PUBLIC TRACES

A WORKED INVESTIGATION

What does repeated overlap look like?

Start with one reviewer’s history. Follow nearby five-star reviews of the same products. See which reviewers appear again.

Generated example · no real accounts

ONE RESULT, EXPLAINED

Reviewer demo-106
appears in 6 distinct egos.

The search opened 10 reviewer histories and reached 114 reviewers. This reviewer has a corroboration count of 6.

An ego is the local neighborhood around one opened reviewer: people giving five stars to the same products around the same time. Each distinct opened ego adds at most one count to a reviewer, even when several products overlap.

Where the count comes from

Here are 3 supporting egos. Each row shows one shared product and the two five-star review dates, within the selected ±56-day window.

Examples supporting the selected reviewer’s computed corroboration count
Opened reviewerShared productOpened reviewer’s datedemo-106’s dateCount added
demo-18P000042019-04-072019-04-06+1 ego
demo-192P000042019-03-042019-04-06+1 ego
demo-89P000042019-03-272019-04-06+1 ego

These rows are examples from the computed result. The complete ledger below includes the remaining supporting egos and product connections.

FROM A RESULT TO A CONTRIBUTION

What would you share?

An investigation records what was observed and where it came from. See a small excerpt from this same example and how future reviewed contributions would work.

View an example contribution →
Change the search settings 10 histories · cap 10 · ±56 days

The budget limits histories opened. The cap guides which reviewer is opened next; it does not cap the count reported for that reviewer. The time window defines nearby activity.

Inspect the full result Counts, supporting egos, product bursts, and search history
Reviews in the example610Full generated panel; the search opens selected histories.
Histories opened10
Complete product windows7seed egos
Highest corroboration6distinct seed egos

COLLECTION PROGRESS

Each history adds context.

114 reviewers reached
First historyLast opened history

CORROBORATION LEDGER

Inspect the reasons.

Up to 30 reviewers

A count records appearance across distinct opened neighborhoods. Expand a row to see supporting seeds, products, and weeks.

demo-1061 products6 egos

6 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 6 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 6

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P0000490
demo-192P0000490
demo-89P0000490
demo-129P0000490
demo-108P0000490
demo-42P0000490
demo-182 products6 egos

6 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 6 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 6

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-25P0002583
demo-192P0000490
demo-89P0000490
demo-129P0000490
demo-108P0000490
demo-42P0000490
demo-1081 products5 egos

5 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 5 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 5

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P0000490
demo-192P0000490
demo-89P0000490
demo-129P0000490
demo-42P0000490
demo-1291 products5 egos

5 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 5 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 5

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P0000490
demo-192P0000490
demo-89P0000490
demo-108P0000490
demo-42P0000490
demo-1921 products5 egos

5 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 5 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 5

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P0000462
demo-89P0000462
demo-129P0000462
demo-108P0000462
demo-42P0000462
demo-421 products5 egos

5 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 5 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 5

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P00004111
demo-192P00004111
demo-89P00004111
demo-129P00004111
demo-108P00004111
demo-891 products5 egos

5 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 5 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 5

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P0000483
demo-192P0000483
demo-129P0000483
demo-108P0000483
demo-42P0000483
demo-1101 products4 egos

4 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 4 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 4

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-18P00004139
demo-129P00004139
demo-108P00004139
demo-42P00004139
demo-1132 products3 egos

3 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 3 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 3

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0000434
demo-89P0000434
demo-42P00002139
demo-1623 products3 egos

3 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 3 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 3

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007160
demo-129P0000097
demo-108P0002120
demo-1793 products3 egos

3 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 3 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 3

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000083
demo-108P0002127
demo-42P0000255
demo-92 products3 egos

3 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 3 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 3

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007167
demo-129P0000069
demo-42P0000069
demo-01 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000062
demo-42P0000062
demo-12 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000062
demo-129P00000132
demo-129P00004160
demo-42P0000062
demo-42P00004160
demo-1123 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P00004160
demo-42P0000041
demo-42P00002125
demo-42P00002132
demo-42P00004160
demo-1151 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000062
demo-129P0000097
demo-42P0000062
demo-1172 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0001469
demo-129P00035174
demo-1512 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000062
demo-129P00005104
demo-42P0000062
demo-161 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000083
demo-42P0000083
demo-1602 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0003362
demo-129P0000090
demo-1613 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007160
demo-192P0003362
demo-129P0000097
demo-129P00000104
demo-1653 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0001427
demo-192P0003348
demo-108P0002120
demo-1673 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007160
demo-192P0003348
demo-42P0000227
demo-1683 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007153
demo-192P0001427
demo-129P0000097
demo-1722 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0003348
demo-129P00000104
demo-1772 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000097
demo-42P0000220
demo-1783 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P0001420
demo-192P0003355
demo-129P00000132
demo-1891 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-129P0000069
demo-42P0000069
demo-1972 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007160
demo-129P0000097
demo-2002 products2 egos

2 distinct product-window-complete seed egos; 2 observed seed egos.

Observed count, including incomplete coverage: 2

Source seedProductWeek (day index)
demo-192P00007153
demo-129P00000132

Complete means product windows covered for captured five-star seed reviews. Seed histories may be truncated. Counts are public-trace evidence, not fraud probabilities.

PRODUCT-TIME STRUCTURE

Observed product bursts

ProductReviewsReviewersWindow spanCorroboration mass
P00000393653 days65
P000046652 days31
P00000191956 days31
P00033171720 days29
P00007161617 days29
P00000202056 days21
P00021131318 days19
P00017151521 days18
P00023111156 days18
P00002131256 days17
P000028855 days16
P00038101050 days16

Mass sums corroboration counts within an observed cluster. It is not a probability.

Search history

A history with no eligible ego can still be opened. 7 of the 10 opened histories produced eligible egos with complete product-window coverage in this generated example.

StepOpened historyNeighborsReviewers reached
1demo-18910
2demo-26010
3demo-25413
4demo-1923643
5demo-89743
6demo-1296185
7demo-106085
8demo-1081388
9demo-4256114
10demo-1100114

Each example was computed with the paper’s existing Python implementation on generated records, using fixed random seed 42. Choosing settings opens the matching precomputed result. No real accounts are included. Explore the completed Amazon 2023 findings →