$350,000 in penalties for fake reviews/testimonials

I wonder where they draw the line - simply targeting "paid reviews" leaves a lot open to interpretation. It's one thing for someone who has no experience with your product to be paid to leave a review, but many companies legitimately solicit paid testimonials by sending out samples and then compensating the reviewer for their time.

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Steve B

11 years ago

Originally Posted by ronrule

I wonder where they draw the line - simply targeting "paid reviews" leaves a lot open to interpretation. It's one thing for someone who has no experience with your product to be paid to leave a review, but many companies legitimately solicit paid testimonials by sending out samples and then compensating the reviewer for their time.

Ron,

After reading the article quoted I don't think paid reviews were really the issue here. From the article:

"Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said the fake reviews breached laws against false advertising and deceptive business practices."

False advertising and deceptive business practicesseem to be what the Attorney General was targeting.

Those two "sins" have been a staple of many Internet marketing campaigns since the very beginning.

There seems to be no end to the supply of these types of practices online. My guess is, the "enforcers" don't have the time, money, and possibly "legal muscle" to scratch the surface of this cancer.

Just my thoughts.

Steve

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Ghoster

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Steve B

Ron,

After reading the article quoted I don't think paid reviews were really the issue here. From the article:

"Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said the fake reviews breached laws against false advertising and deceptive business practices."

False advertising and deceptive business practicesseem to be what the Attorney General was targeting.

Those two "sins" have been a staple of many Internet marketing campaigns since the very beginning.

There seems to be no end to the supply of these types of practices online. My guess is, the "enforcers" don't have the time, money, and possibly "legal muscle" to scratch the surface of this cancer.

Just my thoughts.

Steve

Fake reviews = false advertising.

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tpw

11 years ago

Originally Posted by ronrule

I wonder where they draw the line - simply targeting "paid reviews" leaves a lot open to interpretation. It's one thing for someone who has no experience with your product to be paid to leave a review, but many companies legitimately solicit paid testimonials by sending out samples and then compensating the reviewer for their time.

According to the FTC, these reviewers should be indicating within their review that they were compensated to write the review.

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Bent SEO 11 years ago

Originally Posted by tpw

According to the FTC, these reviewers should be indicating within their review that they were compensated to write the review.

I wonder if people will find a loophole around it as many do with Amazon sites, wherein they review a review...?
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Anonymous Affiliate

11 years ago

Originally Posted by ronrule

I wonder where they draw the line - simply targeting "paid reviews" leaves a lot open to interpretation. It's one thing for someone who has no experience with your product to be paid to leave a review, but many companies legitimately solicit paid testimonials by sending out samples and then compensating the reviewer for their time.

They key word here is "compensating"...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a paid testimonial is not a testimonial but actually an endorsement, like when celebrities endorse a product, right?

The thing with testimonials is that, by definition, they should be totally unbiased and free. Otherwise, if you pay for them, it's closer to an advertisement than to a testimonial.

I'm glad they're tracking down on paid testimonials. They're just wrong from a conceptual point of view.

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ronrule

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

They key word here is "compensating"...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a paid testimonial is not a testimonial but actually an endorsement, like when celebrities endorse a product, right?

The thing with testimonials is that, by definition, they should be totally unbiased and free. Otherwise, if you pay for them, it's closer to an advertisement than to a testimonial.

I'm glad they're tracking down on paid testimonials. They're just wrong from a conceptual point of view.

Not necessarily, in the infomercial industry we would always compensate people for their time - they would come into the studio for an afternoon and be asked questions on camera or they would read their own prepared testimonial. You get paid for that. Obviously if you didn't have anything good to say about the product we weren't going to pay you to come in and talk about it, that wouldn't make any sense - but they were all actual users. For the ones that couldn't make the trek to the studio, we still compensated them for their written testimonials. Anyone who's statement we might reference in a commercial or put on a website was paid.

I realize that's not the same thing as paying someone to post crap on Yelp, but that's why I'm wondering where this is going ... where do you draw the line? If I ask you to review my product, I'm not "paying you to say something positive" - I'm buying the rights to PUBLISH your review and reference you by name in my marketing, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If you didn't like the product, I'm not going to use your testimonial so I wouldn't be paying you for it.

