How to Spot Fake Reviews and What to Do: Guide for Businesses

Fake reviews can damage a business’s reputation and mislead potential buyers. Sometimes, fake reviews are posted by competitors who want to hurt another brand’s rating and online image. For these reasons, knowing how to spot fake reviews becomes an important part of managing online reputation for businesses, whether the reviews appear to be overly positive or negative in sentiment and rating.

At the same time, too much suspicion of fake reviews may be unhealthy, because not every overly positive, negative, or brief review is fake. That’s why a thorough inspection is necessary. Businesses need to look beyond individual warning signs, examine the surrounding evidence, consider patterns, and follow the right steps before taking action.

But unfortunately, there’s no 100% reliable and foolproof way of telling if a review is fake. At best, businesses can make educated guesses based on red flags. But that doesn’t mean telling fake reviews apart is impossible.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to identify suspicious reviews by recognizing unusual review patterns to protect your business from fake claims without dismissing genuine customer feedback.

How to Spot a Fake Review: 5 Warning Signs

A single warning sign rarely proves that a review is fake. Instead, a review’s authenticity becomes clearer if multiple signs add up and point in the same direction.

Remember, the points discussed below are signs, not facts. Sometimes, genuine reviews tend to give mixed signs, so don’t take every sign as a confirmation, but as suspicion. How you weigh each sign and evaluate the overall situation is also up to you.

Look for several inconsistencies that raise reasonable concerns together about whether the reviewer had a genuine customer experience.

1. Look for Vague or Overly Promotional Language

A fake negative review often relies on sweeping accusations to appear genuine without explaining what went wrong specifically. Usually, a real customer would point out the specific issue they’re facing, even if they’re unable to express it clearly; you can tell that they’re reporting a specific problem.

Similarly, an overly positive review with vague wording may not be real, such as:

• “Amazing product.”

• “Best brand, excellent service. Highly recommended.”
  

However, sometimes, genuine reviews can be vague or brief as well. If a review uses vague language but other signs suggest it to be real, it probably is.

The flip side can also be true, though less often. Sometimes, fake reviews can be specific, just to appear realistic. In that case, language may not help verify the authenticity reliably, so looking for other clues becomes important.

What to do: Compare the review’s claims with the services you offer. Look for specific inconsistencies rather than judging the writing style alone.

2. Check the Reviewer’s Profile and History

Examine the reviewer’s public activity for relevant warning signs if the platform provides access to their profiles.

Look for patterns such as:

• Several reviews posted within a short period across unrelated businesses.

• Repeated similar wording in multiple reviews.

• Activity that appears focused on promoting one business or attacking its competitors, such as praising a specific brand’s products while criticizing the same brand’s competitors.

• Reviews describing experiences that seem inconsistent with the business being reviewed.

A new account and very few contributions can be one of the signs, but that alone doesn’t prove the profile to be fake on its own. Some customers create accounts only when they have a reason to leave feedback.

What to do: Record the specific pattern that concerns you, but avoid drawing conclusions based on the profile age and review count alone.

3. Examine the Timing and Volume of Reviews

A sudden increase in reviews is usually a sign of bot activity or a coordinated attack, so it’s always worth investigating, especially when it happens in a short duration and when reviews match similar characteristics.

For example, a surge of 20 reviews within a day for a business that usually earns 1-2 reviews everyday. This surge could strongly suggest fake review activity.

Research published by Harvard Business School examined Yelp review filtering and found that suspicious reviews tended to be more extreme and that suspicious activity increased over the period studied. These findings provide useful context, although they do not establish that any particular review is fake.

What to do: Compare the recent activity with your usual review volume, marketing campaigns, seasonal demand, and actual customer transactions. A legitimate promotion or busy period can also produce a sudden increase.

4. Compare the Review With Your Business Records

Transaction records can provide useful context when you suspect a review to be fake.

Check whether the review mentions a product, appointment, order, employee, or service that you can investigate. Look for discrepancies between the reviewer’s claims and available records. A clear discrepancy can suggest that it’s not real.

For example, a review that describes a service you do not offer may be fake. Or a review that refers to an order date that conflicts with your records might be fake.

At the same time, note that the absence of a transaction record is not entirely conclusive. A customer may have purchased the product through another person. A customer may post a review using an alias. Due to these possibilities, checking transaction records isn’t completely reliable; at least not always.

What to do: Check relevant records, but do it securely and limit access to authorized staff. Do not request or publish a customer’s sensitive personal information in a public response.

5. Watch for Repeated or Coordinated Review Patterns

The strongest evidence may not sometimes be found in one review but in the similarities between several reviews.

Examine recent or suspicious reviews and look for:

• Repeated phrases,

• Unusual timing,

• Identical claims, or

• A group of accounts that appear to target the same business in a coordinated way.

The pattern may involve multiple positive reviews intended to inflate a rating or negative reviews that appear designed to undermine a business.

Google explicitly prohibits fake engagement, including reviews that do not reflect genuine experiences and unusual contribution patterns indicative of rating manipulation. Read its Google Maps review and content policies for more details.

What to do: Avoid publicly identifying or accusing reviewers of lying. Note the relevant reviews and their dates, then use the platform’s reporting system to report and get them removed instead.

