![]() ![]() Even though most of the reviews were positive, the negative ones had received enough upvotes to outrank the others.Ĭustomers scrolled down to the reviews, saw the bad ones first and didn’t bother to keep scrolling. It all started when a few negative reviews reached the front page of his Amazon product. As hard is it is to watch them get ahead breaking rules you choose to follow, it only gets worse when they start posting fake, negative reviews about your company.Ī recent New York Post article outlined a scary incident where an Amazon merchant saw his sales plummet from 450 units a day down to just 150. Just because you’re following the rules doesn’t mean your competitors will do the same. What if Someone Posts a Fake Review About You? So, this practice should be used only for reviews posted to your own site. Keep in mind, though, that while the FTC is okay with you incentivizing a customer to leave a review if you include a disclaimer, this will get you banned by most review platforms. Keep in mind that free trials count as a gift, as do gift cards and giveaways, and so reviews created by customers thusly incentivized must say so in a disclaimer. As long as the review clearly shows that the customer was influenced by money, publicity, or a gift, you are allowed to post those reviews. The guide reiterates that the review must be made by a real customer and based on a real experience with your company, but it gives a little leeway for offering the reviewer an incentive. The FTC released a guide on how to follow its rules for online reviews, endorsements, and testimonials. Will you get caught? We’re guessing that most companies get away with it, but the FTC has been known to go after both big and small websites. If you are caught, every single one of your violations is subject to a $10,000 fine. A fake review is seen as deceptive advertising as it may mislead the customer, encouraging them to purchase a product or use a service under false pretenses. The FTC considers your review to be fake if it is not based on the experience of a real customer. Code § 45 makes fake testimonials illegal. So, it might disturb you to hear that the FTC can and will issue fines against businesses caught using fake reviews. If you were to choose your relationship with the FTC, you’d probably go with the “never the twain shall meet” variety. Should you risk it? What the FTC Thinks About Fake Reviews Fake reviews might be the only way you could ever get above a 2.5-star rating. If you are in an industry where you have to turn away customers, your bad review to good review ratio probably isn’t great. If it did happen, you might leave the restaurant a bad review online. Think about this way: how many times have you gone into a restaurant, ordered your food, and found out that the restaurant would not be able to serve you? Not too often. At the same time, very few of the people we help decide to go and leave a good review. Many of these people feel their only recourse is to badmouth us on review sites. We also are the bearers of bad news for many customers who cannot help find money. The problem is that it’s challenging to generate honest, positive reviews – especially if you are in a business where it’s very easy for a customer to have a bad experience.Īt, we help customers find small business and startup funding. A solid testimonial section on your website not only adds credibility to your site, but it also sends signals to Google that can result in better search rankings for your keyword terms. Nine out of 10 customers are influenced by online reviews, according to Dimensional Research. However, most companies probably get away with it. ![]() The answer is that yes, posting fake reviews is illegal. *By filling out the form above, you will be routed to Lendza’s funding request form. ![]()
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