I don't really think that's a "gray area", seems pretty black & white to me. But we're dealing with an over-reaching government here so who knows.

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MissTerraK 11 years ago

Hmmm,

I found this to be interesting as well.

Yelp Sues Law Firm for Posting Fake Reviews, Testimonials

Nothing would make me more happy than to see the charlatan element, big and small, disappear from marketing, especially from the marketing via the Internet and even more specific, those that are labeled as "Internet Marketers."

I mean it just doesn't make sense to me. If I suck and can't produce what I claim and what I have others lie for me to claim, than how can I ever become and maintain a profitable business?

I would have to continually try to build up another and another and so on once the bad reviews started rolling in, once the charge backs and complaints starting rolling in and going public too.

I'd have to assume many aliases, think of new business names, etc. That seems like an awful lot of work to me. Putting all of your hard work into building and maintaining and growing a good reputable
product/service/business just seems the better and easier way to go.

This all still baffles me. Honesty and integrity are apparently becoming a lost art. :rolleyes:

Terra
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- kindsvater 11 years ago
  
  Would be nice to see action for fake negative reviews as well. Seems to be fairly common when someone is promoting their service negative statements about competitors appear at about the same time.
  
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DoubleOhDave

11 years ago

Wowsers. I always wondered about those fake reviews on Fiverr.. can't say I am too unhappy about the situation though..

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teresarothaar

11 years ago

Originally Posted by DoubleOhDave

Wowsers. I always wondered about those fake reviews on Fiverr.. can't say I am too unhappy about the situation though..

Yeah, this is really going to mess up things on Fiverr.

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ronrule

11 years ago

Originally Posted by teresarothaar

Yeah, this is really going to mess up things on Fiverr.

I think we'll see more of it now. Remember, we live in this world... plenty of offline business owners have never even considered the possibility that you could buy fake reviews on the cheap. Now they'll be looking for it.

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PerformanceMan

11 years ago

Originally Posted by ronrule

I think we'll see more of it now. Remember, we live in this world... plenty of offline business owners have never even considered the possibility that you could buy fake reviews on the cheap. Now they'll be looking for it.

Yep. A lot people will now be going, 'So that's how that S.O.B. has been doing it!"

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mydream247

11 years ago

Funny how Yelp stock shot up after the new announcement.

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10kaday

11 years ago

yeah, It might have a real affect on the bizop market.

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Bent SEO

11 years ago

I heard this on the radio this morning - definitely a hefty fine, looks like they're targeting larger companies but a good heads up and deterrence - although I'm willing to bet that 350k fine is a drop in the bucket for some of those big timers out there that got hit with it.

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sbucciarel

Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Bent SEO

I heard this on the radio this morning - definitely a hefty fine, looks like they're targeting larger companies but a good heads up and deterrence - although I'm willing to bet that 350k fine is a drop in the bucket for some of those big timers out there that got hit with it.

A tiny fine when you consider that the $350K is the total fine from all 19 companies.

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DubDubDubDot 11 years ago

Will those of you who offer "reputation management" services be warning your prospects that what you do could get either one of you fined big money?

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

A tiny fine when you consider that the $350K is the total fine from all 19 companies.

Fake Reviewers Get Zero Stars From New York Attorney General : All Tech Considered : NPR

That article says the fines ranged from $2,500 to $100,000.
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- hometutor 11 years ago
  
  I paid for a review from Fiverr, but I sent her the book and she reviewed it. The issue is fake reviews.
  
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- teresarothaar 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot
  
  Will those of you who offer "reputation management" services be warning your prospects that what you do could get either one of you fined big money?
  
  Legitimate rep management services do not include phony reviews. I worked for a rather large rep management firm as a contractor for about 18 months. I never wrote or posted a fake review, or any other phony information. We did publish positive biographies, press releases, and articles about our clients, but they did not contain false information or "reviews" of any sort.
  
