LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Fake online reviews cheat consumers looking for real feedback, and undercut honest businesses.
Though they're illegal under federal law, fake reviews fill the web.
"I was harassed by Yelp."
"Being exploited by Yelp."
"Extorted by Yelp."
"If the mafia had done what Yelp is doing, they'd be thriving in every county and every jurisdiction in the United States by doing it over the internet."
Those statements all come from Kaylie Milliken's 2019 documentary on Yelp, "Billion Dollar Bully." Milliken interviewed businesses from across the country, "Thousands and thousands of business owners all saying the same thing."
The same thing that 13 Investigates is hearing from Greencare, a Las Vegas pool and landscaping business.
PART 1: Five Star Fraud: Greencare Pool Builder customers duped by fake reviews
We began investigating Greencare based on a tip from former federal criminal investigator-turned digital detective, Kay Dean.
Combing Facebook, Google and Yelp, Dean discovered dozens of fake five-star reviews for Greencare.
"They're trying to mislead you," said Dean. "I have no idea how competent a contractor they are. All I know is they have scores of fake reviews."
"There have been some things on there that weren't accurate," admits Greencare owner John Reese.
"There's a lot of stuff out there with your company where the people saying they've had a good experience with you aren't real people, they're not real customers, and their experiences aren't real. And this has been going on for years. Why?" asked Darcy Spears.
"So, my explanation or reason for that," said Reese, "is that we ran into some issues with Yelp when we first started our company, and we were having real customers leave reviews and they were being filtered and filtered and filtered."
To fix that, Reese claims they had to pay Yelp.
"And then they kept asking us, well, if you want to do a five-star review at this level, you need to pay this amount of money. If you want to do another five-star review, you need to pay this amount of money."
Greencare has been spending $5,000 a month to be a Yelp advertiser.
Darcy Spears: You're telling me that when you paid Yelp, things changed on your page?
John Reese: Absolutely.
Darcy Spears: If that pushes down a legitimate negative review, then aren't you paying to put up a smokescreen?
John Reese: I don't know. It was very awkward to deal with somebody like that in a business where we didn't feel like we had any control over anything.
Darcy Spears: John, what you're describing is extortion.
John Reese: Well, I agree, but honestly, as a business owner, it's very hard to go against these larger companies where you feel like you have to pay, otherwise they could just drop you down to nothing.
Yelp says, "There has never been any amount of money a business can pay Yelp to alter reviews or ratings. Yelp’s recommendation software is entirely automated and applies the same objective rules to every business, and does not take a business’s advertising status into account (and never has). There’s no connection between the time a business starts, stops, or declines to advertise, and the placement of reviews in the recommended or not recommended sections for that business. Claims to the contrary are false."
"But does that make sense?" asks Reese. "Why would we continue to pay them escalating amounts of money and have the reviews change if it was the contrary?"
Reese and others Milliken interviewed in her film are also suspicious of Yelp's touted algorithm that's supposed to combat deceptive reviews.
In Greencare's case, Reese wonders, "Why is this algorithm not working?"
"This mysterious algorithm can't work as well as they claim it does," said Milliken. "It's pretty amazing that they continue to get away with this stuff."
Yelp says, "While our systems to combat deceptive reviews are among the most aggressive in the industry, no system is perfect and Yelp remains vigilant in continuously adapting and improving our abilities to respond to attempts to deceive consumers through misleading content — both on and off our platform."
Neither Yelp, nor Google, nor Facebook caught the fake Greencare reviews that Kay Dean found.
"And these are reviews going back years," Dean pointed out. "Of course, they should see this!"
So why aren't the tech companies better at policing themselves?
"It's not in their business interest to call attention to widespread fraud on their platforms," said Dean. "And I think it's important for the public to remember how they make their money. It's the businesses who pay them. It's not the consumer. And so, it's a really inherent conflict of interest."
Dean's assessment is backed up by Federal Trade Commission Chairperson Lina Khan, who said, "The platforms that host reviews may, in some instances, benefit indirectly from fake ratings and endorsements and have financial incentives to turn a blind eye to misconduct that brings in revenue. These practices don't only harm the consumers who place their trust in fake reviews. They also pollute the marketplace and put honest businesses at a competitive disadvantage."
PART 1: Five Star Fraud: Greencare Pool Builder customers duped by fake reviews
Resse says Greencare has recently scaled back what it's paying Yelp, "To about $750 a month."
Darcy Spears: Why should you pay them anything?
John Reese: I don't know. That's what I need to find out.
He's experimenting with a new approach, having customers hold company-made signs while showing their pools in photos and videos to prove they're legit.
And while some of those new endorsements are now showing up online, others are not, according to Reese and customer Vance Elrod in a video Greencare sent us, where Elrod says, "I signed a contract with Greencare to do my front yard. They did an amazing job. I went in to leave them a Yelp review right after and I was pretty annoyed when I checked a few days later and my Yelp review was filtered out. My review should count."
Yelp says its recommendation software is entirely automated and applies the same objective rules to every business.
Remember, fake Greencare reviews also appeared on Facebook and Google.
Dean points out that when Google removes reviews, they just disappear. There's no warning to consumers about the fakes.
Google sent a statement saying, "We are currently investigating this situation. Our policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences and information. We closely monitor 24/7 for fraudulent content and encourage people to flag policy-violating content to us as well."
Facebook also sent a statement, which says, "Fraudulent and deceptive activity is not allowed on our platforms, including offering or trading fake reviews. Our safety and security teams are continually working to prevent these practices, and we take robust steps to prevent this type of content from appearing on our platforms. We continuously improve our detection and enforcement to identify policy violations, but if a person or business sees a suspicious review, we encourage them to report it. People can report a suspicious review on Instagram or Facebook by clicking the three dots in the upper-right hand corner."
"The online review world is truly the Wild West," says Dean. "There's no real regulation at this time, very little being done to protect consumers. And the tech companies and their algorithms are not self-policing as they should be."
The FTC does not believe the online market will correct the long-standing problem of fake reviews on its own.
The agency is currently considering a new rule to combat the deception with stiff civil penalties for violators.
