Fake Reviews Damaging Company Reputations

Websites like Trip Advisor and others are acclaimed by customers as they get the chance to rate their experiences and hold companies to account. However some firms claim that they are being damaged by customers who actually are working for rivals.

Trust in information on the web is being damaged by the huge numbers of people paid by companies to post comments online, say researchers.

Fake posters can "poison" debate and make people unsure about who they can trust, the study suggests.

Some firms have created tens of thousands of fake accounts to flood chat forums and skew debate.

The researchers say there are reliable ways to spot fakes and urge websites to do more to police users.

The researchers from Canada and China say paying people to post comments is an "interesting strategy in business marketing" but it is not a benign activity.

"Paid posters may create a significant negative effect on the online communities, since the information from paid posters is usually not trustworthy," they wrote.

Further Reading here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13387807

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15583955

A cynic could also argue that this is a great counter argument to attempt to have sites like Trip Advisor remove their reviews. Personally I think it is crucial that customers have a voice. I have reviewed hotels on Trip Advisor and have always been fair. Also by booking through third party websites like Expedia, then I have had invitations to leave reviews on Trip Advisor, which is perhaps the best way to do it, as they can prove I have actually used the product or service.