Fake-Review Fraud

Fake-review fraud encompasses a range of deceptive practices: paid review farms where workers post five-star ratings en masse; incentivised reviews where customers receive refunds in exchange for positive ratings; suppression campaigns that report and remove genuine negative reviews; and brushing scams that post reviews in real but unknowing customers' names.

For consumers, fake reviews undermine the trust that makes online marketplaces useful — causing people to overpay for inferior products, choose unsafe services, or make health decisions based on fabricated testimonials. The harm is particularly acute in medical, financial, and home-services sectors.

Regulators in the US, UK, and EU have begun treating fake reviews as a form of consumer fraud. Sellers caught using fake reviews face fines, marketplace bans, and civil liability. Platforms use AI and behavioural analytics to detect suspicious review clusters, but adversarial techniques constantly evolve.