Fake Reviews Harm Your Business: How and Why

I’m sure everyone already knows that fake reviews can harm your business and reputation. Yet buying fake reviews seems to become more and more popular.

Why is that? And why should you not follow suit with the businesses who try to hack the system?

Let’s find out.

Why And How Do People Buy Fake Reviews?

The internet is full of fake review brokers that charge thousands of dollars for fabricating a good rating on Google, Yelp, BBB, and other platforms.

Maybe the people doing it are chasing short-term benefits, like increased SEO results and online visibility.

After all, it’s proven that reviews can increase your Google ranking, give you more exposure in the search engines, and also result in a better click-through rate.

Reviews also encourage purchase decisions and instill trust, so it’s a no-brainer that businesses should aim to get reviews.

So, some reasons why a business might want to acquire fake reviews are:

• The company is a scam altogether.
• The customers are generally not happy with the experience and do not leave positive reviews even when asked.
• Someone might have a preconception that getting reviews is hard, which is not true with the right tools.
• The company wants a quick start for business before they have actual customer reviews.

However, fake reviews can be super harmful in the long run.

In the worst-case scenario, fake reviews can even result in legal trouble and very large fines.

But even if you don’t get caught and face legal repercussions, fake reviews prevent you from becoming better and growing.

Remember that great businesses don’t have to resort to buying reviews, as happy customers are willing to give them when asked.

Fake Reviews Are Criminal

Different countries have established laws against fake reviews.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has announced stricter rules for reviews to prevent review fraud. Businesses are not allowed to post fake reviews, AI reviews, bought reviews, or bought social media followers and likes.

Businesses have to:

• Disclose insider reviews (such as reviews from employees or family members)
• Not threaten customers to remove bad reviews
• Not reward customers for leaving good reviews

Breaking these rules can result in legal penalty – and of course, loss of reputation.

The European Union also has its own rules for reviews. The Omnibus Directive that was created to guard and improve consumer rights takes a stance against fake reviews.

According to this directive, businesses need to be able to verify reviews and transparently inform consumers on how the reviews were collected.

Trustmary is a great help in this process. When using email review requests, you can get your customer reviews verified by Trustmary. This will be a sign to consumers that these reviews come from real customers and can be verified as authentic reviews.

Effects of Fake Reviews on Consumers and Society

Why are authorities so eager to set all these rules?

Well, reviews affect online purchases a great deal. Manipulating them means that consumers are spending money on products they wouldn’t buy if they had access to an honest evaluation.

The economic impact of fake reviews is calculated to be $152 billion globally, with around 4% of all online reviews being fake.

Negative fake reviews cause a direct loss of income for businesses, and positive fake reviews guide consumers under false premises.

Real-Life Examples of Fake Reviews Backfiring

Authorities are not just threatening businesses with consequences. There are cases where companies have received penalties for knowingly leveraging fake reviews.

A New York doctor received a penalty of $100,000 for manipulating his customer reviews.

In 2023, Google filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles man who was fabricating thousands of fake reviews on fake business listings on Google Maps.

Even Amazon is at war with several companies selling fake reviews and posting them on Amazon’s marketplace.

These are just some of the recent examples.

Other Repercussions of Fake Reviews for Your Business

Even if you never got caught using fake reviews, there are still negative consequences for your business.

Firstly, you lose out on an opportunity to grow.

Honest customer feedback (and reviews) is the only way to improve customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, and eventually, spread good word-of-mouth.

Setting false expectations with fake reviews has the opposite reaction.

What happens when customers have expectations that the company is not able to live up to?

Customers will find an outlet to tell about their bad experiences, and a bad reputation spreads fast.

How Does One Get Caught Using Fake Reviews?

E-commerce platforms and review platforms monitor the reviews people post and recognize forged reviews with the help of algorithms and user reports.

Some individual people and organizations fight against fake reviews. One example is Kay Dean, a former criminal investigator who now dedicates her time to exposing businesses that use fake reviews on her YouTube channel Fake Review Watch.

Additionally, there are even software products that can help with spotting fake reviews, such as ReviewMeta and Fakespot. They utilize AI in the process.

As a consumer, you can also keep an eye on and report fake reviews.

Some telling signs of fake reviews on different platforms are e.g.

• having reviews from new and incomplete profiles,
• getting a suspicious amount of reviews during a short period of time,
• getting reviews from profiles that have unnatural review patterns. For example, if a profile gives reviews for local businesses all around the world, it’s unlikely that they have actually visited those businesses.

Get Authentic Reviews Instead

Personally, I don’t see why anyone would pay thousands of dollars to get a few fake reviews and potentially risk high penalties and loss of reputation.

Especially when an alternative exists: collecting real reviews from your actual customers automatically. And just with a fraction of the price.

When you implement an automatic review campaign as part of the customer journey, you get fresh reviews continuously and naturally.

Trustmary’s review collection flow enables you to get first-party reviews and even direct people to a relevant third-party review source.

Even the negative or “bad” reviews that you might naturally get have an important role in your reputation. By addressing them and using the feedback to improve your business, you are on the road to success!

The best part: Trustmary is a tool to do all this.

Check out Trustmary’s review and feedback tool: