The Rise of AI-Generated Reviews: How to Spot Fake Reviews Easily & Deal With Them

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Online reviews are crucial for website visitors and customers looking to factor first-hand experiences into their buying decisions:

“95% of consumers read online reviews before making decisions”

– Source Shapo

Reviews are also important for service providers that can showcase customer satisfaction, or illustrate how negative experiences are dealt with. This system has been abused in recent years, with many fake reviews and AI-generated reviews misleading potential customers through inauthentic experiences.

The recent rise of AI has exacerbated this problem, and at Opace, we have seen firsthand how these techniques can mislead consumers and even negatively impact SEO and digital marketing efforts. This is why it’s so critical to understand how to spot fake reviews.

Let’s examine this problem and break it down so you can stay ahead of the competition while being completely authentic.

What are fake reviews?

Fake reviews are exactly what they sound like — fake, inauthentic feedback made with the intent to mislead customers and even search engines.

Unlike genuine reviews and feedback left to provide useful first-hand experiences, fake reviews serve to mislead potential customers or even attack competitors via automatically generated reviews.

These fake reviews are damaging in many ways, both to the customer and the service provider, and erode away trust via deception. If you are a business owner who provides a product or service, or even just a customer of such services, it is crucial to know what you are up against in a world that’s becoming saturated with false information, fake news, and AI-generated content.

Types of fake reviews

There are many different types of fake reviews, each created for different reasons and objectives.

Let’s take a look at the most common ones along with the purpose of each.

Positive fake reviews

Positive fake reviews are misleading in that they serve to make a product or service appear better than it actually is.

Businesses that pay for fake can sway sceptical customers into a purchase and generally inflate the number of positive reviews in order for the business or website to appear more favourable to those that use it.

Negative fake reviews

It is easy to assume that fake reviews are the biggest problem here, but negative reviews are just as problematic.

These types of reviews are used to harm competitors, making their products or services appear to be less favourable. With most people basing their purchases on review scores, it is easy to see how this can be problematic for legitimate businesses trying to do well and build their reviews ethically.

Why do so many websites have fake reviews?

Fake reviews are more than just a superficial issue.

These reviews are a deliberate tactic to either persuade or dissuade customers from using a product or service while also attempting to outsmart search engines. Many businesses choose to pay for such a service even if they run the risk of punishment.

These reviews have become more problematic in recent years as Google and other search engines are viewed to give credibility to businesses with favourable review scores.

Let’s dive more deeply into the top reasons why fake reviews are becoming increasingly widespread.

To boost credibility

Customers are more likely to choose a product or service with positive reviews over a competitor with only a handful of mixed reviews and tend to make selections based on:

• The number of reviews – how many other customers have also used and reviewed the product or service
• The review score – the average rating of all online reviews

Interestingly, consumers tend not to trust perfect review scores and a report by Spiegel Research Center revealed that:

“4.5 stars are better than 5”

Generally, more reviews mean more trust for the customer looking to spend their money. This is all very good if the reviews are legitimate but fake reviews hurt legitimate businesses that may have less-than-perfect review scores despite their reviews being authentic.

To manipulate SEO

Do Google reviews help SEO? Yes!

We’ve posted articles in the past about the importance of demonstrating, expertise, authenticity and trust when carrying out SEO, otherwise known as E-E-A-T.

Why Good Content Matters: SEO Content Creation Guidelines [UPDATED]

Bing SEO vs Google SEO [UPDATED]

Reviews can also play a significant role in SEO as they represent all three of these factors and send “trust signals” to the end user and Google. This is particularly true for local SEO.

Unfortunately, a business with many positive reviews can still rank highly even if the reviews are fake. Many businesses see this as a quick fix to improving their rankings in search engines and driving additional clicks, views, and conversions.

To influence buying decisions

We recently touched on the role of social proof within marketing and how it affects buyer psychology:

What Are Viral Videos? Examples of Viral Video Marketing & How They They Can Benefit Your Business? [UPDATED]

Reviews are social proof that bolsters trust and increases the likelihood of a purchase. It’s not just the quality of the reviews but the quantity — thousands of positive experiences displayed via reviews increase the chances of a safe purchase for the customer.

Additional reasons websites have fake reviews

Here are some additional reasons as to why websites have fake reviews.

