Slashdot Mirror
Brooklyn Yogurt Shop Sting Snares Fake Reviewers For NY Attorney General
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Reuters reports that nineteen companies caught writing fake reviews on websites such as Yelp, Google Local and CitySearch have been snared in a year-long sting operation by the New York Attorney General and will pay $350,000 in penalties. The Attorney General's office set up a fake yogurt shop in Brooklyn, New York, and sought help from firms that specialize in boosting online search results to combat negative reviews. Search optimization companies offered to post fake reviews of the yogurt shop, created online profiles, and paid as little as $1 per review to freelance writers in the Philippines, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe. To avoid detection the companies used 'advanced IP spoofing techniques' to hide their true identities. 'This investigation into large-scale, intentional deceit across the Internet tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution,' said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. 'More than 100 million visitors come to Yelp each month, making it critical that Yelp protect the integrity of its content,' said Aaron Schur, Yelp's Senior Litigation Counsel."
that's huge money for such little work. especially in countries like bangladesh.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"Yogurt! Yogurt! I hate Yogurt! Even with strawberries."
I am officially gone from
What has the world come to?!
it seems to me, if yelp is interested in preserving it's value to customers, part of that would be preventing fake reviews. why would we get our legal system involved? not to mention - when did it become illegal to lie on the internet...or conversly - when did the internet become even close to being legitimate enough that you need the legal system to protect it's truthfulness?
I've never used your services. Are you somehow relevant somewhere?
Did she yelp?
The government isn't in the business of being a business, so profit isn't the intention. The value to them isn't the fines as much as it to get people to follow the rules and fining them is one of the ways to do that. So if the AG spent $500,000, but it cuts down false reviews by 20%, they might consider it money well spent.
Now, if they spent $500,000 in a tax collection effort (something to bring in more money) that only yielded $350,000, then it would be a failure, but that's not what this was.
I'm unclear: was this fake Yogurt shop actually listed on Yelp? Or did he just pose as a Yogurt shop owner and seek the help of SEO firms?
If the former, one might imagine a hapless Brooklynite trying to find this awesome place they read about on Yelp and being sorely disappointed when the address ended up being, what? A PO box? And then wouldn't they then go onto Yelp and report the address as wrong?
Where are the feds with this one? IP spoofing was one of the charges the feds used to intimidate Aaron Swartz.
This sounds suspiciously like a Seinfeld episode.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
This kind of thing has been going on for as long as there have been online comments about products. One of the first sites I ran was an infomercial product review site. I got some great reviews saying how good or awful products were (tip: don't buy Epil-Stop). I would also get a sudden flood of positive reviews on a product. At that time, the fake reviewers weren't too sophisticated so you could tell that the 100 positive reviews from 100 "different people" were coming from the same IP address. I'd junk them but even at the time it was a lot of effort for what was a one man operation. I can sympathize with the comments moderation teams at Yelp, Amazon, and any other place that accepts user comments on products but tries to weed out fake ones.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Paragraph 1 of the article:
By producing fake reviews, these companies violated multiple state laws against false advertising and engaged in illegal and deceptive business practices.
I am shocked - shocked! - to find that gambling is going on in here!
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
>And what rules were broken
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/nycode/GBS/22-A/350-a
Don't be a dumbass, there has been false advertising laws for years to deal with issues like this in meatspace. Lying out of your ass about products your are selling has nothing to do with free speech.
Do you sometimes wish you'd replied in the right thread?
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
Maybe he was talking about eating and reviewing yogurts while driving.
There's more than one kind of fake review.
One is just straight up lying, they got paid to post but never actually used the service/product.
The other is the way Apple does it, where just before the release of a new product "independent" tech blogs, and various other bottom feeding scum bubble up to praise their fruity overlords and go full gush on something they have never used (generate false excitement).
Then there are the reviews that while true, they don't allow or they remove bad reviews.
You're better off finding a forum involved in the product and getting information that way, also if you get involved with a bad product/service look into taking a few minutes to complain to the BBB or whatever is appropriate, other wise nothing changes.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
So with that in mind, how about they change their reviews to:
I was paid to write good review by [sleazy marketing co], but they are evil and never sent me any money.
Your winnings, sir!
... until all the fake reviewers are in prison for 10 years, and the executives of the businesses doing this in prison for 30 years.
'Cause seeking vengeance with rape cages is so much better than implementing a reputation system that review sites could use to delegitimize fake reviewers.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I find google reviews to be the most useful. You can even check the person's G+ to see how legit they appear to be.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
Not really. IANAL, but I have had lawyers explain this one to me. The sting didn't force the firms to actually do anything illegal. There was always the option of the firm saying "That is not a service we can provide, but here's some services that may help your situation..." then list off services that fall in line with the law. Entrapment only happens when there's coercion to convince someone to do something that they wouldn't normally do. For instance, if the enforcement repeatedly contacted the same firm and specifically asked for the illegal service, and after several refusals, the firm gave in and began setting up an the illegal boosting, if the defense could provide a case that entrapment occurred, the prosecution would have to prove that the firm was predisposed to commit the act in the first place, which would be difficult if the defense had recorded conversations / time-stamps originating from the Sting-Op.
What I find interesting is that while I think it's absolutely obvious that Yelp is useless, I see so many people who swear by it and use Yelp all the time. They either refuse to believe that the reviews are biased or faked or gamed, or that this only happens to places they don't plan to visit and never their local smoothie shops.
Even without the gaming of the system it should be apparent to all that self selected surveys are inaccurate. No one ever takes the time to write a review that says "it was okay I guess". Instead you tend to get two types of responders to these surveys: either they absolutely loved it, or they absolutely hated it. With reviews you get a third category of self selected responders, those who want to write something that looks and feels like a professional review despite having no experience at it.
Now also add in the gaming of the system and it's becomes untrustworthy.
What surprises me is that New York has laws against this. Isn't this just a different type of fiction writing? Free speech is not allowed? I don't see any fraud unless New York City is now the most gullible city in the world.
Why do you need a site for this? If it's a nice restaurant then the local papers should have a review for it. If there is no review then take a chance and just try it out anyway! If it's not a nice restaurant then who cares what the reviews are? Why not just pick a place at random? Will the world end if the service is not the best? I am honestly baffled what people are expecting to find from these sites. Society operated for millenia without Yelp and now suddenly people are unable to find a place to eat without it?
It is nearly impossible to get a good customer generated review. It just will not happen unless you make the review mandatory, otherwise you will only get self selected reviewers.