Federal Trade Commission Reports Hundreds Of Businesses Using Fake Reviews To Attract Customers – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
by Erin Jones | CBS 11
PLANO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – If you’ve ever struggled filtering online reviews to find a good restaurant or reputable business, you may have noticed that the reviews sometimes seem wrong.
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The Federal Trade Commission reports that there is now an explosion of companies using fake reviews to promote their products and services on social media.
This is especially frustrating for companies that work hard on their reviews.
Alex Park has been creating individual frames for its customers for more than 25 years.
The manager of Art & Frame Warehouse in Plano doesn’t advertise but rather relies on reviews to do business.
“That is of the utmost importance,” he said. “Whenever I come here for the first time, the first thing they say to me is,“ Oh, I saw you online. I’ve seen your reviews. ”“
Park prides itself on its five-star ratings and said it was a shame to see other companies use fake ones to boost business.
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“I see it as a public deception,” he said.
The FTC announced Thursday, October 14th that it had warned hundreds of large corporations and smaller corporations that they could face a fine of just over $ 43,000 per violation.
Monica Horton of the Better Business Bureau of North Central Texas said it could be difficult to tell if a review was fake.
“We really want consumers to do additional research,” she said.
She said the first thing to do is check the BBB website to see if any company has been flagged for using these fraudulent business practices.
“If a lot of reviews are from a particular IP address, there may be paid false positives,” she said.
When it comes to reviews with photos attached, she suggests doing a reverse image search to see if it has been used in other situations.
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If you think you’ve spotted a fake review online, you can report it to the social media platform that lists it and file a complaint with the FTC.
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