  Example for an individual: the client has a DUI (that was a common problem). A bio is written that talks about his professional accomplishments, education, and hobbies, and published on various social media sites. None of the information is false; the DUI is simply not mentioned.
  
  Example for a company: the company has a bunch of bad write-ups on various consumer complaint sites. A bio is written that talks about the history of the company, its services, perhaps the people who founded it, projects they have worked on, etc., and published on various social media sites. Again, none of the information published is false; the negative reviews are simply not referenced or addressed.
  
  We would also set up free blogs for the clients and fill them with articles; in the case of an individual, they would be about their hobbies and professional interests, and in the case of a company, about their industry or maybe a project the company had completed. Again, no false information.
  
  If anyone ever tells you they're going to "manage" your online reputation by posting phony reviews, or even biographies or articles that contain false information, RUN.
  
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Colin Fox

11 years ago

Quite right too!

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Steven Saczkowski

11 years ago

Yet they don't bust all the fake testimonials on TV? Weird. Everything is fake, it's been like that since the beginning of media.

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nzaman

11 years ago

Deserves them right, hopefully the rest that have not been caught can stop!

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HeySal

11 years ago

It's an $11,000 dollar fine for EACH breach of the FTC guidelines.

It seems that some IMers haven't got the clue yet that stating "make THIS much" type ad copy is illegal unless the claim can be proved to be "typical results".

Seriously a lot of the "no skill necessary" crowd online wouldn't even know how to operate on their own without breaching copyright, trademark, or truth in advertising law. I had one guy actually chew me out for not joining a "review ring".

In my estimation, TPTB can go through and just start shooting a huge fine at anyone and everyone that is trying to build a business using theft or dishonesty. If you don't have the impetus to study up enough to do it right in the first place, or the integrity to do it with honesty, you don't need to be scumming up the net anyhow.

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NewParadigm

11 years ago

YELP should be nailed for extortion for holding back legitimate positive biz reviews. (filtering) Until you start paying them. Holding good legitimate reviews hostage. My GF's salon has over 100 legit positive yelp reviews "filtered".

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Ghoster

11 years ago

Originally Posted by NewParadigm

YELP should be nailed for extortion for holding back legitimate positive biz reviews. (filtering) Until you start paying them. Holding good legitimate reviews hostage. My GF's salon has over 100 legit positive yelp reviews "filtered".

Agree. They were caught red-handed a while back. I wish I had the link right now. There was a food poisoning incident at Golden Corral. A week or so afterward all of the negative reviews that stemmed form that incident were in the "filter," ie, hidden.

The whole site is BS.

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tritrain

11 years ago

Good point about the "actor portrayals" of actual reviews that we see on TV or on the radio. There's a lot of gray area. What about those secret shoppers? They're usually getting some form of compensation.

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GinaMSI 11 years ago

I think it's great! Takes a bit of the smarminess out of this business.
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tpw

11 years ago

Originally Posted by tritrain

Good point about the "actor portrayals" of actual reviews that we see on TV or on the radio. There's a lot of gray area. What about those secret shoppers? They're usually getting some form of compensation.

Companies seldom use secret shoppers for advertising purposes. The role of the secret shopper is to help management keep an eye of the quality of their product and service.

"Actor Portrayals" should in all cases represent real product/service reviews submitted by customers. If you check the fine print on some of those ads, they will say that the actor portrayal represents a cross-section of reviews submitted to them.

The fine print is important on the actor portrayal commercials, because the declarations on the commercials is what makes them legal and within the guidelines of the law.

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goindeep

11 years ago

This is great.

About time I say.

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djneill

11 years ago

I see a lot of fiverr sellers are about to be out of a job...

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mpluto

11 years ago

I was very surprised that fake testimonials and reviews don't get punished. It is long overdue to punish those crooks.

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imzeeshan

11 years ago

This is great news!
People should understand that such fake reviews and testimonials result in a chaotic industry. Customers can no longer differentiate between high quality, mediocre and pathetic products or services.

Hope this gets implemented as soon as possible and Fiverr sellers too get the hammer.

