3 Ways to Spot a Fake Online Review

When shopping online, many of us rely on product reviews to help us make smart purchasing decisions. However, fake online endorsements or reviews are more common than ever and could trick you into making a purchase.

Fake reviews appear to be by regular customers but are actually written by or on behalf of the business offering the product or service.

Not only do these fake reviews hurt you, they also hurt legitimate businesses by giving some businesses an unfair advantage. That’s because fake reviews are often used by businesses to improve upon accurate negative ratings of their products or services.

As social media and online shopping have become ever-present in our lives, fake reviews have exploded.

Here are four red flags for fake reviews:

• A product or service has received lots of great reviews all of a sudden.
• A recently created profile has provided positive reviews on a variety of products in a short period of time.
• The reviewer’s tone is overly positive and makes it out to be “the best thing ever”.
• Several reviews for the product use very similar wording.Make reviews one of several sources you use to choose your online purchases, and when you do read them, look for reviews over a wide range of time.

Find more information and report fake reviews at competitionbureau.gc.ca.

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