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Online Reviews: Evaluating Evidence and Reporting Manipulation

This guide presents selected U.S. government consumer education from Federal Trade Commission. References to “we” or “us” in the source material refer to the issuing agency. Source dates and links appear below.

How To Evaluate Online Reviews

Online reviews might help you decide what to buy or what company to hire. You should be able to trust that these reviews reflect the honest opinions of people who actually used a product or service. Unfortunately, some reviews are fake, deceptive, or manipulated — and that hurts both people and honest companies.

Consider the Source and Ask Questions

The FTC has brought a number of cases involving online reviews — likely more than any law enforcement agency in the world. Some involved companies that posted fake reviews of their own products and services. Others involved reviews by people who might have been real customers or users of a product but didn’t say that they’d been paid to write a positive review.

When you use online reviews to help you make decisions, consider the source of the information. What do you know about this reviewer? Or about the site or platform where you’re reading the review?

Using Reviews

For years, the FTC’s main recommendation when considering reviews has been to look at a variety of sources, including well-known websites that have trustworthy and impartial expert reviews. That’s still a very good place to start. Here are some other steps to take:

  • Check how recent the reviews are, and watch for a burst of reviews over a short period of time. That can sometimes mean the reviews are fake.
  • Check if the reviewer has written other reviews. If so, read those to get a better sense of how much to trust that reviewer. If it seems that the reviewer has created an account just to write one review for one product, that review may be fake.
  • Don’t assume that, just by looking, you can spot the difference between a real review and a fake one. Some reviews may look suspicious, and some may look real, but it can often be nearly impossible to tell for sure. For example, you already know to watch out for reviews that seem too positive to be real, but some fake positive reviews give less than the highest possible rating in order to seem more believable.
  • Remember that fake reviews are not always positive. Sometimes, a company might post fake negative reviews to harm a competitor.

You won’t always know if a reviewer got something — like a free product — in exchange for writing a review. But, on some websites, you’ll see a label or badge next to the review that tells you the reviewer got an incentive. How you weigh those reviews is up to you.

How To Report Suspicious Online Reviews

Whether you’re a consumer or a business owner, here’s how to report suspicious online reviews across some popular websites. And be sure to tell the FTC: ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Amazon

Consumers and business owners

Report suspicious reviews in two ways:

  • Click on the Report button found below the review and follow the steps.
  • Send an email to community-help@amazon.com.

Facebook

Consumers

  • In the posted review, click on the menu arrow in the top right-hand corner of the review.
  • Select Report Post from the menu and follow the instructions.

Business owners

  • Log in to your Facebook business page.
  • Go to the Reviews tab and find the review you want to report.
  • Click on the three dots in the top left corner of the review.
  • Select Report Post from the menu and follow the instructions.

Google

Consumers

  • In the posted review, click the three vertical dots in the top right-hand corner of the review.
  • Select Flag as inappropriate from the menu.

Business owners 

  • Sign into your Google account and go to Manage Your Business Profile.
  • Open the profile you'd like to manage and, on the left-hand menu, click Reviews.
  • Locate the posted review and click Flag as inappropriate.

TripAdvisor

Consumers

  • In the posted review, click Problem with this review? in the bottom-right corner of the review box.
  • Select a reason from the list and click Next.
  • Leave a comment and submit. 

Business owners

  • Log in to the Business Management Center at tripadvisor.com/Owners.
  • Under the Reviews tab, click Report a Review.
  • Fill out the form and submit reasons why the review should be removed.

Trustpilot

Consumers

  • In the posted review, click on the flag icon.
  • The site will ask you to confirm that you’re not from the reviewed company.
  • Select a reason from the list and click Next.
  • Submit your report and click Next.
  • Select Finish after you get confirmation that the review has been flagged.

Business owners

  • Log in to your business account at trustpilot.com/users/connect, go to Reviews, then select Service Reviews.
  • In the posted review, click on the flag icon.
  • Select a reason from the list.
  • Read the guidelines and click Continue.
  • Highlight the review and click Continue.

Yelp

Consumers

  • Locate the posted review on the business page or in the user's profile.
  • From the business page: Select the More Options button and click Report review.
  • From the user’s profile: Locate the flag icon and click to Report review.

Business owners

  • Go to the Reviews page on your business account at https://biz.yelp.com/login.
  • In the posted review, click on the three dots in the right-hand corner.
  • Select Report Review.
  • Select the reason for reporting the review from the drop-down list.
  • Click Submit.

Sources and publication details

The federal agency source text is U.S. government work in the public domain. Fynoptic selected, adapted, and formatted it for this guide. No agency endorsement is implied. Follow the linked sources for current program details and the rules applicable to your circumstances.

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