Typically I don’t post much on businesses buying fake reviews, but in compiling an escalation to the Google My Business spam team I noticed a whole wrath of negative 1 star reviews for the Danish Island of Fanø.

What did Fanø do to deserve this?

 

Rooftop Livings Fake Reviews

Fake reviews are not too difficult to spot when they come from review networks / re-sellers. They typically include the same businesses being reviewed, creating a pattern.

They currently have over 100 of these types of reviews on their Google My Business page.

These types of reviews are no only easy to spot by real customers, they are against UK law.

The CMA has published for businesses an explanation of how to comply with the consumer protection law in posting online reviews, mainly:

 

• Public relations, media marketers, and SEO companies should not produce or commission fake online reviews for their clients, and
• Businesses should not hire agents to write fake reviews for them.

 

Writing or commissioning untrue reviews could expose the writer or commissioner civil or criminal penalties, damage the public perception of the brand, and undermine consumer confidence in the integrity of reviews and review sites.

What business with products reviewed online need to do or not to do:

 

• Don’t assume the identity of a customer writing reviews about business products or services purchased
• Don’t hire anyone to write falsely inaccurate reviews or risk liability for what they do
• When working with a public relations firm, marketer, or SEO agency, see that they too follow the CPRs
• Never offer favours, money, or gifts to customers to write favourable reviews

 

What did Fanø do to deserve this?

But why are there so many 1 star negative reviews for the tiny island of Fanø, just what did they do to deserve this treatment?

Review sellers try and include lower reviews in their reviewer profiles to make the profile look more legitimate, normally these are on other businesses, but I guess we have an “ethical” review seller here.

Hopefully the island of Fanø does not rely to heavily on tourism.