Why Businesses Use Fake Reviews

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is — it’s what Google says it is.” 

97% of participants said customer reviews factor into their buying decisions. 93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. And 94% say a negative online review has convinced them to avoid a business.

Without a doubt, reviews are powerful. They help alleviate any scepticisms potential customers may have and they can be the make or break of a purchase. 

Both businesses and individuals know this. But while many uphold authentic reviews, research has shown that 30%–40% of online reviews are fake. 

So why do people use fake reviews? It’s not always for the same reason. 

6 reasons why businesses use fake reviews

First of all, it’s worth noting that it’s not just scammers who use fake reviews. The small “mom and pop shop” in your neighborhood might use fake reviews. The marketing team of your favorite brand might use fake reviews. Sellers on platforms like Vinted, eBay and Depop might use fake reviews. 

It’s why there’s such a large percentage of fake reviews online, because even legitimate businesses have been known to use them. 

Businesses publish negative fake reviews to beat their competition

Businesses and individuals sometimes create multiple fake accounts to leave negative reviews about others. Like in 2023, when author Cait Corrain wrote fake negative reviews about other authors on GoodReads. She was found out and got dropped from a publishing deal. 

Businesses use fake positive reviews to recover from negative reviews

If a business has had multiple negative reviews (whether fake, or legitimate) over a short period of time, it badly affects their rating and sales. Sometimes, businesses use fake positive reviews to boost their rating back up. 

Small businesses ask friends and family to write positive reviews to boost their rating

Even if friends and family genuinely like a product or service, these still count as fake reviews, because they aren’t written by unbiased customers. 

Scammers publish negative fake reviews to threaten business owners

In 2022, restaurants all over America were being targeted by a fake review scam. Scammers created numerous one-star reviews on Google, then days later, demanded money to remove them. 

Scammers use fake positive reviews to make them look legitimate 

Whether they’re operating a phishing scam, or they have fake product listings, scammers create (or buy) fake 5-star reviews to deceive people into thinking they’re a trustworthy seller. 

Marketing teams use fake positive reviews to support a launch

If a brand is just launching (and therefore, doesn't have many legitimate sales or customer reviews) they sometimes buy fake reviews to prop up their rating. Sometimes, marketing teams buy from fake review brokers, or they pay influencers who don’t declare their paid partnerships. 

Is there such a thing as a harmless fake review?

In short, no, there is no such thing as a harmless fake review. 

You could argue that some fake reviews are intended to cause more harm than others, but even fake reviews written with pure intentions still cause harm. 

The reason why reviews are so powerful is because they’re a form of social proof. They give an honest picture of what other customers can expect from a business. It’s said that 96% of people don’t trust ads—so where do they turn to? The experiences of other people who have no affiliation with the business. 

When businesses use fake reviews to boost their rating, they diminish the entire point of customer reviews and render them worthless. A once-honest depiction of their brand, quickly becomes a marketing tool rooted in deception. This is not harmless. 

Fake reviews can also harm the reputation of platforms and online marketplaces. If fake reviews are allowed to run rampant, they have a negative impact on that platform’s trust factor. 93% of respondents in a survey said they were “a little suspicious” of fake reviews on Facebook. It’s therefore no surprise that the number of users reading reviews on Facebook had dropped by 8% in the space of two years. 

But Facebook isn't the only platform needing to tackle this problem. In 2022, Amazon reported over 200 million suspected fake reviews proactively blocked from their stores. And Tripadvisor identified 1.3 million fake reviews on its platform in the same year. They have had to dedicate entire teams to combating fake reviews. These resources could have otherwise gone towards better things, like creating more jobs. The knock-on effects of fake reviews are far-reaching. 

How Pasabi can help you stop fake reviews

Using a combination of behavioral analytics, AI and machine learning, Pasabi helps you detect and automate against fake reviews on your platform. We focus on user behavior—looking beyond the text of the review itself. Our cluster technology identifies suspicious patterns in your data, so you can take action at the root of the problem before fake reviews become a persistent problem. 

→ Learn more about our fake review detection solution