Anonymous
Post 01/26/2026 07:36     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
All of my good and bad Google reviews are up.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2026 07:34     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
I contracted with this one fraudulent water mitigation company (like they went on to be convicted of federal fraud and yet still operate in the state). Tons of positive google reviews and clearly fake. I monitor them constantly and hundreds of reviews appear when we don’t even have water events and any negative review is removed pretty swiftly. Yelp-they have far less reviews but much more negative reviews and my sense is this is harder to control for them. After a negative review I posted, they had their lawyer send a cease and desist and threatened to sue over defamation. It is really eye opening the behaviors some companies behave in.
Anonymous
Post 01/26/2026 02:02     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:Can these and yelp reviews be faked or adjusted? How does it work?

It seems like some places have almost too perfect reviews. Like almost all 5 stars. I’ve noticed when I see that, I often see engagement by the business. ‘Thanks, Mary! We appreciate your business!’

I just checked reviews for my dental practice - that I’m looking to leave bc of constant upselling (to the point of lying by omission and failing to advise of cheaper options)- and they have all 5 stars. Not a single 4 star even. BS, right?


I wrote an honest bad review of a similar sounding dental practice on Yelp that otherwise had a bunch of great reviews. The dentist called me on the phone and insinuated veiled threats of putting fake bad reviews for my own new business (which he clearly had looked up). I was scared and took my review down.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 22:27     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
My eye doctor would give 30% off sunglasses for a positive review.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:41     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I leave google reviews (but not so much yelp) and i have left one-to-five-star reviews based on my experience. why do you think they are fake?


Well I explained why. Because my dental practice has not a bad or even just not superlative review. They run a very slick, marketing focused practice, so I’d also guess they are monitoring their ratings.

Also I signed up for a concierge functional medical practice membership a few years ago. Had great reviews, people claiming they’d had life changing assistance, blah blah. I signed up- thousands of dollars btw- and didn’t get much out of it other than buying lots of supplements that did little. A year or so later, I looked at their reviews and they had tanked. Plenty of negative feedback. I just checked on them again and they are back to almost 5 rating, only slightly driven down by some older low ratings. I can only guess they stopped paying for management during that period of time


The only times I notice something like this (when businesses try to game the system) and when it has a lot of 5-star reviews and all of the reviewers are relatively new (with very low number of reviews). If you see those, you know they are gaming it but, IMHO, those cases are really rare. I am talking about google reviews only.


Not so rare


Each individual's exp varies
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:39     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I leave google reviews (but not so much yelp) and i have left one-to-five-star reviews based on my experience. why do you think they are fake?


Well I explained why. Because my dental practice has not a bad or even just not superlative review. They run a very slick, marketing focused practice, so I’d also guess they are monitoring their ratings.

Also I signed up for a concierge functional medical practice membership a few years ago. Had great reviews, people claiming they’d had life changing assistance, blah blah. I signed up- thousands of dollars btw- and didn’t get much out of it other than buying lots of supplements that did little. A year or so later, I looked at their reviews and they had tanked. Plenty of negative feedback. I just checked on them again and they are back to almost 5 rating, only slightly driven down by some older low ratings. I can only guess they stopped paying for management during that period of time


The only times I notice something like this (when businesses try to game the system) and when it has a lot of 5-star reviews and all of the reviewers are relatively new (with very low number of reviews). If you see those, you know they are gaming it but, IMHO, those cases are really rare. I am talking about google reviews only.


Not so rare
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:26     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I leave google reviews (but not so much yelp) and i have left one-to-five-star reviews based on my experience. why do you think they are fake?


Well I explained why. Because my dental practice has not a bad or even just not superlative review. They run a very slick, marketing focused practice, so I’d also guess they are monitoring their ratings.

Also I signed up for a concierge functional medical practice membership a few years ago. Had great reviews, people claiming they’d had life changing assistance, blah blah. I signed up- thousands of dollars btw- and didn’t get much out of it other than buying lots of supplements that did little. A year or so later, I looked at their reviews and they had tanked. Plenty of negative feedback. I just checked on them again and they are back to almost 5 rating, only slightly driven down by some older low ratings. I can only guess they stopped paying for management during that period of time


The only times I notice something like this (when businesses try to game the system) and when it has a lot of 5-star reviews and all of the reviewers are relatively new (with very low number of reviews). If you see those, you know they are gaming it but, IMHO, those cases are really rare. I am talking about google reviews only.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:25     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
People were going back to yelp bc google was deleting too many reviews. I would post again.

What omission did your dentist office pull? My dentists looks fake too.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:14     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:I own a business and can confirm they are all fake (good and bad one)


Why would bad ones be fake? I’ve left reviews before.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:13     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:I leave google reviews (but not so much yelp) and i have left one-to-five-star reviews based on my experience. why do you think they are fake?


Well I explained why. Because my dental practice has not a bad or even just not superlative review. They run a very slick, marketing focused practice, so I’d also guess they are monitoring their ratings.

Also I signed up for a concierge functional medical practice membership a few years ago. Had great reviews, people claiming they’d had life changing assistance, blah blah. I signed up- thousands of dollars btw- and didn’t get much out of it other than buying lots of supplements that did little. A year or so later, I looked at their reviews and they had tanked. Plenty of negative feedback. I just checked on them again and they are back to almost 5 rating, only slightly driven down by some older low ratings. I can only guess they stopped paying for management during that period of time
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:08     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Anonymous wrote:I left a negative review for our local nail salon, and I went back and looked a few months later, and they had deleted it!


i have experienced this with ebay reviews and amazon reviews
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:07     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
I leave google reviews (but not so much yelp) and i have left one-to-five-star reviews based on my experience. why do you think they are fake?
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:04     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
I left a negative review for our local nail salon, and I went back and looked a few months later, and they had deleted it!
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:03     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
I own a business and can confirm they are all fake (good and bad one)
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2026 21:02     Subject: Google reviews- curated or fake …?
Can these and yelp reviews be faked or adjusted? How does it work?

It seems like some places have almost too perfect reviews. Like almost all 5 stars. I’ve noticed when I see that, I often see engagement by the business. ‘Thanks, Mary! We appreciate your business!’

I just checked reviews for my dental practice - that I’m looking to leave bc of constant upselling (to the point of lying by omission and failing to advise of cheaper options)- and they have all 5 stars. Not a single 4 star even. BS, right?