The telltale signs that are too good to be true – and exactly what to look for when you click on a ‘customer’s’ profile: Utlimate giveaways THAT ‘five-star’ review is actually a fake
When searching for a place to eat, a hotel or even a new washing machine, most of us now scour online reviews to decide where to spend our money.
It’s easy to be swayed by pages of glowing four- and five-star reviews.
But research has found about half of reviews left on 30 of the biggest review platforms are fake.
This is based on analysis by tech firm TruthEngine of millions of reviews and customer ratings left on platforms such as Amazon, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot and Google.
Since April last year it has been illegal to leave a fake review. But millions are still being written for British businesses – in many cases by the companies themselves as they try to win custom.
It’s not just the glowing reviews that are a problem – a growing number of false reviews are being made to attack legitimate businesses by giving them poor ratings.
Here, we reveal the tricks you can use to spot a fake review and the foolproof way of sifting out messages left by genuine customers.
Daniel Mohacek founded TruthEngine in 2020 with five colleagues after their previous technology business was hit by a swarm of damning false reviews that criticised their services. He says: ‘We were hit with a really nasty campaign by a rival. We woke up one morning to discover that our overall rating score had tanked.
‘When we tried to match the names of these reviewers with our customer records, we couldn’t. It wasn’t just us – several of our rivals had also been hit. Somebody in the industry was trying to put the rest of us out of business.’
The TruthEngine team initially expected to find that one in 16 reviews were false. But instead the software discovered it was about one in three. In the years since, that has risen to half
At the time, Mohacek sought advice from friendly industry insiders, but they told him there was nothing he could do and even suggested he bury the negative reviews with fake positive ones. ‘It was awful – we felt powerless,’ he adds.
To fight back, Mohacek and his colleagues set up TruthEngine.
The software hunts for hidden patterns that can’t be detected by eye.
Mohacek says: ‘The fingerprints of manipulation are often found in the timings of these reviews. For example, how many are made at the same time and have writing patterns that become clear when assessing a large number of reviews.’
The team initially expected to find that one in 16 reviews were false, as estimates at the time suggested. But instead the software discovered it was about one in three. In the years since, that has risen to half.
While the software can never say if a review is definitely fake, it flags suspicious cases where it is almost impossible for them to be genuine, Mohacek explains. He says: ‘Any time you go on any platform and look at a set of reviews, there’s a significant chance that half of them may be disinformation.’
Around one in five fake reviews is negative, TruthEngine found – and they are growing faster in number than the bogus five-star reviews.
Mohacek says this creates a never-ending cycle, as the companies hit by a negative campaign are tempted to solicit false excellent ratings to rebalance their average score.
How to spot when a rating is bogus
There are a number of tricks you can use to check whether the reviews have been written by genuine customers.
The first sign something may be amiss is a very high score out of five where there is a large number of reviews. Mohacek says: ‘Who are the people who have taken the time and effort of writing a glowing review of a corner bracket, for example?’
Next look at what the review actually says. Is it generic or specific? It might claim that the product is ‘rubbish’ or that an unnamed staff member was ‘really helpful’. Real accounts tend to be specific about the brand, staff or the product.
Another red flag is if the review is too good to be true. For example, if it is a wall of well-written text that waxes lyrical about a product, then that should ring alarm bells.
He says: ‘People only tend to leave a long review if it’s a negative one. A large number of perfect photos also suggest something is amiss, because that’s not something that consumers take the time to do.’
Next, click on the profile of the person who has left the review – on some platforms you may be able to see other reviews they have written.
If the person has been using the account for years, posting every few months and leaving a range of ratings, there is a good chance they are a genuine consumer. If an account was created minutes before a review, or has left just one review, this should raise concerns.
An almost fool-proof trick to filter out the bogus from the real is to read only the two- and three-star reviews. Fakers typically won’t bother with these, particularly three stars as it doesn’t move the dial in either a positive or negative direction.
Or, of course, rely on word of mouth to make your purchases.
The Competition and Markets Authority is probing five companies, including vehicle marketplace Autotrader, for their treatment of negative reviews
The companies now being investigated
While review manipulation has always been considered a shady practice, it was a tool that businesses could legally employ until last year, when it was outlawed by the Department for Business and Trade. The fine for businesses and platforms that publish or facilitate fake reviews is hefty – 10 per cent of global turnover or £300,000, whichever is higher.
Where breaches continue to occur, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog can levy ongoing fines of up to 5 per cent of daily turnover or £15,000 a day.
The CMA is already probing five companies, including vehicle marketplace Autotrader and review platform Feefo, for their treatment of negative reviews. The ratings system for restaurants used by food delivery app JustEat is also currently being investigated.
The rise of online ‘review farms’
These are firms – often based overseas – that sell fake reviews for as little as £1 each.
Previously, these were the easiest to spot, Mohacek says, but they now often use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a far larger number of bogus customer accounts that appear to be more genuine.
Mohacek adds: ‘Before, someone may have had to type up thousands of glowing reviews for the business. Now [they] can write 5,000 reviews in the blink of an eye – and they’re much harder to spot because they’re very well written.’
