Fake Review Watch

Surprise (not)! More review fraud on Google and Facebook. Fake Google and Facebook reviews are rolling in for Glo Dental Group with four clinics in the Houston area. The source of the review fraud seems to be Facebook itself, where review sellers both advertise their services and post reviews for Glo Dental.

Car Accident Lawyer Daniel Kim has Yelp pages for multiple California locations and has a history of receiving fake Yelp reviews from a network of college age kids. Yelp, for once, has taken a stand and has long-running suspicious review activity alerts on his pages. Kim is smarter than Yelp, though, and has numerous other Yelp business pages using a cornucopia of law firm names. Yes, those pages have fake reviews from the network as well, many recommended as trustworthy by Yelp.

Houzz is another site rife with fake reviews. An active black market exists on Facebook for fake Houzz reviews, and plenty of contractors on Houzz appear to be benefiting from fake 5-star reviews. Fake reviews from New Delhi review sellers, reviews from people who were already deceased, and reviews that were part of trading schemes--you'll find them all on Houzz. What's Houzz doing about it? Nothing, it appears.

Shady profiles are posting plagiarized Tripadvisor reviews all over Yelp's platform, and now some of those plagiarizers are posting fake reviews for mental health and addiction treatment centers. What's Yelp doing about it? Allowing it to happen, to the detriment of potential patients. Both Mindful Health Solutions, with clinics in California, Washington, Texas, and Georgia, and Agape, with treatment centers in South Florida, are benefiting from reviews by these fakers.

You can't trust Google reviews even for mental health and addiction treatment centers. A network of Google profiles is posting reviews for both Mindful Health Solutions (clinics in California, Washington, Texas, and Georgia) and Agape treatment centers in South Florida. Moving companies appear to be gaining reviews from this same network. Google has been removing reviews, but does it let consumers in on the secret? Of course not.

Storm Team Construction in Florida and other states is being bombed with fake negative reviews on Facebook and Google. What do the tech titans do about it? Google ignores Storm Team's entreaties, and Facebook suspends the business administrator's profile for complaining about fake reviews!

Don't trust Google reviews, even for doctors and dentists. Dentistry by Design in Minnetonka, Minnesota, seems to be getting lots of 5-star Google reviews from people who also use the same vape shop a half hour away, as well as from others who like the same Miami Beach locksmith or the same Indian restaurant in Australia! So much for Google giving us quality information.

Within days of Fake Review Watch publishing its video Yelp Abets Review Faking for Moving Companies, Yelp hurriedly began removing fake profiles and reviews. How can Fake Review Watch find these fakers and Yelp can't? Once again we show that Yelp's recommendation software is a miserable failure at giving consumers trustworthy reviews.

The feds are investigating moving companies that rip off consumers, but maybe they should be investigating Yelp as well. Four moving companies are receiving fake reviews across 14 Yelp pages. This case follows the trail from two previous Fake Review Watch investigations and media stories which Yelp belatedly acted on, but does Yelp do anything proactive? No. It allows the faking for the movers while consumers get duped.

Five-star Google reviews pour in for First Class OB/GYN in Florida, hundreds in just days. Where are they all coming from? Are they fake? You decide.

An expansive network of hundreds of Google and Yelp profiles are posting fake reviews for businesses from San Diego to San Francisco. Where are Google and Yelp, who claim to do so much to combat fake reviews?

The New York Attorney General's Office announced on October 30, 2023 that it secured $100,000 in penalties from a Manhattan doctor who had manipulated his online reviews across multiple platforms. Orthopedic surgeon Mark Mohrmann and his wife suppressed negative reviews and obtained fake positive reviews for his practice. The AG thanked Fake Review Watch for assisting in the investigation.

Much of the review fraud across the internet comes via Facebook. The administrator of a Facebook group called "Yelp reviews" openly boasts of the Yelp reviews he's posting, including dozens of fakes for an Arizona contractor. But the contractor isn't the only business benefiting from this Facebook group.