1. Pressure to keep up: Smaller businesses can feel pressure from larger competitors that have an abundance of positive review scores that could sway customers.
2. Lack of moderation: Lack of regular moderation leads to an easy-to-exploit review system allowing bad actors to take advantage. 
3. Large volumes: With the sheer number of reviews posted online, it can be almost impossible to detect and moderate fake reviews quickly and remove them.
4. To outsmart competitors: Fake reviews don’t just serve to make select businesses look good — they also serve to make competitors look bad.
5. A traditional marketing shortcut: Fake reviews are attractive to small businesses looking for a shortcut to success, and a quick way to compete with larger competitors.

Fake and misleading reviews are problematic for obvious reasons, but they also erode trust resulting in honest businesses getting lost in the noise.

How do fake reviews get created?

There are many tools and methods that businesses use to create fake reviews, and it is surprisingly simple to do.

We are not promoting these methods, but some common examples include:

• Fake profile creation: It’s common for businesses to set up fake profiles to leave glowing reviews to bolster their own reputation, or scathing reviews to harm competitors.
• Buying fake reviews: Another common tactic is to buy fake reviews from sites like Fiver or marketplaces set up to sell fake reviews. This method can use sophisticated processes to avoid detection by using verified profiles, local IP addresses, and authentic-sounding feedback. This makes it harder to detect fraud and can be particularly difficult to prove.
• Fake AI reviews: With free tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and now Deepseek becoming easily available, this has further added to the difficulty in detecting inauthentic reviews due to the human-like quality of the AI-generated text.

It’s common to see reviews that sound like they were posted by a legitimate customer: “I couldn’t believe how amazing this product was—it exceeded all my expectations!”.  It may sound real, but the review is fabricated via the use of AI tools.

Automated fake reviews in bulk

The issue is made worse as there are now apps, plugins and even Excel/Google Sheet add-ons for automating AI-generated content.

For example, GPTExcel and GPT for Sheets and Docs are two tools for automating content creation in Excel or Google Sheets using AI tools like ChatGPT.

Tools like these can be very powerful depending on the application; however, they also make the generation of fake AI reviews easier than ever before as they can generate hundreds of varied AI-generated reviews in a matter of minutes.

Other ways fake reviews are created

The three methods above are the most common but there are other ways to create fake reviews, including:

• Review farms: Networks of users are created to create artificial reviews. These can be spread out globally making them hard to detect.
• Recycling: Real authentic reviews are frequently taken from product or service pages and used to boost the review scores of other targeted businesses.
• Incentivised reviews: Some businesses offer discounts or free items in exchange for positive reviews. This results in misleading feedback that isn’t posted authentically.

Sadly, these fake reviews are becoming increasingly easy to produce and are now a widespread problem for businesses and consumers.

Why is this such a problem?

It’s easy to dismiss fake AI reviews as harmless, but they can severely impact businesses.

These reviews chip away at trust in businesses and platforms alike resulting in a cynical and jaded audience.  When customers can’t rely on reviews to make an informed purchasing decision, everyone loses as a result.

Fake AI reviews lead to a bad customer experience and even added expense for both businesses and consumers. Legitimate businesses with authentic reviews are ignored in favour of inauthentic competitors with an abundance of fabricated feedback.

This can result in the affected business adopting a “can’t beat them, join them” mentality which further adds to the problem.

Impact of fake reviews

The impact of fake reviews is considerable, and it’s all negative:

• Competition: Inflated review scores in abundance can give businesses an unfair advantage over authentic legitimate businesses with real review scores.
• SEO impact: Positive reviews, even if fake, can boost SEO and local SEO results. This is another instance of legitimate businesses being punished for being authentic.
• Harm to reputation: For legitimate businesses targeted by negative review campaigns, the impact can be devastating. Particularly when paired with the impact of fake positive reviews of competitors.

Fake AI reviews undermine the integrity of websites, online marketplaces and eCommerce stores. Over time, this creates an environment that is increasingly difficult to navigate for consumers.

AI-generated reviews

Fake reviews have been around for quite some time, but with AI tools like ChatGPT, things become more complicated and more problematic.

Using these tools, human-like reviews are not just easier and more affordable to create but are even more difficult to detect. Hundreds of reviews containing positive praise or scratching criticism are all available with just a few clicks.

The reason why these reviews are particularly convincing is the way AI works, recognising and replicating speech patterns and sentence structure:

How Does ChatGPT Work in Story Form: The Adventures of ChatGPT “The AI Storyteller”

This also removes the language barrier resulting in fake AI reviews being optimised for any language globally.

It’s not just standard AI models either that make this problem more problematic — there are increasingly complex tools available that incorporate AI. These tools are designed with the sole purpose of creating fake reviews and making them sound as authentic as possible.

