After Dr. Mark J. Mohrmann successfully completed an orthopedic procedure in 2019, his patient took to Yelp, the review website, to share his gratitude.
“Dr. Mark made me feel like I was in good hands,” the patient wrote in a five-star review.
Only the writer was not a real patient and there was no procedure. His review was fake, part of an effort to boost online ratings for Dr. Mohrmann’s business using fake positive reviews, according to an analysis by fake review watch, an industry watchdog. Last month, Dr. Mohrmann agreed to pay a $100,000 fine reach a deal with the New York attorney general on charges of misleading the public with fake reviews.
Dr. Mohrmann’s fake review is just one example of the multi-billion dollar fake review industry, where people and companies pay marketers to post fake positive reviews on Google Maps, Amazon, Yelp and other platforms. , and they deceive millions of customers every year.
Fake reviews are as old as the internet, they are illegal and banned on online platforms. But fake review businesses have continued to flourish anyway.
Now, for the first time, a wave of regulations and measures from tech companies are coming together in a more concerted effort to turn the tide.
This summer, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a radical rule that would punish companies for buying or selling fake reviews, among other restrictions. In October, various online platforms, including Amazon and Expedia, announced a coalition that would share information and resources among companies to combat review fraud. And late last month, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued her own warning statewide, saying in a statement that fake reviews were “illegal and unacceptable.”
Experts warned, however, that the problem of fake reviews may be so enormous as to be insurmountable, noting that fake reviewers survived previous crackdowns.
Jason Brown, the founder of Review FraudA consumer advocacy website that has exposed companies using fake reviews said the platforms had not done enough to manage the problem, but acknowledged that concern from regulators and companies was growing.
“Everyone feels the heat and the pressure,” he said. “Time will tell.”
Almost all fake reviews are positive endorsements, such as four- and five-star reviews, which companies write themselves or are created by digital marketers, whose services can be purchased online for as little as a few dollars per review. Many deceptive sellers are based overseas, limiting the FTC’s power to police the problem. And artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, threaten to supercharge the industry by making fake reviews easier to write, the agency warned.
Fake reviews are so widespread that almost every online shopper has probably come across one. Amazon said it had blocked more than 200 million allegedly fake reviews last year, and Google said there were ai-machine-learning/” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>removed 115 million reviews that violated the rules of Maps in 2022, an increase of 20 percent from the previous year.
In its proposed rule, the FTC stopped short of issuing new rules against the tech giants, pointing to a federal law that protects companies from liability for content posted on their platforms. Instead, the agency focused on investigating and punishing companies that buy or sell online reviews, in some cases imposing fines of $50,000 or more.
“The rule will not apply to the architects of the entire corrupt system: the review platforms and technology companies that profit from online reviews, whether real or fake,” said Kay Dean, a former federal criminal investigator who heads Fake. ReviewWatch.
Ms Dean began her effort after fake online reviews landed her in a psychiatric clinic. About his Youtube channelcarefully documents hundreds of businesses that use fake or suspicious reviews, from moving companies to doctor’s offices.
His research is often based on identify reviewers that rate unrelated companies across the country, a sure sign of fraud. He discovered that 19 of Dr. Mohrmann’s alleged patients had also left glowing reviews on Google Maps for the same moving company in Las Vegas, and another 18 apparently used the same locksmith in Texas.
In an emailed statement conveyed through his attorney, Dr. Mohrmann said that “healthcare professionals focus on patient care and are sometimes unaware of the actions taken by companies hired to manage reputation.” online or search engine optimization.” The New York attorney general’s office said Dr. Mohrmann had “asked friends, family and employees to leave positive five-star reviews” and that his wife had written some of the reviews.
Review watchdogs like Dean blamed Google and other big platforms for the resilience of the issue. Those websites tend to rely on customers to self-monitor for fake reviews and typically do not disclose when a business has engaged in suspicious behavior, allowing scammers to continue posting fraudulent reviews after old ones are removed.
The Transparency CompanyAn industry watchdog that develops software to analyze and detect fake reviews, has identified more than 100,000 businesses that use fake and suspicious reviews to boost their digital image, often invisibly to an unsuspecting customer.
“One of the reasons I chose to spot fake reviews on Google versus Amazon and others is the harm caused to consumers,” said Curtis Boyd, founder of Transparency Company. “A bad $10 kitchen knife or a cheap Bluetooth headset won’t ruin a home. Choosing the wrong doctor, lawyer or contractor can ruin your life.”
An analysis by the Transparency Company found that half of the reviews on Dr. Mohrmann’s Google Maps profile are “highly suspicious,” and many accounts are connected to India, Vietnam and Britain. Dr. Mohrmann maintains a rating of 4.5 on Google Maps, compared to just 2.5 stars on Yelp. (The last Google review identified as suspicious was published a year ago.)
Dr. Mohrmann’s lawyer said they were “working closely with the New York attorney general’s office and others to eliminate inauthentic reviews.”
Google Maps has become one of the largest review platforms in the world. The company presented your own demand in June against another person who posted more than 14,000 fake reviews, according to court records.
“When we find bad actors trying to scam people, we take swift action ranging from removing content to suspending accounts and even litigation” said Ian Leader, director of product management for Google Maps, in an emailed statement.
Amazon appeared to anticipate new FTC regulations in June, announcing a plan to stop fake reviews. In a blog post, the company acknowledged that “an illicit industry of ‘fake review brokers’ has emerged,” and promised to crack down. The company added more funding to investigate fake review schemes and said it would exchange information with rival companies. .
In October, Amazon had joined other large review portals such as Expedia to forge the Coalition for Trustworthy Reviews, a collaboration aimed at creating shared standards to monitor reviews and allow companies to exchange notes on how fraudulent actors operate. But the coalition has not yet outlined how it would achieve these goals or how much time and money it would require.
“It would take hundreds of hours on the part of the product teams of all the big brands and a lot of resources,” Boyd said. “That’s why I’m skeptical.”
Amazon also blamed regulators, writing that the problem “requires government agencies that have adequate enforcement authority and funding to go after these fake review brokers.”
In a statement, an Amazon spokeswoman said that even as the company fought fake reviews, the “tactics of fake review brokers have also evolved” to evade detection, but that the company would “suspend, ban and take legal action.” ” against those people. that she violated their policies.
Experts who study the fake review business said industry coalitions were often an attempt to avoid stricter regulations by lawmakers. The European Union has moved more quickly to hold companies accountable for content posted on their platforms, and last year passed the Digital Services Act, which can hold companies legally liable for fraudulent content.
“Could this be a surprising coalition that has a real impact on the market? Yes,” Mr. Boyd said. “Could it be a spiel about ‘how cool we all are’? Yes, it could be. “It usually is.”
