Taking Control Of Deceptive Reviews

In a recent webinar conducted by multifamily research and consumer feedback company, SatisFacts Research, the focus was on deceptive review practices and what is being done in the United States and internationally to stop the spread of fake reviews and help consumers make better spending decisions.

The Who

The webinar’s guest speaker was Curtis Boyd, the Founder of The Transparency Company. This company uses data and correlation analysis to detect fake or fraudulent reviews using 150 different metrics including AI, duplicate content, behavior metrics, and more. His company is able to identify fake reviews and help get them reported and/or removed. In addition to companies like this, review sites themselves are working to take action against companies using deceptive review practices. Yelp, for example, has their own automated software and a Consumer Alerts program that is used to crack down on fake or incentivized reviews, to create a more authentic and trustworthy review site for consumers. Additionally, in 2021 Google maps removed 95 million fake reviews from it’s platform. ApartmentRatings also offers the option to flag and report reviews in addition to having a Consumer Alert program to warn renters of potentially deceptive reviews.

The Why

The rise of online reviews has transformed the way consumers and renters make decisions. Many people now rely heavily on online feedback and ratings to determine whether they should buy a product, use a service, and even where to rent an apartment. With that, there has been an increasing rise in fake reviews. The fake review industry is a multibillion dollar industry where people are paid per fake review and are selling thousands of reviews daily to businesses all across the United States. This, in turn, leads consumers (ie You) to have false expectations about their buying decisions based on fake reputations. This can ultimately lead to a purchase that ends up harming the consumer both mentally and financially.

What You Can Do To Take Control

So what can you, as a consumer, do to help stop the spread of deceptive online reputations? Well for one, use common sense. One thing that experts such as Curtis Boyd suggest is that if it seems too good to be true, it’s most likely not true. Do your research. Most of us read reviews, but do you check to see if those reviews come from a verified buyer or renter? Do you check multiple review sites? Do you check to see if the business you are buying from seems legitimate? Some best practices are to utilize review sites that have a verified buyer or renter programs in place in addition to checking multiple review sites when possible. And if you know of a business incentivizing reviews, asking for fake reviews, or see a red flag such as duplicate review content, here are some actions you can take:

• Report the review and/or business to the FTC
• Report the review and/or business to the local Attorney General
• Flag and/or report the review on the website. When applicable, provide evidence to support your report.
• Spread the word. Share your own experience with the business (if applicable) to educate other consumers of the truth about their product or service. And keep an eye out that it doesn’t get removed from the review platform (without you being notified it violated their terms and guidelines).

Reviews are an extremely valuable resource and as consumers, we should feel confident in using them to help us make the best buying decisions for ourselves. But we have to be conscious of those “bad actors” buying fake reviews from 3rd party companies, incentivizing reviewers to receive biased and/or filtered reviews, or threatening or intimidating negative reviewers or incentivizing for negative reviews to be removed. By doing our own due diligence in our research by looking for verified consumer/renter reviews, checking multiple sites, reporting suspicious activity, and educating others on the good and/or bad experiences we’ve had by writing our own reviews, we can take control of deceptive review practices.