ORLANDO, Fla. – A former federal investigator has uncovered a pattern of positive reviews that she is convinced are the product of 5-star fakes for sale.
Kay Dean has spent the last six years tracking online reviews with emphasis on Google and Yelp to alert consumers to an alleged high-stakes scheme designed to manipulate consumer decisions.
“I have seen fake reviews across every single profession you can imagine,” Dean told News 6. ”It’s very hard for consumers to determine which reviews are real or fake.”
Dean contacted News 6 after catching an unusual amount of positive reviews for an Orlando auto business.
In fact, at one point she found 19 positive reviews in an hour for the same company.
Dean’s one-woman Fake Review Watch has developed several “tells” consumers need to be aware of.
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A sudden burst of positive reviews, so-called locked profiles blocking access to the profile behind the reviews and, finally, the same name posting reviews for companies in other states and other countries in a matter of hours or days.
“These are organized fake review rings,” Dean said. “It is the wild west, the online review space is so saturated with this kind of garbage going on every single day.”
Dean prepared a spreadsheet for News 6 that provided compelling evidence of reviews for hire.
Ten people who appeared to have written positive Google reviews for a Florida business also wrote positive reviews for a roofing company in the United Kingdom.
The same 10 people, writing reviews for companies operating 4,000 miles apart.
According to Time Magazine, TripAdvisor became the first global review platform to begin putting out a transparency report outlining the steps it takes to fight fraud. In a 2021 report, out of 26,000,000 of the reviews submitted to the site in 2020, 943,205 reviews (roughly 3.6%) were determined to be fakes.
Experts say one of the first red flags is a review that reads as if it were scripted.
Also look for vague details that could essentially describe any business and reviewer names that are just random letters and numbers.
The World Economic Forum reports fake reviews influenced around $152 billion in global spending on lackluster products and services in 2022.
Dean has launched a series of 90 video reports on a YouTube channel to expose evidence of “fake online reviews.” Dean argues that companies like Google and Yelp need to go on the offensive to screen and shut down these reviews for hire.
“They’re not doing nearly enough to self-police, Dean said. “I think if people knew how saturated (the review space) was, they wouldn’t use it.”
Dean told News 6 recent surveys show more than 90% of consumers consult reviews while making decisions about companies or medical services.
Last year, Google launched a new algorithm that it claimed allowed the company “to quickly identify the surge in suspicious reviews” thanks to its ability to continuously analyze patterns, like whether an account had previously posted reviews.
News 6 is working with Kay Dean and Florida Rep. Darren Soto, D-District 9, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, to bring potential changes to the online review arena to protect consumers from misleading and false reviews.
If you have been impacted by a questionable review, email News 6 Investigator Mike Holfeld — mholfeld@wkmg.com.
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