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Paying writers to do fake reviews is an unethical business move designed to boost a company’s sales while slating down on its competitors. However unprofessional this practice is, a lot of companies, major ones in fact, have been discovered to be resorting to such tactics. Fake reviews online are not only hurting local businesses but are also affecting consumers as these can mislead customers into buying a product that is reviewed under malicious intentions. Fake reviews are not only written by competing companies but may also be the work of disgruntled employees or even dissatisfied customers.

Plan It Out

Once you find out that there are fake reviews about your business online, it is important to keep your head on and think carefully about your next move. You cannot blow your top and act all violent or even threaten the website where the review is posted with a lawsuit.  Getting a fake review is not the end of the world and you can take certain steps to ensure that the review is deleted before it can cause damage to your business. The first thing you should do is find out who is writing the reviews. Once you get enough evidence and you know the person or company doing the fake reviews, you can approach them and reason with them to stop and remove the reviews. If sensible reasoning doesn’t work, you can give them a choice between removing the reviews and facing litigation. If you don’t know who is behind the fake reviews online, the first thing you have to do is file a lawsuit in court to be able to obtain a court order to serve a subpoena to the website involved.

Getting a Response to the Subpoena

It isn’t easy to get a response from mogul companies such as Google and Yahoo. These websites usually require a formal legal proceeding which requires filing and serving the subpoena under court order. They will also be able to provide limited information regarding their users such as IP information and email addresses. Such websites are firm believers in following the first amendment rights of their users as respect to their privacy. Although you cannot make Google and other similar websites accountable for the fake review posted on their site, they are still obliged to provide information that may help you determine who is behind the reviews especially if it is under court order. 

Getting a Response to the Ruling

Websites like Google and Yelp will probably refuse to budge to your request to delete content considered to be false but they cannot actually refuse once the court of law has ruled on the matter as defamatory. A formal court order together with the results of the ruling must be presented to the website before they will be able to comply and delete fake reviews online.

 Another Way Out

If you do not wish to go through the whole legal process, you can try filing a complaint with the website publisher regarding the review. If it is found to be profane and obviously incorrect, it will probably be deleted instantly. In most cases, however, the publisher will not remove the review especially if there is no proof to let him or her believe that the review is false.

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