It seems to be one of the best tips to know whether an unknown webshop is reliable or not: check the reviews. But that is increasingly less the case. Google alone took no less than 170 million fake reviews offline last year. And they certainly didn’t track everything down, because we noticed how easy it is to praise a non-existent company with fake reviews.
Two attempts. That’s all we needed. First we launched Airbakestar: a bakery of cupcakes, but mainly hot air, with a pretty good-looking site, which cost us barely ten euros for the domain name. But we wanted too much, too fast and too easy. To be able to post a review of a site on Google, you must be registered as a company there. We were refused. A company without a physical address and telephone number arouses suspicion. Google did give us the option to appeal via email using energy invoices or tax certificates: and indeed, anyone who really exists has that. But forging those documents was not an option for us.
Attempt two
So it’s time to put in a little more – but not much – effort. We decided to sell something different: laser engraved gifts for retirement celebrations, weddings, wedding photos… B.Lasered was born, headed by ourselves under the names Edwin Schaffelare and Danny Depuydt. We link the address of the newspaper and an existing mobile number to our company. Our site? Nothing more than one page on which we say what we do and where you can request a quote without obligation. For the rest, another completely empty box.
Five minutes. It took that long before we got a go from Google. This time no questions about invoices, company number or anything else to prove that we exist. With the help of our address and mobile phone number, we slipped through the not-so-fine mesh of the net. After that it went smoothly. With Google’s approval, they at Trustpilot had blind faith in us. In no time we were also on that site, with even the designation ‘verified company’ in a green bar with a green check mark next to it. If that doesn’t inspire confidence among potential buyers.
We existed. But could we now also link reviews? Praising words about a company that isn’t real? We asked twenty colleagues if they wanted to write a review and provided them with a list of how many stars they should give, when this should happen – everything in one day is suspect – and also what exactly they should post.
Because if you want to appear real, you have to do it right. Enter Ana Isabel Lopes from the Department of Communication Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. She conducts research into how people create an image of a company based on reviews. “Just messages with ‘nice work’, ‘well done’ or ‘satisfied with’ do not inspire much confidence,” she says. “People attach most value to reviews that tell something more. They want details, which increases trust, because these are things you cannot know if you are not a customer.”
So we had colleagues write posts about gifts for pensions, glass balls with the galaxy engraved on them, and how “a certain Edwin was so thoughtful to include a card saying congratulations on the baby” with an order for a birth. In addition, Lopes advised us not to just go for good reviews. Because this not only causes suspicion among potential customers – there is no such thing as perfection – but also among algorithms that detect fake reviews.
In just two weeks, we created an image that we would believe in: a score of 4.5 out of 5 on Google and 4.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot. At no time was a review rejected or brought up for discussion. Only when we informed Trustpilot about our project did our writers suddenly receive an email that fraud detection software was reporting their fake review. Before that, the software didn’t notice anything.
Reviews kopen
Time to step it up a notch and try something you can also do if you cannot or do not want to engage twenty colleagues: buy good reviews. It goes against the rules of Google and co., but there are still companies that offer such a service. “100 for 499 euros,” we read on one site. On a similar site – Weecqfy.com – we find the option to request a free trial review. The free choice seems safer than just giving out the number of our Visa card. We enter the name of our site and the review we want to see appear. That same day, a young lady, whom we know nothing about her, literally posts our words, including five stars. Google clearly trusts her.
The company tells us in a response that what they are doing is not illegal, but that is not true. The website of the FPS Economy clearly states that writing false reviews is prohibited. “Companies that sell such assessments are often located abroad,” the FPS said. “Which makes it difficult for us to take action.”
Fraudsters
So we apologize for briefly appealing to illegality. But otherwise we kept it good. We didn’t really mislead people, didn’t sell anyone too much air. Although the conclusion remains bitter. We created a good appearance online with good scores quite easily – a few hours of work and a budget of around ten euros. The ease with which this is possible makes police services concerned. What we did is increasingly being done by fraudsters.
“A good review is often the last trigger people need to order somewhere online,” says Gijs van der Linden, team leader of the Dutch National Internet Fraud Hotline. “Fraudsters take advantage of this.” Our FPS Economy also warns against this practice. Van der Linden: “How they do it? They indeed often work with real accounts because they are more difficult to trace. Even worse, they even use their own victims for this. Then you shouldn’t buy reviews or recruit them from friends. For example, there is now an investigation into a scam in which people who ordered something supposedly received a discount if they immediately posted a positive review. Those people paid for their order, did not receive anything delivered to their home, but had posted online that it was a good company. Even before they realized that it was not the case, they unknowingly convinced other victims with their good review. Sooner or later there will of course be reviews from dissatisfied customers, but by then the damage has already been done.”
“We have files with hundreds of victims, who lost an average of 350 euros to fake electrical stores,” says Van der Linden. “And it doesn’t cost the criminals much money. As you say, you can easily create a site. You did not link a webshop to it, but there are tools with which you can do that in no time and the money crosses the border via foreign payment systems. Sometimes we can stop it, but when it is directly converted into crypto coins, it is more difficult.”
Whether platforms can or should no longer do anything about fake reviews? “Work has recently been done on this,” says Mathias Vermeulen, director at law firm AWO, which specializes in digital consumer law. “The Digital Services Act (DSA) has been in force within the EU since February. The principle is that the larger companies are, the more efforts they have to make to protect consumers, for example by taking action against fake reviews. We will never be able to keep out all fake reviews. But the fact that you can simply register a non-existent company on Google without being asked for something as simple as a company number shows that improvements are possible.”
Response from Trustpilot and Google
“Tackling fake reviews is one of our biggest priorities,” Trustpilot responds. “We continually invest in our proprietary software that screens reviews against hundreds of data points – such as IP addresses or email addresses, among others – to automatically identify and remove suspected fake reviews and take action against companies and accounts that engage in them In addition to the software, we have a team of analysts who investigate and respond to all identified reviews.”
“Consumers also play an important role in maintaining integrity,” says Trustpilot. “They can share both positive and negative feedback about their experiences with companies for free. Our review community can also flag suspicious content. You bypassed that crucial preventative measure because very few “real” consumers visited this fictional company on our page. So it is not a true reflection of how we tackle fake companies. Because they are usually flooded with fake reviews, or we receive reports from consumers who had a negative experience with the company. If that happens, our software monitors the situation and we take appropriate measures.”
Trustpilot has since removed all fake reviews and the ability to add new reviews. There was also a report that B.Lasered is not real.
At Google we receive a short and general response. “We invest a lot in technology and methods to help people find reliable information on Google,” says spokesperson Michiel Sallaets. “Our rules clearly say that reviews must be based on real experiences and information. We monitor 24/7 for false content, using both people and technology. When we find scammers trying to deceive people, we intervene immediately. This can range from removing content to blocking accounts and even legal action. Last year we blocked or removed more than 170 million reviews that violated our policies.”
