Bots Are Destroying Trust In Business By Writing Fake Online Reviews

Bots are everywhere. Bots nearly got Elon Musk out of buying Twitter. Now they’re infiltrating the retail space, undermining trust by posting obviously fake reviews.

How serious a problem is this for retailers? The reliability of reviews is important for online retailers, considering good reviews of products often influence consumers.

Even the odd bad review among good reviews isn’t particularly harmful, so long as the prospective buyer knows they’re genuine.

But fake reviews are harmful. They usually come with a generic message, often riddled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar. Also, some retailers pay for positive reviews to make it look like there are many satisfied customers.

But they’re not always as easy to spot. Consider this one involving Pottery Barn, posted on X. Bot reviews seemingly buried a negative review by a decidedly unsatisfied customer:

Pretty obvious someone's paying for fake reviews… pic.twitter.com/GqAAJTZshM

— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) December 15, 2023

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Fake Reviews A Serious Issue

In a survey from February 2023, researchers at Brightlocal found that 98% of people read online reviews of local businesses before using them.

Up to 87% of consumers used Google GOOGL to evaluate local businesses in 2022, up from 81% in 2021. Their top searches were for reviews of healthcare, automotive services, and service businesses/tradespeople.

However, 42% of consumers were confident they’ve seen fake reviews on websites such as Facebook META and Google (considered the most trusted review platform).

“We've been studying consumer perceptions of fake reviews since 2017, and it's fair to say the issue has only grown in prominence since then,” said Sammy Paget, author of the Brightlocal report. “Some platforms, more than others, are fighting back against the issue of fake, misleading or even potentially harmful reviews.”

Fake Reviews: Where Are They Being Seen

The numbers don’t look good: 54% of respondents in the report said they’d seen fake reviews on Amazon AMZN, while 50% had seen them on Google and 42% on Facebook.

Finally, consumers suspect a review is fake if it is just a star rating with no words, if it’s over-the-top in its praise and, conversely, if it is overtly negative.

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