{"id":1077,"date":"2022-02-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplybusiness.co.uk\/knowledge\/articles\/how-small-businesses-can-tackle-fake-online-reviews\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T13:17:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:17:22","slug":"how-small-businesses-can-tackle-fake-online-reviews","status":"publish","type":"knowledge","link":"https:\/\/www.simplybusiness.co.uk\/knowledge\/marketing\/how-small-businesses-can-tackle-fake-online-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How small businesses can tackle fake online reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does an online review of your business look suspicious? If you don\u2019t remember the customer or the interaction, you might be dealing with a fake online review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Example<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Say you’re faced with the Google review above, but the details don’t add up. Firstly, you don\u2019t remember a customer raising these issues recently. Come to think of it, there was no 29 February this year \u2013 and worse, you don\u2019t even have a halloumi burger on the menu. You\u2019re probably looking at a fake online review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake online reviews: how big is the problem?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Word of mouth has always held huge power. A customer recommending your services to a friend or family member often holds more sway than any of your marketing materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flipside? Customers sharing negative experiences can really harm your business, unless you take steps to make it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the real world, the impact of baseless word of mouth is limited to one person\u2019s social circle. But an anonymised, digital world opens up the opportunity for fake experiences to be shared with huge numbers of potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government investigation into fake positive reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In June 2021 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government\u2019s competition regulator, opened an investigation into Amazon and Google. The CMA suggests that the internet giants may have broken consumer law by not taking enough action to protect shoppers from fake online reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in July 2021, the BBC reported on government proposals to make it illegal to pay someone to write (or host) a fake review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the government accepts that fake online reviews are a problem, but their investigation is largely concerned with protecting consumers from fake positive<\/strong> reviews that fool people into buying a product. What about protecting businesses themselves from fake negative reviews?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to tackle fake online reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, businesses have to deal with this problem on their own. Take the example of Blackpool restaurateur Steve Hoddy<\/a>, who successfully took an online troll to court for malicious falsehood. The troll was ordered to pay \u00a37,455 in compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Hoddy got to the point of suing the fake reviewer, though, he\u2019d already directly confronted him and managed to get Tripadvisor to remove the offending reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoddy had an advantage considering he studied law at university. But even if you don\u2019t know the legal ins-and-outs, you can still tackle fake online reviews armed with these top tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Make sure that it\u2019s fake<\/h3>\n\n
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You should respond to a negative review<\/a> whether it\u2019s genuine or fake, but the tone of your response will differ depending on its authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you tell fake reviews apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n