Why AI-generated reviews are problematic

Dealing with AI-generated reviews can be particularly difficult, and the problem seems to be getting worse for these key reasons:

• Accessibility: AI tools used to make fake reviews are becoming more accessible and easier to use.
• Scalability: AI tools can output hundreds or even thousands of reviews in just a few clicks and can be tailored to the size of the business using them.
• Sophistication: As AI improves, detecting false reviews becomes increasingly difficult.

These challenges should remind both businesses and consumers to remain vigilant and carry out extensive research before spending money on a product or service.

Where do AI-generated reviews appear?

As fake AI reviews are becoming easier to create, they are becoming more abundant — even on smaller business pages and eCommerce sites.

This problem isn’t industry-specific — fake AI reviews can be found on any business, product, or service page.

What industries are most affected by AI-generated reviews?

Although these fabricated reviews aren’t exclusive to specific industries, there are several that are particularly affected by the rise in artificial reviews:

• eCommerce: Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are all impacted by fake AI reviews where sellers inflate their own review score through false reviews. This makes competing even more difficult for authentic legitimate small businesses.
• Professional industries: Fake AI reviews in these industries are particularly problematic as it’s not just relating to a product, but a service that could impact your life and health. Lawyers, accountants, and even healthcare professionals are all impacted by review manipulation and fabricated reviews. Boosting the review score for unqualified or lesser-qualified professionals is a particularly dangerous problem.
• Travel: Hotels and travel agencies frequently struggle with fake AI reviews. This is another industry affected by fake reviews that leads to alarming implications due to spending extended periods at locations after reading glowing reviews.
• Local services: Repair businesses such as plumbers and electricians are also a concern due to the abundance of fake reviews. If you are letting someone into your home to tackle issues relating to gas or power, you want to make sure you are letting the safest and most capable people into your home.

Tackling this problem can be particularly difficult as fake reviews become increasingly sophisticated and believable. Businesses, online platforms, and consumers should be vigilant and look for telltale signs associated with artificial reviews.

How to spot fake reviews quickly

Learning how to spot fake reviews can be tricky which is why you need to familiarise yourself with the telltale signs that can be used to identify inauthentic feedback.

Here are some top tips on how to spot fake reviews online for both businesses and customers:

1. Analyse the reviewer’s profile: Does the reviewer’s profile contain varied feedback in terms of both the language used and the review score? Checking this paired with how many reviews are present are quick ways to identify red flags.
2. Examine the timing of reviews: Most people leave feedback online periodically after completing purchases. This is another useful way to identify fake reviews by seeing how much recent feedback has been published recently and if any are in batches.
3. Look for specific details: Genuine reviews contain a lot of detail regarding the specific product or service. Keep an eye open for vague and generic reviews that can be applied to a variety of different products or services.
4. Cross-check platforms: Compare reviews across multiple websites to see if certain phrases and wording are used. This can help you spot fake reviews quickly and easily.

Additional ways to spot fake reviews

Here are some quick and easy-to-apply methods for identifying fake reviews online:

• Generic sounding names: Usernames such as “Adam123” or “Happy Customer 29” are often indicators of an inauthentic review.
• Repetitive language: Fake reviews frequently repeat phrases and words. These can sometimes target terms such as “best service” or “best quality”.
• Overly positive comments: Reviews containing exaggeration such as “Life-changing” or “Best experience ever” can be signs of a fake review.
• Absolute opinions: Absolute language and lack of balance can be a sign of a fabricated review for both negative and positive reviews. Most authentic reviews contain balanced pros and cons.
• Suspicious photos: Reviews that contain images taken from marketing material or promotional shots is a red flag. Most authentic review images are taken in bad lighting conditions while using a mobile phone camera.

Common sense should be used when incorporating the above suggestions. Some authentic reviews can, of course, be positive without raising suspicion. While applying all of the suggestions provided you should be able to determine which reviews are fake, and which are authentic.

What is the legal stance regarding fake reviews?

Fake reviews aren’t just annoying inconveniences — they are actually illegal in many parts of the world.

The UK, US, and EU (to name a few) aim to protect consumers and businesses from those soliciting or posting fake reviews.

Legal position in the UK

In the UK, The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 prohibits the use of false reviews. Those guilty of falsifying reviews or even encouraging others to do so can face fines, legal action, or even jail time.

Legal position in the EU

In the EU, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive treats fake or AI-generated reviews as false advertising. Businesses that are in violation of these rules face various penalties. The intent behind this is to ensure an authentic marketplace.

Legal position in the US

The Federal Trade Commission has been taking false reviews very seriously for years now. In 2021 the FTC issued $4.2 million in fines to businesses guilty of posting fraudulent reviews. The Federal Trade Commission also continuously monitors major eCommerce platforms for these types of practices.

