Why Companies Fake Client Reviews

How often do you check online reviews before you make a purchase? I do, a lot! I want to make sure the product or service fits my needs before paying for it. Hence, I google and read multiple reviews.

As a customer, I trust reviews since they usually look credible, and companies swear they are reliable. However, as a marketer, I know reviews can be easily faked.

How do I know it? I used to help a western online service company get a better reputation by obtaining new, positive reviews. P.S. I no longer do it, but I want to share some exclusive insights with you. Why? Because I want you to be more critical the next time you read online reviews since they might be fake.

Why Businesses Fake Reviews

Imagine you are a business owner who invested a fortune to develop a new service or product. You are looking forward to a positive return on investment and continuous growth.

Your team might be working hard to make a new business more visible and convert visitors into customers. However, one negative review can ruin the whole company and spread negativity all over the Internet.

“I’d like to see people get sued if they wrote a bad review of my movie. If you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all.” — Richard Linklater.

Trust me. It’s challenging to handle negative reviews on Google and Facebook.

In the case of a Facebook business page, users start posting negative reviews and asking for more details. Meanwhile, the algorithms treat such reviews as more popular. Hence, more valuable. Here are a few reasons why businesses fake their reviews:

• To create a new Google search result that should outrank a negative one posted by either a frustrated customer or a competitor.
• Post more positive reviews regularly.
• Create a higher degree of trust.

These are some reasons I personally know about why companies switch to the dark side and use fake reviews. Here is what you can do to detect a fake review among tons of positive online testimonials.

Common Traits of Fake Reviews

1. Fake personas

Fake personas are created with the help of different email addresses. Some online platforms require a social media account to prove an identity, while others don’t. Hence, anyone can hypothetically create a persona with the help of a permanent or temporary email.

Name generators create fake names and addresses. The absence of a credible photo and a social media presence are two key points to consider. If a profile does not look trustworthy and there is no social activity from this persona - there is a high probability the a review is fake.

2. A few reviews per each persona

Fake personas exist for a single purpose —to improve a brand's reputation. Marketers need more personas to get more reviews. Thus, one persona is usually used for a single testimonial.

Here is an example of some fake reviews from one account. Just look at how many views each post has got — 9K and 112K.

3. Many identical reviews from the same persona

Since one email is linked to one persona, marketers will most likely want to use it for other purposes.

If you have biased feelings about a review, google a persona name and check where else you can see his/her name and a review. If you stumble upon a duplicate review on multiple platforms — it’s a sign the account is fake.

Takeaways

Companies used to fake client reviews and will continue doing so even if it is shady. The competition is tough. Consequently, all means are used to outrank and outperform rivals.

Is it ethical? Not at all! Can you do anything to prevent it from happening? For individual cases — yes, on a massive scale — no.

There are hundreds of popular review services like Sitejabber, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Google reviews, etc. They all work differently, but people find ways to deceive the algorithm and post fake reviews.