Fake reviews are multiplying. Will you spot one before it costs you? | Canada Voices

Fake reviews of businesses have telltale signs. The adjectives are a bit too glowing and the tone’s too cheerful for the topic of basement sump pumps or dental crowns.

But phony online praises – or takedowns – have become more believable and game-changing for the businesses that use them, with the help of artificial intelligence.

According to March data from Capital One Shopping, fake reviews cost consumers worldwide US$0.12 per every dollar spent. You can think of it as a $120 tax on that $1,000 paint job for your car or $1,200 dollars wasted on a $10,000 bathroom revamp.

It’s added up to about US$770-billion in unwanted purchases in 2025 alone, with high-stakes services in the home repair, legal and medical fields making up the bulk of losses.

“Not only do consumers get duped, it also harms honest businesses who are trying to compete in this environment,” said consumer advocate and former U.S federal criminal investigator, Kay Dean, in a recent phone call.

Ms. Dean started looking into the issue nine years ago, after many glowing reviews for a doctor led to an experience that was a total mismatch with her expectations.

Since then, she’s identified what she suspects to be vast networks of fake reviews, many of which are based out of South Asia, but there are also plenty right here in Canada and the U.S.

These marketplaces openly advertise services to buy, sell and trade reviews in bulk through Facebook groups and other social media. “They’re not even hiding it,” she said.

But there are also sophisticated marketing agencies offering a more tailored approach. Ms. Dean tracked down one North American company paying individuals $4 for a single Google review. In some cases, even “elite” reviewers on certain platforms – trusted for their consistent posts and accomplishment badges – were approached to post fake reviews for cash.

But when AI entered the scene, “that was a game-changer,” Ms. Dean said.

Today, bogus reviews are no longer as easy to spot for their robotic sentences. Review farms can create natural-sounding copy and easily generate or manipulate photos, making fake reviews look more authentic.

And they can do it all in large volumes, Ms. Dean said, significantly tipping the scales in favour of businesses who use them. The Capital One report found that fake reviews can grow product sales by 12.5 per cent in the first two weeks alone.

A spokesperson for Google said in an e-mail to The Globe that the company’s policies “clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences and information, and do not allow reviews or ratings that have been paid for.”

In 2021, Google said it removed 95 million “policy-violating” reviews, including fake reviews. In 2025, that number was 295 million. While Google ties some of the figures to improvements in cracking down on fraud, it’s also a testament to the scale of the problem.

“There’s a whole cottage industry,” Ms. Dean said, “devoted to buying, selling and trading reviews.”

This spring, she began investigating a Toronto home contracting company allegedly receiving fake reviews from what appeared to be an overseas fake-review ring. Her reporting found dozens of fake Google reviews linked to the ring across multiple business listings, with ratings ranging from 4.8 stars across nearly 400 reviews to a perfect five-star rating based on 10 reviews.

She watched these reviews roll out almost daily during her investigation, the findings of which she shared to her YouTube channel Fake Review Watch. “At the same time, like clockwork,” Ms. Dean said.

After posting a fake review, the profiles often changed their usernames and went private, preventing any hawk-eyed consumers from spotting phony-looking review histories.

The Google spokesperson said the company removed the fake reviews and suspended others on the policy-violating business profiles identified.

Ms. Dean confirmed that since another media publication and later, The Globe, reached out to the search giant, eleven Google business listings have been removed, which encompass hundreds of Google reviews. Two listings she identified are still active.

But she called this approach to the issue “whack-a-mole.”

Part of the problem is a lack of incentive, she said. Platforms profit “whether reviews are real or fake.”

In the meantime, Ms. Dean said trusting old-school, word of mouth reviews from friends and family are the safest bet. When that’s not possible, she advises watching out for these red flags:

• A sudden stream of positive reviews immediately following a negative one – may signal attempts to bury criticism (especially if the glowing reviews all happen to touch on the same topic as the negative one).
• Private or locked Google reviewer profiles. These prevent users from seeing review activity, and it’s a privacy setting Ms. Dean sees more commonly employed by fraudsters than ordinary users.
• Batches of reviews all coming within a short period of time.
• Reviews that are too geographically diverse. If they don’t have a concentration of reviews in one place – usually where they would naturally reside – that’s a potential red flag (though only possible to see if the profile’s review history is unlocked).
• Celebrity names are a dead giveaway that fake reviewers have entered the feed.
• Mismatch in content. Bogus reviewers working on volume can make mistakes, writing a review for a stellar break repair on an appliance company’s listing, for example.

Have you been duped by a fake review? How much did it cost you? Drop me a line at mpostelnyak@globeandmail.com

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