Review platforms and their efforts

Eliminating fake or AI-generated reviews is a huge undertaking and large platforms such as Amazon, Google, Trust Pilot, and Yelp are committed to reducing the amount of fake and AI-generated reviews prevalent on major online platforms.

These businesses along with other tech companies have the difficult task of moderating and vetting a huge number of reviews while simultaneously trying to detect which reviews sound fake.

Google Reviews

Google has the financial resources to tackle fake reviews effectively. Machine learning and data signals are used to weed out most of the reviews that contain obvious flags such as excessive repetition, promotional material, or known fake accounts.

Amazon

Amazon has a strict policy regarding fake reviews and has assured its users that any business caught using fake reviews will be banned. Amazon also partners with third-party validation services to improve detection accuracy.

Trustpilot

Trustpilot combines AI with human moderation to detect and promptly remove fake reviews and fabricated feedback. Trustpilot frequently publishes reports illustrating their efforts in tackling fake reviews.

Yelp

Yelp uses an automated system and community-based flagging to detect suspicious reviews. This system tags suspicious reviews so that anyone viewing them knows that it is considered suspicious.

Top tools for spotting AI-generated content

Here are some top tools that are worth keeping in mind when taking the fight against fake reviews online.

These tools are particularly useful for eCommerce websites, or any websites with an abundance of user reviews. The vast majority of these tools offer free product previews without needing you to sign up to try them.

Copyleaks AI Detector

This tool specialises in detecting AI-generated reviews and AI-generated content. This means it’s a perfect match for websites that receive a large number of reviews. Copyleaks can quickly and effectively analyse a large amount of data to determine whether the written content is authentic, or written by AI.

GPTZero

GPTZero is great at pattern detection regarding written content and can effectively detect when AI content is used within testimonials, reviews, or any other written piece of work. This is a fantastic tool to use when taking the fight to content that is created through models such as ChatGPT and Deepseek.

Top tools dedicated to spotting fake reviews

The following tools recognise patterns and structures in written content. These patterns include repetitive phrases and accounts with minimal activity. 

Fakespot

Fakespot analyses reviews across multiple platforms to assign a trust score. Users can use this score to determine how trustworthy and authentic reviews are on platforms such as Amazon, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

ReviewMeta

ReviewMeta is designed for Amazon and aims to detect unusual, artificial patterns in written content that appear unnatural. This tool is particularly effective at detecting clusters of reviews used to boost business ratings.

The Transparency Company

Used to detect fraudulent reviews on Google, The Transparency Company is a trusted and effective platform that is an invaluable resource for businesses seeking an effective way to detect fake reviews.

Recommended tools for managing reviews

Managing reviews across multiple platforms can be difficult and time-consuming.

Here are some tools that will make your life a lot easier when managing and responding to feedback posted online.

BirdEye

BirdEye tracks reviews across multiple platforms allowing you to manage them from a single dashboard. Using real-time alerts you can also engage and respond to feedback from customers.

Yext

Another tool that simplifies the review management process is Yext. Administrators can respond to feedback without needing to leave the tool, saving time and increasing efficiency.

Google Alerts

A simple solution for monitoring mentions and reviews is Google Alerts. For smaller businesses on a budget looking to keep track of mentions and feedback posted online, Google Alerts is still a crucial tool to have access to.

Strategies for managing reviews

It’s not only important to have a strategy for dealing with fake online reviews, but you also need one for managing your authentic feedback. Here are some essential tips on managing your online reviews.

Encourage honest feedback

Reach out to recent customers and ask how their experience was and encourage them to post a review online containing their honest thoughts and experiences.

Respond to every review

Take the time to respond to every review so that customers know you are listening and care about the comments left in their reviews. This should be done for both positive and negative feedback.

Monitor reviews regularly

Keep a close eye on your reviews so issues can be dealt with promptly. Legitimate issues with your product or service should be taken on board to improve your service. Monitoring closely also helps you identify suspicious feedback that may be misleading or fake.

Report fake reviews

For any fake product reviews you do find, be sure to report them using the tools provided on the relevant platform. Using tools such as The Transparency Company can help with this.

Managing your reviews isn’t just about damage control, it is a chance to showcase transparency and demonstrate how problematic experiences and negative reviews are dealt with. By using the proper tools, techniques, and the right philosophy,  you incentivise legitimate reviews while stomping out fake online reviews.

Have you had any experiences with fake reviews when shopping online? Let us know your tips and thoughts in the comments, or across any of our social media channels.