{"id":189,"date":"2021-10-14T18:49:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T22:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/how-spot-fake-online-reviews-2\/"},"modified":"2023-05-22T19:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T23:29:00","slug":"how-to-spot-fake-online-reviews-2","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/how-to-spot-fake-online-reviews-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How to spot fake online reviews"},"featured_media":12094,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[157],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"resource_type":[67],"region_tax":[],"state":[5,7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,29,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"topic_tax":[124],"class_list":["post-189","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[124],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":67,"event_type":false,"campaigns":157,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[5,7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,29,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":124}},"subtitle":"","excerpt":"The director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine said, \u201cFake reviews and other forms of deceptive endorsements cheat consumers and undercut honest businesses.\u201d\u00a0","featured_image":12094,"caption_override":"","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":"","related_event":"","hide_hero_image":false,"location":"internal","external_link":{"publication_name":"","url":""},"file":null,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":null},"helper_downloads":{"title":"Downloads","files":null},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"Oct. 14, 2021<\/em>\r\n\r\nBy Hannah Rhodes, Consumer Watchdog Associate<\/em>\r\n\r\nOn Oct. 13, the Federal Trade Commission<\/a> (FTC) put hundreds of companies nationwide on notice that if they use fabricated endorsements to deceive consumers, they could face financial penalties up to $43,793 per violation.\r\n

A form of endorsement is a fake review, which can be used to trick a consumer into purchasing a product. A fake review<\/a> could be done by the company itself, whether it is to benefit their own product or to use negative reviews against a competitor. Another way fake reviews occur is when a company sends a product to a consumer for free and the consumer leaves a positive review with no mention of how they received the product. There may be an unwritten understanding that it was a quid pro quo.<\/p>\r\n

The director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine<\/a> said, \u201cFake reviews and other forms of deceptive endorsements cheat consumers and undercut honest businesses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

With the overwhelming number of reviews found both on website listings and social media, we pulled together the best tips to spot fake reviews when shopping online:<\/h4>\r\n