Is it time for a review of the review sites?

[Shepherd]

Looking at the proliferation of fake reviews on a major third party review site (not mentioning any names) and I have to wonder if it is time for some looking into.

At some point the line between just being complacent and colluding with businesses to promote fake reviews has to get blurry.

[Selen]

I mentioned it years ago. Some niches (more of them each year) have not only been posting fake reviews of their businesses on the popular reviews sites, but they have also been creating their own "independent" review websites that "review" their own services, among some of their selected competitors to keep an illusion of objectivity.

The challenging part is that Google raters have been officially instructed to check out such popular review websites for internal rating purposes, which only motivates dishonest businesses to publish more fake reviews.

[tangor]

Scams come in all shapes and sizes.

Is it any wonder that the old adages still apply?

"Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see?"

Since the web is hear-see most folks get it. :)

The fact that g wants to give any of that rank means they "aren't firing on all eight cylinders" (used to be six, today is actually four)... (Does that mean the leecy stuff is "eight batteries"?)