Online reviews are a way for shoppers to gauge how real customers feel about your products and services, and fake reviews erode that trust.
Whether positive or negative, fake reviews can damage brand perception. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, OtherHalf Studio cofounder Jamil Bhuya compares fake reviews to other forms of AI-generated content that imitate genuine human experiences.
“People crave authenticity and human connection,” he says. “As soon as you recognize a fake Google or Amazon review, no matter how great the product might actually be, you just feel a sense of anger.”
Read on to take a deeper look at the impact of fake online reviews, why they exist, when they cross legal lines, and the steps ecommerce businesses can take to build review systems customers trust.
What are fake reviews?
Fake reviews are positive or negative reviews that intentionally misrepresent a person’s experience with a business, product, or service. They may be written to make a company appear more trustworthy than it is, unfairly damage a competitor, or manipulate search rankings.
A frustrated customer might try to harm a brand they had a bad experience with by posting numerous troll reviews under fake names. A brand might pay customers to leave positive reviews or hire a review farm to create hundreds or thousands of fake reviews (both practices are banned by the Federal Trade Commission).
For ecommerce brands, real reviews are valuable because they build credibility with future customers. They also provide actionable insights for improving products, shipping, customer support, and the overall buying experience.
Fake reviews distort the feedback businesses rely on to improve their products. If a brand can’t tell whether negative reviews come from real customers or bad actors—or whether glowing praise reflects actual product quality—it’s harder to make informed business decisions.
Are fake reviews illegal?
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibits deceptive or misleading endorsements under the FTC Act. In 2024, the FTC finalized a rule specifically targeting fake reviews and testimonials, making it illegal to:
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Create, buy, sell, or distribute fake consumer reviews
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Suppress honest negative reviews
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Publish reviews from people who never actually experienced the product or service
Common types of fake reviews
Review suppression and selective publishing
- Fake positive reviews
- Fake negative reviews
- Incentivized reviews without disclosure
- Employee, family, or insider reviews
- Review suppression and selective publishing
Not every fake review serves the same purpose. Understanding the different types of fake reviews can help store owners recognize risky practices, avoid violating review policies themselves, and build systems that encourage authentic customer feedback. Here are a few worth noting:
Fake positive reviews
Fake positive reviews are written to make a product or business appear more popular or trustworthy than it really is. In some cases, businesses pay people to leave glowing reviews without ever purchasing the product. Others rely on review farms or automated tools that generate large volumes of generic five-star reviews.
Fake negative reviews
Not all fake reviews are complimentary. Some are written to damage another company’s reputation. For instance, a competitor might post a barrage of one-star reviews claiming poor customer service or defective products.
These reviews can discourage potential customers and reduce average ratings. They also create additional work for store owners, who must then investigate, report, and respond to complaints that aren’t legitimate.
Incentivized reviews without disclosure
Paying customers for positive reviews is illegal. Offering customers a reward—like a discount or free product—for writing a review isn’t prohibited, but transparency matters.
According to the FTC, if you offer an incentive for a review, you can’t set the expectation, explicitly or implicitly, that the review needs to be positive. The FTC guidance also says the review itself should disclose the incentive to alert readers to potential positive bias.
Employee, family, or insider reviews
Another common problem occurs when business owners, employees, friends, or family members post reviews without revealing their relationship to the company.
Even if those reviews accurately describe the product, shoppers aren’t aware of the conflict of interest, making the endorsements misleading. The FTC advises against using this type of review.
Review suppression and selective publishing
Some businesses selectively publish legitimate five-star reviews while hiding critical feedback. Alternatively, they make it unusually difficult for dissatisfied customers to share their experiences. Others pressure customers to change or remove negative reviews before resolving legitimate complaints.
While moderating spam and abusive language is appropriate, removing genuine criticism creates a misleading picture of customer satisfaction.
How to prevent fake reviews
- Use verified review systems
- Make authentic reviews easy to collect
- Monitor reviews and respond thoughtfully
For brands that face the risk of malicious review spamming, follow these steps to ward off these sorts of attacks:
1. Use verified review systems
A simple way to reduce fake reviews is to collect feedback only from verified customers.
For Shopify merchants, Shop Product Reviews requires reviewers to have completed a purchase before submitting feedback. It displays a “Verified by Shop” badge to help shoppers identify authentic customer experiences. Restricting reviews to verified purchasers makes it more difficult for bad actors to flood your review section with fabricated feedback.
Many product review apps in the Shopify App Store—including Yotpo, Loox, and Judge.me—also include verification tools, moderation workflows, spam detection, and fraud monitoring to help you maintain trustworthy reviews.
2. Make authentic reviews easy to collect
Another defense against fake reviews is a consistent stream of real ones. You can automate review requests shortly after an order is delivered while the experience is still fresh. Use tools like Shopify Flow to send automated, personalized email and SMS requests with a direct link to the review form, followed by a gentle reminder if the customer doesn’t respond.
3. Monitor reviews and respond thoughtfully
Develop a review monitoring strategy to track reviews across your own storefront and other platforms where customers interact with your brand. If you notice suspicious patterns, such as identical wording across multiple reviews or sudden spikes in review activity, report them through the platform’s moderation process.
You can also use reputation management tools to track mentions of your brand in reviews and monitor customer sentiment. Responding professionally to legitimate criticism demonstrates accountability and often builds more trust than maintaining a perfect rating. A 2025 Forbes study shows that 76% of customers distrust reviews if they are all positive, and 30% of customers say they won’t purchase from brands that don’t have at least some negative reviews.
Fake reviews FAQ
How do you tell if reviews are fake?
There’s rarely a single sign that proves a review is fake. Instead, look for patterns like repetitive or overly generic language, sudden spikes in review activity, reviews from accounts with little history, or feedback that lacks product-specific details. Reviews tied to verified purchases generally provide greater confidence that the reviewer actually bought the product.
What is an example of a fake online review?
A fake review might be a five-star testimonial written by someone who never purchased the product or a one-star review posted by a competitor posing as a customer. Reviews written in exchange for payment or free products without proper disclosure can also be considered misleading.
Are fake reviews illegal?
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibits deceptive endorsements and has adopted rules specifically targeting fake reviews and testimonials. It is illegal to knowingly create, buy, or sell fake reviews.
