Fake reviews rampant online; how to spot them

Portland, Ore. — (KGW) Looking for a great restaurant? Need a recommendation on a hotel? Most people turn to online reviews.

“I look to see what people say about it,” said Janan Nelson, a frequent Yelp user. “If a hotel has like five or six negative reviews, I’m not going there.”

In today’s world, consumer reviews on websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google can make or break a business.

“The reviews are very critical,” said Hillary Humphrey of 808 Grinds food cart in downtown Portland. “I mean, one bad star can definitely drop your review down quite a bit. It is very important.”

But a KGW investigation found a lot of online reviews are fake. People are actually being paid to write reviews.

On Craigslist, several companies in the Portland metro area offered to pay for good reviews of their product.

“We pay for Amazon reviews – Easy $$$,” reads one post on Craigslist.com.

A different person offered to write bogus reviews.

“I am a professional reviewer who is able to leave both GOOD and BAD (if needed) reviews for your company or product,” said the online post.

Research from the Harvard Business School found that nearly 16 percent of all Yelp reviews were fake.

The Federal Trade Commission has tried to crack down on fake reviews. Many websites like Yelp and Amazon have sued companies that sell fake reviews.

To avoid bogus reviews, experts suggest:

Compare reviews on different websites.
Watch for reviews that are exactly the same.
Skip over reviews that are super-negative or over-the-top positive.
See if the person has done other reviews.
Be skeptical of reviews posted around the same time.
Be suspicious if a reviewer is too vague or too specific.
Don’t go for reviews that provide a link.