Beware of false reviews on facebook pages. To buy likes on facebook or other social media is common place, however recently we have heard of a deceptive activity on Facebook (and possibly other social networks) that we would like to bring to your attention: the USE OF FAKE REVIEWS.

Fake reviews are reviews that aren’t a person’s honest and impartial opinion, or that don’t reflect their genuine experience of a product.

There are a number of groups on Facebook that have been created with the aim to provide false top rated company reviews, these are posted on Facebook in exchange for payments.

Facebook have become aware of this and are now attempting to prevent this fraudulent practice, as it is misleading to prospective customers who may be interested in the product or service.

The large UK based consumer’s association WHICH? has carried out research and they have reported the following findings in this link.

And here below the recent article issued by The Guardian newspaper based in the UK have published their findings in relation to fake reviews:

"Facebook still flooded with fake reviews, says Which?"

But, in light of this problem, let’s take a look at a few ways to try and recognise a false review.

On finding a review for the product or service that you are looking for:

• First of all, it’s important check the Facebook profile of the reviewer, to see if you notice anything unusual about their profile. Often the false reviewers have just a small number of friends, they do not share personal information and their data does not seem to match with the review they have provided.
• Second, check the dates of the reviews; usually the companies who are using false reviews tend to showcase a lot of reviews together that have taken place over a very short period of time. For example, you may see they had no reviews at all for months and then lot of reviews in just a few days. This can happen in certain type of businesses, but it would be very unlikely in the real estate business.
• Third, if you want to be sure that a review is true, you could try and contact the person who has written it and see if they reply to you. Our clients who have written reviews for us, are be more than happy to reply to our prospective customers and  are often willing to share information and advice of their experiences. False reviewers will not be in the position to reply to you or share information with you.

We sincerely hope that Facebook will continues to seek out this fraudulent activity and put a stop to it.