Auto Dealer Monthly, September 2013

MARY ENGLE SEPTEMBER 2013 AUTODEALERMONTHLY COM 15 in a report released in May titled Deceptive Reviews Th e Infl uential Tail Th e authors of the study off ered several recommendations for consumer review platforms such as refraining from publicly rewarding prolifi c reviewers with an elite reviewer status or only allowing reviewers to submit reviews for items that they have purchased Mark Holthoff Edmunds director of community products leads the dealer review vertical He is intrigued by the idea of incorporating consumer alerts when rogue dealers are caught posting fake reviews He also likes the idea of tying reviews directly to vehicle purchases a strategy that originated on sites like Amazon and Expedia Although he says there are no formal plans to change the review platform anytime soon Holthoff says the two tactics are defi nitely worth considering for the future Th e MIT Northwestern study however points out that such strategies would be tricky for sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor where not all reviews can be linked to a transaction In terms of linguistic cues the researchers discovered four commonalities among deceptive reviews Word counts tend to be longer but word length is shorter and less complex Many reviews end in multiple exclamation points and oft en make references to family members Because it is oft en diffi cult to create concrete details in their messages they have a tendency to include details that are unrelated to the focus of the message the study states Edmunds released two examples of Humankind reviews to TIME magazine One of the reviews read Well worth the money Amazing service highly recommended Do not bother looking anywhere else these guys will take good care of you while the other stated I was very happy with the Advisor he even gave me his cell phone number Everyone was very friendly and helpful even those who werent working on my car Levin off ers additional insights on how Edmunds staff ers spot fake reviews What were looking for in reviews are peoples descriptions of their experience as opposed to just conclusionary statements like It was great It was horrible or She was fantastic Were not so much interested in your emotions as we are in facts that people can use to make their own judgment when choosing which dealership to visit If others come in similar in terms of tone then people at our shop might say What else do these reviews have in common Can we trace them back to the same source And you have to see a pattern of it because if its just one thats probably just someone who writes a review that reads that way Levin says Yelp had not fl agged any of the 25 dealerships associated with Humankind He claims though that at least one of the fake reviews appeared on DealerRaters website Responding via e mail Larry Cochran DealerRaters senior vice president for products and services stated that he was unaware whether the site had fallen victim to fraudulent reviews from Humankind but added that the company welcomes the private sharing of fi ndings by Edmunds so that we may thoroughly investigate through our fraud prevention team REGULATORS ON REVIEWS Review sites have to cater to customers and businesses but they also have to play by the rules of federal or international regulators Th ats why Lowe considers Yelp to be a partner to entities like the Federal Trade Commission FTC which actively pursues companies creating deceptive online testimonials Mary Engle associate director for the FTCs advertising practices says the agency is concerned about fake reviews and the harm they cause for consumers Nowadays its very common to go online and look for reviews of products and services that youre considering and see what people are saying and its important for those to be truthful she says She adds that she cannot comment specifi cally on whether the FTC is investigating Humankind and its fraudulent dealer testimonials However she says its good that there are also these private lawsuits to act as deterrents for companies that set up fraudulent accounts to submit reviews on behalf of consumers While she says the FTC can fi le a court or administrative order against such a company the agency cannot always seek monetary damages Were entitled to get refunds for consumers she says In this kind of situation its very diffi cult to assess what the damages caused to the consumer would be Both Edmunds and Yelps lawsuits are pending GlowingReviews co remains dormant while AdBlaze appears to be operating as usual Interestingly BuyYelpReview com now leads to an apparently unrelated opinion article published in the Oakland Calif based East Bay Express Th e headline reads Yelp and the Business of Extortion 20 Humankind parent company of GlowingReviews co is being sued by Edmunds com for allegedly submitting 76 fake reviews on behalf of 25 dealerships