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UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

bbc.com

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Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#41

Post by ipsum2 »

ghoward wrote: post #25

I once wrote a negative review of a business on Google, and it went up, but when I went to look at the business's reviews under my wife's Google account, it was not there. I waited an hour and checked. Then a couple hours and checked. Then a day. It never showed up. I posted the review under her account and did the same checks for my account. It never showed up. I do not know why it didn't show up, but I wouldn't be…

> but I wouldn't be surprised if the business had been able to pay money to Google to be able to check reviews before they went live and mark them as spam.

Do you have any evidence of this claim? Have you seen businesses be able to do that? Surely, the hundreds of thousands of businesses on Google, one of them has talked about the ability to remove reviews.

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#42

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

ghoward wrote: post #25

I once wrote a negative review of a business on Google, and it went up, but when I went to look at the business's reviews under my wife's Google account, it was not there. I waited an hour and checked. Then a couple hours and checked. Then a day. It never showed up. I posted the review under her account and did the same checks for my account. It never showed up. I do not know why it didn't show up, but I wouldn't be…

> I wouldn't be surprised if the business had been able to pay money to Google to be able to check reviews

There is no way to do this that I can find documentation of on the public internet. You'd think if it were possible, someone would have written a howto guide. Personally, I'm deeply skeptical that any such mechanism exists. The revenue it would generate would be negligible and the potential for reputation loss significant.

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#43

Post by donaldo »

ipsum2 wrote: post #41
ghoward wrote: post #25

I once wrote a negative review of a business on Google, and it went up, but when I went to look at the business's reviews under my wife's Google account, it was not there. I waited an hour and checked. Then a couple hours and checked. Then a day. It never showed up. I posted the review under her account and did the same checks for my account. It never showed up. I do not know why it didn't show up, but I wouldn't be…

> but I wouldn't be surprised if the business had been able to pay money to Google to be able to check reviews before they went live and mark them as spam. Do you have any evidence of this claim? Have you seen businesses be able to do that? Surely, the hundreds of thousands of businesses on Google, one of them has talked about the ability to remove reviews.

Yeah agreed. Do they think Google just has some checkout button to block bad reviews for $299.

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#44

Post by [deleted] »

marshmallow_12 wrote: post #31
MattGaiser wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like they are actively harming anyone. How am I not harmed if I buy a product that is no good?

I'm saying when they write the reviews, there's only some abstract harm to consider. I'm not justifying it, just putting it into perspective

[deleted]

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#45

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

rococode wrote: post #32

An interesting thing about paid reviews - you can prove that the reviews are fake, but you usually can't prove that the business itself actually paid for those reviews. In a hypothetical world where companies with fake reviews are regularly discovered and lambasted in public, it's easy to imagine a sinister metagame where unscrupulous small businesses can buy bad good reviews (i.e. 5-star reviews that are obviously f…

That's fine. Just charge the fake reviewers and fake review companies with FCC violations, and remove their reviews. Have them hand over their books for lighter penalties, then hit the companies buying fake reviews with enforcement orders as well.

Of course, all this is complicated by the fact that most of these companies are probably overseas . . .

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#46

Post by tines »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #42
ghoward wrote: post #25

I once wrote a negative review of a business on Google, and it went up, but when I went to look at the business's reviews under my wife's Google account, it was not there. I waited an hour and checked. Then a couple hours and checked. Then a day. It never showed up. I posted the review under her account and did the same checks for my account. It never showed up. I do not know why it didn't show up, but I wouldn't be…

> I wouldn't be surprised if the business had been able to pay money to Google to be able to check reviews There is no way to do this that I can find documentation of on the public internet. You'd think if it were possible, someone would have written a howto guide. Personally, I'm deeply skeptical that any such mechanism exists. The revenue it would generate would be negligible and the potential for reputation loss s…

> There is no way to do this that I can find documentation of on the public internet.

