fake review
Paid dishonest feedback
A fake review is a testimonial or rating that misrepresents genuine customer experience—either fabricated praise posted by the seller or their agents, or false criticism planted by competitors.
The practice has become endemic to online commerce, where reviews heavily influence purchasing decisions: The restaurant's five-star rating collapsed after investigators exposed hundreds of fake reviews.
Platforms struggle to detect them, and consumers have grown skeptical of both glowing and damning assessments.
- fraudulentInvolving intentional dishonesty
- shamFraudulent imitation
- bogusCounterfeit or fraudulent
- astroturfingDisguised sponsored advocacy
- five-starHighest excellence rating
star rating · bought · planted · click farm · paid promotion · deceive · manipulation · Amazon · Yelp · rating · verified purchase · testimonial · scam · sock puppet · paid · suspicious · glowing · too good to be true
- scamsscam, scams, fraud, frauds, swindle
- reviewsrating, ratings, critic, critics, critique
- defamationslander, libel, defamation, defamatory statement, defaming
- misinformationmisinformation, disinformation, falsehoods, hoaxes, lies