that show their method and their money. Ours are on How We Evaluate and Affiliate Disclosure, at the top, not the bottom.
• Go to the consumer organisation directly. If they tested hearing aids, their results are on their own site and nowhere else.
• Report stolen logos to the organisation whose logo it is. They pursue it, and they warn other consumers when they do.
• When a site says “independent,” treat it as a claim to verify, not a fact to rely on.

Case Files

Products and sellers we have documented using this tactic are linked here as Case Files are published. If you have been caught by it, send us the listing, the emails and your order details. Dated screenshots are the most useful thing you can send.

Evaluated by Scott West. Data scientist. 40 years of hearing loss. Method: How We Evaluate.

Sources

Every claim above rests on a public record or a named organisation. Read them yourself.

• Which? scam alert: Which? logo used in fake hearing aid adverts
• Federal Trade Commission: final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 2024)
• National Council on Aging: OTC hearing aid scams