Anonymous fake online reviews are back in the news, but this
time marketers may not be the only ones who should be wary. As we
have
written before, astroturf is making a comeback, and not
necessarily on the athletic fields. In September 2013, the New York
AG agreed to
settle with 19 companies engaging in
"astroturfing," requiring the companies to essentially
stop writing their own fake online reviews and pay more than
350,000 in fines.
These fake reviews are particularly attractive to companies that
lack a good reputation as they offer a quick fix to their
reputation woes. A Harvard Business School study recently asserted that roughly 16%
of online reviews are classified as fraudulent, a number which Yelp
later confirmed,adding that its fraud logarithm
excludes about 25% of reviews submitted. Despite efforts undertaken
by companies such as Yelp, some false reviews inevitably slip
through the cracks.
