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Yelp Lawsuit For Fake reviews

by k60mall
21 replies
A north Vancouver man is being takes to court for posting fake reviews.

Yelp sues North Vancouver man for fake positive reviews

The only way to get around this is not to post fake reviews and get as many do your clients real customers to post the reviews to sites like Yelp and Google.
#fake #lawsuit #reviews #yelp
  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    Yelp should be class action sued by businesses for filtering tons of legit positive reviews and keeping negative reviews near the top, all while calling on the businesses to get them to fork over 250-500 a month for advertising. I've heard of it numerous times from biz owners.
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    • Profile picture of the author k60mall
      Originally Posted by NewParadigm View Post

      Yelp should be class action sued by businesses for filtering tons of legit positive reviews and keeping negative reviews near the top, all while calling on the businesses to get them to fork over 250-500 a month for advertising. I've heard of it numerous times from biz owners.
      I totally agree but until someone has the Balls and money to take them to court
      We are stuck a with them.

      The secret is to work with the system rather than against it.
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      • Profile picture of the author toorg
        i will pay $1k to whoever can delete a yelp business listing.
        they been filter more than 20!!! good real reviews about my business and posted only 7 bad reviews.
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        • Profile picture of the author SamKane
          Originally Posted by toorg View Post

          i will pay $1k to whoever can delete a yelp business listing.
          they been filter more than 20!!! good real reviews about my business and posted only 7 bad reviews.
          Are these "legit and good" reviews being posted by reviewers with only 1 or 2 reviews? The filtering system usually sends "suspect" reviews into limbo. After some time, and constant activity by those posters, most of these reviews start showing up on the front page.

          Several businesses I track have gone through this. Only time and "REAL" reviews will raise the actual ratings.

          I suggest you pick up the phone call some of your HAPPY customers and remind them to visit you on Yelp.
          NEVER ASK THEM OUTRIGHT FOR A GOOD REVIEW!
          But you CAN check with them to make sure their experience with you was
          good for them. This is part of GREAT customer service and MOST people never take this extra step.

          If you know a customer who called you because of YELP, make sure to pay special attention to their needs and give them EXTRA service. They WILL post a positive review if you deserve it. You just can't tell them to do it. Your good service will be the extra NUDGE they need to YELP about you.

          I know a couple business owners that only focus on YELP and generate a constant stream of customers. They are also FANATICS about customer service.

          Most businesses with bad YELP ratings deserve them.
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          • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
            FANATICS about customer service
            That's the CORE competency that businesses need to understand. This is where it ALL starts.
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          • Profile picture of the author DABK
            One review = suspect if it's good. Not if it's bad. I see more 1-bad review accounts than 1 good review ones.

            As regards to real reviews, I'm glad you used quotation marks. Because it's easy to get the 'real' reviews that give you a bump. All you need is a bit of thinking: create several profiles from different ip addresses, post several reviews about businesses you don't care about / or maybe you care... just not the same ones in all profiles... Have the one that you care about reviewed by each profile. Oh, yeah, change the rhythm / feel of profiles... Have word review the education level of each review... Grade 5 for profile A, grade 9 for profile B...

            By the way, the above is the real long way of doing it. I know of some businesses where the owner posted all the review, they sound so goddamn alike it's impossible to not think they were written by the same person... He's now got a 4.5 based on 5 self-written reviews and a bad one from some unknown.

            Originally Posted by SamKane View Post

            Are these "legit and good" reviews being posted by reviewers with only 1 or 2 reviews? The filtering system usually sends "suspect" reviews into limbo. After some time, and constant activity by those posters, most of these reviews start showing up on the front page.

            Several businesses I track have gone through this. Only time and "REAL" reviews will raise the actual ratings.

            I suggest you pick up the phone call some of your HAPPY customers and remind them to visit you on Yelp.
            NEVER ASK THEM OUTRIGHT FOR A GOOD REVIEW!
            But you CAN check with them to make sure their experience with you was
            good for them. This is part of GREAT customer service and MOST people never take this extra step.

            If you know a customer who called you because of YELP, make sure to pay special attention to their needs and give them EXTRA service. They WILL post a positive review if you deserve it. You just can't tell them to do it. Your good service will be the extra NUDGE they need to YELP about you.

            I know a couple business owners that only focus on YELP and generate a constant stream of customers. They are also FANATICS about customer service.

            Most businesses with bad YELP ratings deserve them.
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      • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
        There are some class action suits brewing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      They've already been sued in a class action and won. Nothing was proven at all.

      I think this is good news because it's deceptive to post reviews if you aren't the actual customer using your own account to place the reviews.

      Glowingreviews.co got sued for making a service that did that.

