How to find your way in the dark world of fake reviews

Out of the blue your brother whom lives hours away suddenly drops by without notice and requests to go out for Thai food in town. You have not tried many Thai restaurants and wonder which would offer the best quality for your buck. What is one of the first things many of us do before choosing a restaurant to eat at or an item to purchase? We read reviews from customers to determine the best selection.

Sites like Yelp.com, Amazon.com and other platforms have become primary go-to sources for reviews where we are able to see star ratings and read comments. Many of us trust these reviews whole heartedly and assume they are coming from authentic customers, however, little do we know the authenticity of the review may be completely false.

There is something called Reputation Management that has become a notorious industry for keeping the public slates of businesses clean. The review you read on Yelp could possibly be from a shill customer that was given incentive to write positive feedback, or vice versa negative feedback on a competitor. Whatever you read on the internet simply cannot be trusted at face value.

Here is an example of an obvious false review. You can see the woman is looking to the side of the screen as though she is reading something and does not have consistency in her speaking.

So where can we go to obtain more reliable feedback?

1. Direct connections – ask on social media about a good restaurant to visit in town or inquire about an ideal camera at the next networking meeting you attend. It is not likely your friends are being paid by a company to put out false information.
2. Forums – even in forums you should have your guard up because businesses do have representation there as well. However, you can analyze user status such as number of comments posted, what the user has said in the past, etc. which allows you to determine their trustworthiness.
3. Youtube – keep your guard up here as well! Believe it or not businesses have been known to pay people to do false reviews of their product or service. If you look closely at a particular Youtube channel, though, you can determine the level of consistency in their content and have the plus side of actually seeing the product.

Here is a video review of cameras that is great since the host obviously shows he has background in what he’s talking about, he has samples available for viewing so you know he’s tried them, and he has an established channel where his reputation is on the line if he puts out faulty content.

For extra security in buying the right product or visiting the best restaurant you can hit all three locations (direct connections, forums, videos) to compare recommendations you find. Stay safe out there and keep an open eye for faulty reviews!