And you used Google search to look for it, right? ...

(Kidding.)

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#47

Post by kofejnik »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #45
rococode wrote: post #32

An interesting thing about paid reviews - you can prove that the reviews are fake, but you usually can't prove that the business itself actually paid for those reviews. In a hypothetical world where companies with fake reviews are regularly discovered and lambasted in public, it's easy to imagine a sinister metagame where unscrupulous small businesses can buy bad good reviews (i.e. 5-star reviews that are obviously f…

That's fine. Just charge the fake reviewers and fake review companies with FCC violations, and remove their reviews. Have them hand over their books for lighter penalties, then hit the companies buying fake reviews with enforcement orders as well. Of course, all this is complicated by the fact that most of these companies are probably overseas . . .

don't think FCC will prosecute bodyshops in India and Phillippines

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#48

Post by toss1 »

marshmallow_12 wrote: post #31
MattGaiser wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like they are actively harming anyone. How am I not harmed if I buy a product that is no good?

I'm saying when they write the reviews, there's only some abstract harm to consider. I'm not justifying it, just putting it into perspective

If you are going to try to put it in perspective, do it right.

They are, for their own personal gain, using deceit to affect the behavior of others in a way that can cause harm to them.

It is fraud.

Just because each incident is a small scale, does not mean that it is not corrosive to society. Moreover, the point of the article is that this IS being done at scale, and scaled-up fraud is definitely corrosive to society. At the very least, it undermines trust in society, which is a prerequisite to a functioning society. Stop trying to minimize it.

Having to make a living is no excuse to perpetrate fraud. If the business, or their fake reviewers need to perpetrate fraud to make a living, they should do something else.

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#49

Post by boneitis »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #20
beachy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If many companies are doing it, and many are forced (or feel forced) to do it in order to compete, then it isn't fair to just single one or two of them for public shaming via a publicly funded broadcaster. Sorry but if you're doing shady shit, it's no defence that everyone else is doing it too.

In a corrupt society, you get nowhere being morally absolute. There’s different shades of shady, but you only have one life to live, and depending on the circumstances, your best option might be to play ball. Push comes to shove, people are going to choose to feed their family. Apple doing fake reviews and a struggling low profit restaurant because all the other restaurants are inflating their reviews are different c…

Not a direct reply to anything in the thread, but I felt it's fairly on-topic to point out something I just realized with myself on seeing the n+1st headline and now wonder how long ago my default reaction evolved to this.

Watching the ever-normalizing review gaming and incentives to _not_ fix them, I am well past caring about finding out a business has bought a review.

My favorite local tasting room? I imagine they have the resources to invest in gaming, but I figure they'd stand their ground as long as possible out of a sense of integrity (and I would appreciate them all the more for this). Either way, good for them; I hope to enjoy many more years of their service[0].

My favorite m&p hole-in-the-wall? They don't exactly have a line out the door of raving, excited customers. And, I don't think they have the financial means to play ball. I root for them all the same.

[0] ...provided it doesn't turn for the worse.

Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

#50

Post by liaukovv »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #42
ghoward wrote: post #25

I once wrote a negative review of a business on Google, and it went up, but when I went to look at the business's reviews under my wife's Google account, it was not there. I waited an hour and checked. Then a couple hours and checked. Then a day. It never showed up. I posted the review under her account and did the same checks for my account. It never showed up. I do not know why it didn't show up, but I wouldn't be…

> I wouldn't be surprised if the business had been able to pay money to Google to be able to check reviews There is no way to do this that I can find documentation of on the public internet. You'd think if it were possible, someone would have written a howto guide. Personally, I'm deeply skeptical that any such mechanism exists. The revenue it would generate would be negligible and the potential for reputation loss s…

There is probably a button for business owner to complain about a review, for example in case of competitor bombing? Since nothing on google can be appealed this button is as good as removal of reviews at will

And if your affiliation to this business is based on ad spend then well...

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