Editorial · October 13, 2013
Fake Online Reviews: How Buyers Can Spot Them
Fake online reviews are hard to spot by reading alone, so check a service in more than one place before you pay. In September 2013, New York's attorney general said 19 companies had agreed to stop writing them and to pay more than $350,000 in penalties.
What New York's attorney general found
On September 23, 2013, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the results of Operation Clean Turf, a year-long undercover probe. His office posed as the owner of a Brooklyn yogurt shop. The office called the leading search engine optimization (SEO) companies in New York for help with bad reviews. Some offered to write fake reviews for sites such as Yelp, Google Local and Citysearch.
The office said many of the companies hid who they were. They made fake profiles, and they paid freelance writers from as far away as the Philippines, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe $1 to $10 per review. Schneiderman said the investigation "tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution."
Why reading alone is not enough
In a 2011 Cornell study, three student volunteers read hotel reviews, half real and half written on request to mislead. They got about 53 to 62 percent right, and blind guessing would get 50. All three leaned toward calling reviews true.
How common are fakes? The research firm Gartner projects that by next year, 10 to 15 percent of social media reviews will be fake and paid for by companies. That is a forecast made in September 2012, not a count.
Warning signs worth a second look
No single sign proves a review is fake. Each one is a reason to check further.
Story over substance. In the Cornell study, real hotel reviews were more likely to use concrete words about the hotel, such as "bathroom," "check-in" or "price." Fakes wrote more about things that set the scene, such as "vacation," "business trip" or "my husband." In 2011, researcher Myle Ott said the work was validated only for Chicago hotel reviews, so treat these word clues as a hint.
Rewards nobody mentions. The attorney general's release describes one business that offered discounts in exchange for online reviews and another that offered $50 gift certificates for positive ones. Neither required customers to say so in the review. One SEO firm ran a "secret shopper" campaign. Its agents got free or discounted goods and services from the firm's clients in exchange for a review. They were encouraged to post only if the review was positive, and their reviews did not mention the deal. If a business offers a perk for reviews, weigh its praise with care.
Staff and friends. Among the office's examples, two businesses told or urged employees to write fake reviews, and one of them also told friends to. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gives a related example in its Endorsement Guides. An employee of a device maker promotes its product on a message board without saying she works there. The Guides say she should disclose that she works for the maker.
A busy profile. Do not trust a reviewer just because the profile looks active. To try to avoid Yelp's fake-review filter, one SEO firm in the release required freelancers to have an established Yelp account, more than three months old. The account also needed more than 15 reviews, at least half of them not filtered out, and 10 friends.
What the FTC says about paid reviews
The FTC announced a revised version of its Endorsement Guides on October 5, 2009, the first update since 1980. The Guides say a tie between an endorser (the person, group or organization giving the opinion) and the seller must be fully disclosed. That applies when a tie might matter to how much weight or trust people give the endorsement, that is, when the audience would not reasonably expect it. The FTC's release adds that a blogger's post is considered an endorsement if the blogger receives cash or non-cash payment, such as free goods, to review a product. Each such case is decided on its own facts.
The Guides also say endorsements must reflect the honest opinions or experience of the endorser. Both advertisers and endorsers may be legally responsible for false or unsupported claims made in an endorsement, or for failing to disclose such a tie. The Guides are not binding law on their own. They are the FTC's reading of the FTC Act, meant to help advertisers comply.
In the FTC's examples, a review that is paid for, rewarded or written by staff should say so. If it does not, it may leave out something you would want to know.
Five checks before you hire
Checks 3 to 5 come from FTC advice for people hiring home contractors. Our editors think these checks fit other services too.
- Compare sites. The fake reviews in New York's case were posted on sites such as Yelp, Google Local and Citysearch. The office found that many review sites run filters to catch fake reviews, and that Yelp's was the most aggressive. A business that shines on one site and sags on another needs a closer look.
- Read for specifics. Favor reviews that say what was done and what it cost. Read the middle and low ratings too.
- Ask people you know. The FTC says your best bet is "a reality check from those in the know": friends, neighbors or co-workers who have had improvement work done.
- Call references. The FTC says a contractor should be able to give you the names, addresses and phone numbers of at least three clients with similar projects. It suggests asking whether the job was done on time and whether there were unexpected costs.
- Check official records. The FTC says consumer protection offices can tell you if unresolved complaints are on file. It warns that problems may exist that nobody has reported yet. If your state has licensing laws, ask to see a current license. USA.gov lists consumer agencies by state.