Many people rely on Yelp to find a home contractor, but Yelp is awash in fake contractor reviews. In this case, Yelp is recommending fake reviews for Victory Home Remodeling in Los Angeles. Moreover, Yelp has found fake Elite reviews for Victory and removed them, but doesn't warn consumers about it. Wouldn't you want to know that a contractor you're considering just had fake reviews removed by Yelp?

The FTC has proposed a new rule to crack down on fake reviews, but it won't apply to the review platforms themselves. Well, a Texas dentist and a Michigan neurosurgeon are benefitting from fake reviews, and the big boys Facebook and Google are right there facilitating the faking.

Did your hard drive or phone crash? Be careful trusting Yelp to find a place to recover your data. A Fake Review Watch investigation found dozens of fake Yelp reviews for DriveSavers Data Recovery. After a reporter went to Yelp with the information, over 100 recommended reviews for DriveSavers disappeared! Once again, Yelp is late to the game, acting only after a media inquiry.

After media attention to the original video, someone is trying to stifle free speech and the public's right to know about review fraud through a bogus privacy complaint! Update to 2020 video about fake Yelp Elite and Facebook reviews for Ocean Avenue Veterinary Hospital in San Francisco. The original video showed the owner in a Facebook group created to facilitate the procurement of fake reviews, and his communications with a fake review seller. This update shows the original info and explains that Yelp belatedly caught on, removing the veterinary hospital's fake reviews and slapping it with a Suspicious Review Activity Alert nearly a year later. Facebook eventually removed the fraudulent group. Who do you trust, Fake Review Watch or these tech companies?

Google is saturated with fake reviews. See what one network of fake Google profiles has been up to during a two week period. The same profiles are propping up Ohio law firm Patituce & Associates, an Australian hair salon, a Chicago moving company, a Massachusetts nail salon, and a Florida locksmith with fake 5-star reviews while simultaneously review bombing two Vancouver animal hospitals with fake 1-star reviews.

Fake Review Watch provided its investigation into fake reviews for Greencare Pool Builder in Las Vegas to ABC affiliate KTNV. Reporter Darcy Spears asked Yelp, Google, and Facebook about the fakes. Most of the fakes were on Yelp, which was shamed into removing over 200 that it had previously recommended. Google provided a canned response and took down a couple reviews. Facebook provided a canned response and left the reviews up. Why trust these companies for reliable reviews?

This video was the basis for a KTNV TV Las Vegas news story about a pool builder receiving fake Yelp, Google, and Facebook reviews. Yelp removed over 200 reviews for Greencare Pool Builder after being confronted by KTNV. Does Yelp warn consumers, though? Nope. What about Google and Facebook? Crickets.

What does Yelp do in response to Fake Review Watch's video on its bogus recommendation software? Remove all of the profiles documented in the video! Now no one, whether it be you, an attorney general, or the Federal Trade Commission, can replicate the evidence.

You just can't trust Google or Healthgrades for reliable reviews. Texas neurologist Dr. Edward Icaza is a case in point. Our analysis on March 9, 2023 indicates over half of Dr. Icaza's Google reviews were fake, and some of those same reviews showed up for him on Healthgrades as well.

Yelp talks a good game about how it recommends only the most reliable reviews. But in many cases, Yelp's bogus recommendation software simultaneously recommends and doesn't recommend the same person's reviews for various businesses. That makes no sense--is the person a reliable reviewer or not? Hm, perhaps something else is going on.

The Sadeghi Center for Plastic Surgery in Louisiana and other businesses worldwide are benefiting from fake 5-star reviews posted by a network of Google profiles. What's more, Google allows the fakers to "lock" their profiles, preventing YOU from seeing what they're up to.

Yelp is no friend of consumers. In reaction to two Fake Review Watch videos on California contractors and their marketer getting fake reviews, Yelp removed 47 Yelp Elite profiles and over 3000 reviews. Does Yelp alert consumers about these businesses? No. Does Yelp find other fake reviews for these businesses? No. (We did). Does Yelp remove a contractor's legit 1-star review? Yes. Maybe the fact that these contractors are Yelp advertisers and the marketer is a Yelp advertising partner has something to do with it.