      Originally Posted by NewParadigm View Post

      Yelp should be class action sued by businesses for filtering tons of legit positive reviews and keeping negative reviews near the top, all while calling on the businesses to get them to fork over 250-500 a month for advertising. I've heard of it numerous times from biz owners.
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      • Profile picture of the author TheCG
        Originally Posted by Rus Sells View Post

        They've already been sued in a class action and won. Nothing was proven at all.

        I think this is good news because it's deceptive to post reviews if you aren't the actual customer using your own account to place the reviews.

        Glowingreviews.co got sued for making a service that did that.

        The glowingreviews.co url is now an affiliate link to LBLRobot?

        hahahahaha.........
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    • Profile picture of the author Lokahi
      Originally Posted by NewParadigm View Post

      Yelp should be class action sued by businesses for filtering tons of legit positive reviews and keeping negative reviews near the top, all while calling on the businesses to get them to fork over 250-500 a month for advertising. I've heard of it numerous times from biz owners.
      Realistically, most people want to read the negative reviews to balance their overly positive impression of a product. So it would make sense that Yelp allows negative reviews more space on the site. It serves a valid purpose.
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  • Profile picture of the author internetmarketer1
    The offline biz is full of unknown and horrible businessmen who just want to build their rep in the most disgusting way possible. There are many ways around all of this, and you should remember to help teach your clients the importance of building a real reputation that doesn't rely on fake reviews.

    In the end, the customers will see they are fake!
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  • Profile picture of the author k60mall
    I think the issue as most have stated is to give good customer service which should avoids the issue in the first place but no matter how much you try you cannot please everyone all of the time.

    I am currently staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Can and they can't do too much for you when it comes to customer service but even companies like this get bad review.

    So the secret it to winning with bad reviews is to engage with your customers and follow up with compaints as soon as possible to avoids as many bad reviews in the first place.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeadStartSEO
    Interesting to see that the "front line" with Local ORM is one person. This sounds a bit dark but news like this is why I love this industry.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Guys, the thing with Yelp is that they built a social network of people who like to leave reviews. So they filter many legit single reviews because most customers aren't feeding their ego's by leaving reviews to become popular on some site on the internet.

    Remember Yelp is a SOCIAL NETWORK first and it's social currency is reviews. It's easy to understand why they filter many legit reviews with the right perspective about them.
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    • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
      Originally Posted by Rus Sells View Post

      Guys, the thing with Yelp is that they built a social network of people who like to leave reviews. So they filter many legit single reviews because most customers aren't feeding their ego's by leaving reviews to become popular on some site on the internet.

      Remember Yelp is a SOCIAL NETWORK first and it's social currency is reviews. It's easy to understand why they filter many legit reviews with the right perspective about them.
      They are much more than a social network. They are peddling reviews as legit, not just some site where people can leave pos/neg. Yelp is holding businesses hostage with negative reviews that:

      Are posted by anonymous people, what happened to facing your accuser or yelp verifying they are real? Yelp should require proof of ID and Proof of visiting the merchant (reviewer sending photo copy of receipt) etc...

      Amazon product reviews are good because they highlight that the user actually bought the dang product, unlike yelp.

      Numerous anecdotes that yelp in a timely fashion leverages negative reviews by calling businesses and wanting them to sign up for several hundred bucks a month.

      Yelp keeps dodging by referencing their black box secret algorithm. Hogwash.

      Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered. Yelp will get what's coming to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author sarwine
    Originally Posted by k60mall View Post

    A north Vancouver man is being takes to court for posting fake reviews.

    Yelp sues North Vancouver man for fake positive reviews

    The only way to get around this is not to post fake reviews and get as many do your clients real customers to post the reviews to sites like Yelp and Google.
    Unfortunately I don't think this is all that uncommon. I worked hard to get my testimonials. Not everyone is willing to give a testimonial because they don't want their name publicized. If I don't mention their name, then there is a risk of appearing fake...what are your thoughts?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesse Helms
    I smelled this a long time ago, yelp has an amazing power, and businesses know that it drives in sales. Owners using sock puppet accounts was pretty obvious, but they kind of extort the businesses, kinda lame, but they're the big kid on the block :/
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  • Profile picture of the author ATAC
    If you really need to post fake reviews for a client all you have to do is outsource it overseas ..
    There is no way to prove who did it for who or never alone whether they are fake or not.

    I am not saying to do this or not !Just saying that their is so many ways to do this without getting caught.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Until your customers client find their FAKE profile and the review they wrote posted on that profile. It won't matter at that point who or where the review was posted from, the people who's reputation is effects is the business and the firm.

      Roofing Company Admits To Doctored Online Reviews « CBS Denver

      So maybe this company used some over seas company, they still got caught.


      Originally Posted by ATAC View Post

      If you really need to post fake reviews for a client all you have to do is outsource it overseas ..
      There is no way to prove who did it for who or never alone whether they are fake or not.

      I am not saying to do this or not !Just saying that their is so many ways to do this without getting caught.
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