I also blame Fiverr to a great extent for not regulating its gigs properly. From a small website which had an aim to allow people to make some quick money, it has completely ruined the Graphic Design, Web Design, SEO, SMM and advertising industry.

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Denis Mlad

11 years ago

Originally Posted by imzeeshan

This is great news!
People should understand that such fake reviews and testimonials result in a chaotic industry. Customers can no longer differentiate between high quality, mediocre and pathetic products or services.

Hope this gets implemented as soon as possible and Fiverr sellers too get the hammer.

I also blame Fiverr to a great extent for not regulating its gigs properly. From a small website which had an aim to allow people to make some quick money, it has completely ruined the Graphic Design, Web Design, SEO, SMM and advertising industry.

Strongly agree. There are so many of these fake reviews, although in some of the cases you can recognize the fake from the real.

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HeySal

11 years ago

Paid testimonials, in short - are "paid if you say good things". I had someone offer to pay me for a "review" of their product once. The product sucked. I wrote a negative review. Never got paid. Go figure. That was when I was newbie enough to think that they actually wanted an honest opinion and wasted my time giving it to them. Live and learn.

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mmbill00

11 years ago

Thanks for the post Mrsonic, good reminder that we should endeavour to keep things ethical.

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jessegilbert

Banned 11 years ago

I've always wondered why people could use testimonials like:
"Great product! Made me $10,000 in one week! Thanks"
Dave T., Vermont
LOL

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digitalsapien

11 years ago

It's about time to do that.

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TroyCo

11 years ago

I think about 50% of fiverr sellers need to start applying for different jobs

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Moneymaker2012

11 years ago

The only time I liked their sting investigation.

So now there will be some quality instead of paid reviews

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hustlinsmoke

11 years ago

All they had to do was come to warriors, put an ad on warriors for hire for 5 bucks lol, they would of got plenty.

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aymen99

11 years ago

yea i guess its fair!
fake reviews should stop !

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HD

11 years ago

Recently, I purchased four traffic offers on Fiverr ($20) which ended up giving me 25 hits to my site.

My link was to be placed in front of millions and millions of FBers and Tweeters to walk away with only 25 hits??? More than a dollar per hit??? Something is wrong here.

$350,000 plus life in jail? Not enough!!

But if I come up with the spectacular idea of building a site called "Warrior Forum", starting with Zero members, will you all come Rushing over to Read/Post? Nope, I will NEED to post a few fake threads to get the ball rolling.. to be facing a $350,000 fine?? Something is wrong with this from my point of view.

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Fazal Mayar

11 years ago

Im glad something a bit unethical is being penalized here. Buying fake reviews is like fake advertisement, why not make a good business and have positive reviews and then post good testimonials yourself?

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Paul Myers 11 years ago

All they had to do was come to warriors, put an ad on warriors for hire for 5 bucks lol, they would of got plenty.

Actually, the purpose of that sort of ad is to get feedback, in the form of reviews. Not to "buy" testimonials with free copies of a product.

That kind of input can be invaluable.

I had to explain to a gentleman yesterday, though, that those can't be used for a paid product without disclosing that the reviewer got the product without paying.

The amount of misunderstanding of the difference between reviews and testimonials is surprising. It's really such a simple concept:

Review: "Here's what I think of this product, good and bad."

Testimonial: "I bought this and used it, and here are the results I got."

Paul
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JustChecking

11 years ago

Fake reviews are everywhere, the following articles have documented the fakes on Amazon going on right now. Still there for your verification, unbelievably true.

How to Spot Fake Reviews Manufactured by an Amazon Seller

How to Spot a Fake Review on Amazon.Com: 8 Steps - wikiHow

Now, we all know fake review products violated many state laws.....

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nemious

11 years ago

This is not going to change anything people are still going to try to cheat the system. I will earn all of mine when I am done with my book. I am not going to have any testimonials on the sales page till people give them to me.

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writeaway

11 years ago

It is a step in the right direction but considering the scope and extent of the problem, these moves by a STATE attorney general can only be considered baby steps...

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$350,000 in penalties for fake reviews/testimonials

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