Beware of fake reviews

According to BrightLocal, up to 98 percent of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Unfortunately, many of those reviews are fake. WiserNotify says about 30 percent of online reviews are fake and cost U.S. businesses nearly $152 billion per year in damaged reputations and lost revenue.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making matters worse. In an analysis of 73 million reviews, The Transparency Company determined with a “high degree of confidence” that 2.3 million were partly or entirely AI-generated. In December, the FTC settled a case against a company called Rytr that offered an AI-writing assistant service that some subscribers used to produce tens of thousands of reviews potentially containing false information.

In August 2024, the FTC announced its final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials that will allow it to strengthen enforcement and deter AI-generated fake reviews. It prohibits:

• Fake or False Consumer Reviews, Consumer Testimonials, and Celebrity Testimonials: The final rule addresses reviews and testimonials that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist, such as AI-generated fake reviews, or who did not have actual experience with the business or its products or services, or that misrepresent the experience of the person giving it.
• Buying Positive or Negative Reviews: The final rule prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative.
• Insider Reviews and Consumer Testimonials: The final rule prohibits certain reviews and testimonials written or solicited by company insiders that fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose the giver’s material connection to the business.
• Company-Controlled Review Websites: The final rule prohibits a business from misrepresenting that a website or entity it controls provides independent reviews or opinions about a category of products or services that includes its own products or services.
• Review Suppression: The final rule prohibits a business from using unfounded or groundless legal threats, physical threats, intimidation, or certain false public accusations to prevent or remove a negative consumer review. The final rule also bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment.

The government isn’t alone in combating fake reviews. In July, the BBB joined with Amazon to sue an illegitimate business called ReviewServiceUSA.com that attempted to sell fake positive reviews to be published on Amazon’s and the BBB’s websites.

The BBB offers these tips for spotting a fake review:

• The reviewer has a very common or generic name like John Smith or Jane Doe, with no profile picture.
• Multiple, similar reviews posted in a short period of time.
• Glowing praise with no supporting detail.
• Grammar and spelling errors suggesting sellers have outsourced creation of reviews to overseas content farms.
• Industry jargon and descriptions of features and benefits rather than the reviewer’s experience with the product or company, suggesting a company insider has filed the review.