Can You Trust Online Reviews? Apparently Not Much

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We use them all the time — Yelp, Tripadvisor, the BBB — websites that post reviews by customers, clients and patients of all sorts of companies and health care providers. But can we trust these reviews? Are the websites that post them taking steps to assure they are legit?

“No and no,” says Kay Dean of San Jose, Calif., a former criminal investigator in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. Dean’s bad experience with a health care provider with glowing reviews led her on a journey into the expansive realm of fake online reviews. “I no longer put an ounce of trust in any online review site,” she says.

She is the founder of Fake Review Watch, which she says is on the side of consumers and honest businesses and attempts to show the issues that major review platforms have with fake reviews.

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Personal experience led to her investigation

About seven years ago, Dean used stellar reviews she saw on Yelp and Google to select a medical care provider. “The experience turned out to be the exact opposite of what was claimed on the platforms, leaving me suspicious about these reviews I had relied on. And so, drawing on my knowledge as an investigator, I began doing some digging and uncovered this medical practice was trading fake reviews with other businesses in Facebook groups.”

She discovered that “the online review world was saturated with so much deception — far more so than people realize.”

Frustrated by a lack of official action against this widespread fraud, Dean created YouTube videos with case studies as real examples, which she offers to major news outlets. “That’s been effective, but my larger goal is to highlight the culpability of tech companies and review sites that are not doing enough to protect the public. I try to educate people not to trust online reviews at all, and I attempt to rally public support for more enforcement and new legislation.”

Fake reviews are very convincing

I asked Dean to share the clues consumers should look for to alert them that they are reading a fake review.

“It is extremely difficult for the average consumer to discern which reviews are fake,” Dean notes, “as they can be very detailed and convincing, some written by the business itself. I’ve seen many contractor reviews with photos of work lifted off of a real estate listing in another state and thousands of Yelp reviews with content simply plagiarized from Tripadvisor written by other people, sometimes years earlier. Determining whether (a review is) real or fake often requires analyzing sets of reviewers and businesses together to see if suspicious patterns emerge indicating deception.”

Dean points out that even the Better Business Bureau website “has become polluted with review fraud, hosting plenty of fake BBB reviews. I’ve found that a robust black market exists for them, including several marketers in Facebook groups offering to sell BBB reviews. I reached out to one guy from Pakistan. He offered to sell them for $3 each!”

Furthermore, she notes, the BBB site lacks transparency. “Just click on a BBB review to find out something about the reviewer. Nothing comes up. There are no photos. No last names are used, nor is there any other way of finding out who or what else the person has reviewed, or if they even exist. So while the BBB says, ‘Trust us,’ you can’t.”

An industry of fake reviews

Online networks, many based in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, sell fake reviews for the BBB, Yelp, Google, Angi and many more, charging as little as 50 cents per review. They have “programs” for movers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, you name it, and will create fake positive and negative reviews that appear to come from real people in cities all over America.

Sites such as Reviews That Stick offer reviews across multiple platforms to boost the reputation of a business.

“Much of the fraud, though, is organized on social media sites with impunity,” Dean says, adding, “Facebook does little to stop the marketing of fake reviews. There are scores of groups on its platform that openly facilitate buying and selling them. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, however, web-hosting platforms are not responsible for this kind of illegal activity conducted by third parties.”

Houston defamation attorney Paul Sternberg says, “But when the platform itself — such as the BBB — gives an A+ rating when they know or should know from hundreds of complaints the business is misleading its customers, I believe they have opened themselves up to being sued. Even if the platform says, ‘We do not endorse,’ the very fact of awarding that grade — which then is used by the business in its advertising — is an endorsement.”

If we can’t trust online reviews, then what?

Dean believes that until social media sites like Facebook and review platforms such as Google and Yelp can be held accountable for the rampant review fraud they allow to be foisted on the public, not much will change. This would require congressional action.

Until then, she recommends consumers use the old-fashioned method of choosing businesses — by talking to real relatives and friends about who they would recommend.

Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield, Calif., and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. And be sure to visit dennisbeaver.com.

Disclaimer

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

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After attending Loyola University School of Law, H. Dennis Beaver joined California's Kern County District Attorney's Office, where he established a Consumer Fraud section. He is in the general practice of law and writes a syndicated newspaper column, "You and the Law." Through his column, he offers readers in need of down-to-earth advice his help free of charge. "I know it sounds corny, but I just love to be able to use my education and experience to help, simply to help. When a reader contacts me, it is a gift."