How to Spot Fake Reviews on Google and Other Platforms

Most businesses have profiles on Google, which is a common target for fake reviews. In fact, Google blocked more than 240 million policy-violating reviews from 2024 alone.

If you suspect fake reviews on Google, first review the business profile’s recent activity. Identify the specific reviews that concern you and take the following steps:

1. Document the evidence. Save screenshots, review URLs, publication dates, relevant wording, and any supporting business records.

2. Check the platform’s policies. Check if the review violates rules against fake engagement, spam, impersonation, or other prohibited behavior.

3. Report the review. Use the platform’s reporting tool to report the review. Select the appropriate reason that describes the situation.

4. Monitor the outcome. Keep a record of reports and follow the platform’s available appeal process if necessary.
   

Google allows businesses to report reviews that violate its policies, but a review generally cannot be removed simply because it is negative or disputed. See Google's official review management guidance for reporting instructions.

The same principle applies to other platforms. Identify suspicious reviews, understand the platform’s rules, preserve relevant evidence, then use the platform’s reporting tool.

What to Do When Your Business Receives a Suspected Fake Review

Identifying a suspicious review is only the first step. Your response can influence how existing and potential customers perceive your business.

Respond Professionally and Factually

A fake review that’s visible to the public can do more harm if you reply to it aggressively. Instead, come up with a professional and factual response and let the tone be neutral and calm, all while your report is under review.

For example:

• “We take customer feedback seriously, but we haven’t been able to identify the experience described in this review. We’d welcome the opportunity to look into it further. Please contact our team privately so we can investigate.”

A calm and professional response can turn the situation around and help potential customers see through the review’s potential inauthenticity without resorting to accusations. It shows that your business is willing to resolve the issue if it’s real.

For more information, check out our guide on how to respond to a fake review.

Keep Evidence and Escalate When Necessary

Maintain a record of suspicious activity, reports, platform responses, and any related customer communications.

If you believe the activity involves impersonation, threats, or a broader campaign of harassment, don’t hesitate from seeking professional or legal advice.

Fake reviews can be infuriating, but avoid responding with enraging remarks or sarcasm.

How Businesses Can Reduce the Risk of Fake Reviews

Realistically, it’s nearly impossible to completely prevent fake reviews on most platforms. So what businesses can do is manage their online reputation through a consistent review management process. It can help them prevent suspicious activity earlier.

Here are some steps businesses can take to manage reviews.

• Monitor review profiles regularly. Track and check new reviews and changes in ratings regularly.

• Request feedback fairly. Avoid selective invitations. Invite customers to share honest experiences without asking for a positive rating.

• Keep accurate records. Make sure you keep track of transactions, appointments, and customer service records so that fake reviews can be investigated when needed.

• Use credible review platforms. Understand how each platform moderates reviews and whether it offers transaction verification or other authenticity checks.

• Learn the applicable rules. The US Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on its Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule explains restrictions involving fake reviews, purchased reviews, certain insider testimonials, and review suppression. Businesses should also check the laws applicable in their own jurisdictions.
  

The FTC’s rule took effect on October 21, 2024. Its requirements are particularly relevant to businesses operating in or marketing to the United States.

How The Trust Search Prevents Fake Reviews

The Trust Search takes a different approach to preventing fake reviews. While other review platforms prevent inauthentic feedback via automation and algorithms alone, we block fake reviews by making transaction evidence a requirement.

Here’s how it works:

1. Customer Provides Evidence: When a customer wants to review your business profile on the platform, they first have to provide proof of the transaction their review is related to. For example, if a customer ordered food from your restaurant, they must provide us with the authentic invoice that proves their transaction to be genuine at the time of writing the review.

2. Initial Checks Verify and Redact the Invoice: The submitted transaction evidence first goes through initial verification checks by our automated system that looks for signs of tampering, editing, or placeholder or conflicted information while redacting the customer’s personal information.

3. Manual Verification by Humans: After the initial checks, the invoice, along with the review, gets submitted to the platform’s moderation team that manually examines the review as well as the invoice details for further verification.
   

This allows you to collect only authentic feedback, spend less time fighting inauthenticity, and connect better with customers.

The review is only published on your profile once thoroughly examined and verified by our team, preventing fake reviews from happening in the first place. However, if you still suspect a review to be fake, you can report it to the platform directly through your dashboard.

For more information, check out the following links:

• How The Trust Search works.

• Business guidelines for responding to reviews.

• The type of evidence The Trust Search requires to verify reviews.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How to tell if a review is fake?

You can tell if a review is fake by looking for several warning signs, such as:

• Repeated wording,

• Unusual review activity,

• Inconsistent claims, or

• A pattern of suspicious accounts.

No single sign proves that a review is fake, so assess the available evidence before reporting it.

2. Can businesses get fake reviews removed from Google?

Yes. Businesses can get legitimately fake reviews removed from their Google business profiles by reporting them using the platform’s reporting tools. Google assesses the reported content, but removal is not guaranteed. A review being negative is also not a sufficient reason for removal.

3. What should a business do about fake negative reviews?

Document the review, check it against available records, report suspected policy violations, and respond professionally if needed. Avoid retaliatory reviews or public accusations that you cannot substantiate.