Fake reviews problem is much worse than people know

Like a virus it infects all the major review sites, especially Google and Amazon.

The scale of the fake reviews problem is not precisely documented, but it’s “in the millions” across sites, according to Curtis Boyd, whose company Objection.co helps businesses identify and remove fraudulent online reviews.

Fake Review Types

According to Boyd, there are five primary sources or types of fake reviews that his company sees:

  • Vendors that sell both positive and negative online reviews.
  • Business owners directly or indirectly generating fake reviews for themselves (through fake profiles or vendors).
  • Current employees writing positive reviews on behalf of an employer.
  • Ex-employees writing negative reviews in retaliation for being terminated or laid off.
  • Customers lying about or exaggerating a negative experience to obtain a refund or some other benefit (e.g., discount).
  • Review clusters (e.g., friends and family) writing positive or negative reviews within a short period of one another.

Fake Google Local Guide review profile

additional Amazon categories replete with fake reviews. Boyd further describes a disturbing situation on Amazon where legitimate brands are losing position and market share because of fake reviews. “Some products are losing their bestseller status to fake-review products.”

While Amazon has periodically taken action against fake reviews, Boyd speculates the company is unmotivated to become too aggressive, because reviews (real or fake) sell products and Amazon continues to benefit directly and indirectly from these reviews.

Consumers Just Starting to Wake Up

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the fake reviews problem, though they don’t understand its full extent. They’re unhappy about potentially being deceived and are looking to publishers to institute tougher standards and penalties against review fraud.

According to Jebbit’s Consumer Trust Data Index, out of 100 companies Amazon is the brand most trusted by U.S. consumers. If they were fully aware of the fake reviews problem on the site, Amazon’s credibility might suffer accordingly.

It’s also possible that if Google, Amazon and other sites don’t more vigorously crack down on review fraud consumers may gradually return to more traditional methods of finding business and product recommendations: word of mouth and expert reviews.