Comments on: Car Dealers Fined $3.6 Million For Fake Reviews & Deceptive Practices

By: Jason Brown

Jason Brown — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 21:05:15 +0000

The sold 4 of the locations in October 2017.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 15:22:38 +0000

@Roderic
There is no single place to report abuses… nor any guaranteed method to achieve results.

Generally speaking the State’s Attorney General offers up a reporting form. It might also make sense to contact the FTC.

Sometimes the Google or Yelp will take down reviews if reported as well.

If you contact me offline mike@getfivestars.com and send along some of the examples I would be glad to take a look and see if there is an obvious strategy.

By: Roderic

Roderic — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 19:36:34 +0000

I have competitors that have created thousands of fake business profiles and reviews for them. Who did the legwork in tracking these down and prosecuting them?

Is there any place that I can easily report this information?

By: Jason Brown

Jason Brown — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 22:14:59 +0000

We need more of this and more press like this. It has been way too long for something like this to hit. I wish more people covered the story so I could be more a deterrent. The sad thing is that the fake reviews are still live on Google, Yelp and other websites. I have attempted to get fake 5 star reviews removed and have not gotten very far with Google. I guess its not a major issue for them yet. I guess more attention needs to be brought to this issue to get real changes. Thank you for covering it Mike.

By: James Watson

James Watson — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 08:01:44 +0000

Glad to read your blog…! I agree with your through, Now a day Reputation management is most important factors for automotive businesses. Organic & Positive Customers Reviews on social media can be attract more customers to dealerships. Thanks for sharing.

By: John

John — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 17:59:38 +0000

It’s a shame these companies don’t spend the time to put into place an effective program to garner legitimate reviews. it really isn’t that hard.

By: Andy Kuiper

Andy Kuiper — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 17:16:32 +0000

I Agree – I even see a few SEO’s loaded with ‘very suspect’ reviews. It’s not just on Google, I know of a few companies in the home reno field that have many, many (dozens) of suspect reviews on a couple of the home reno third party review sites. Keep going Google.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 20:45:01 +0000

In reply to Jason Khoo.

@Jason
It is good to see some enforcement…. finally. And not just enforcement but enforcement with more than just a “cease and desist”. It does provide some caution for everyone although I think larger dollar amount retailers like car dealers are the most vulnerable right now.

By: Jason Khoo

Jason Khoo — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 20:32:31 +0000

Glad to see there are repercussions for all these deceptive practices! Will be forwarding this to clients!