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UK Businesses Caught Buying Five-Star Google Reviews

mardi 9 mars 2021, 23:50 , par Slashdot
Google is failing to do enough to combat fake reviews within its business listings, and must be held to account by a UK watchdog, according to Which? The BBC reports: Which? conducted its research by essentially setting up a 'sting' operation to catch unscrupulous operators in the act. It created a fake business listing which it called 'five-star reviews,' and searched online for companies advertising paid-for Google reviews. It then spent $150 on their services. Which? told each company it wanted five-star reviews only, and between three and five of them a day -- and the consumer group's researchers wrote the reviews themselves, 'praising how good the made-up business and its fake owner Catherine are.' The fake reviews appeared over the following week, a few at a time.

But in investigating the 'reviewers' behind them, the Which? team found, among others:
- 15 reviewers who had rated both an Edinburgh search engine optimization business and a London psychic as five stars, which it called 'an unlikely coincidence'
- A stockbroker in Canary Wharf who, having had several bad reviews in mid-2020, received 30 five-star ones 'in quick succession' a few months later
- A reviewer who claimed to have lived in Surrey for years while praising a local car company, and a Glasgow electric gate firm 412 miles (663 km) away for work on his home
- The same reviewer also praised a dentist in Manchester, a paving firm in Bournemouth, and a Cambridgeshire locksmith, who allegedly saved his toddler from a locked car

Which? said it linked some 45 businesses scattered across the country to three suspicious 'reviewers.' That suggested they had each paid the same review seller to post their reviews, it said. It called on regulators and Google to take action. When it presented Google with the findings, the fake sting company was immediately deleted, Which? said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.
rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/xBhx4aRw6V8/uk-businesses-caught-buying-five-star-google-re...
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