It is no secret that online reviews are normally taken advantage of by authors trying to push their books’ sales. Not long ago, Amazon had a number of cases were authors were inflating their own scores by giving their own books positive reviews. How did they respond? They asked their reviewers to become members before posting but their anonimity was and still is an issue. \r
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Another usual fake review practice focuses on leaving negative comments on your competitors’ products, therefore lowering their overall score. This can be seen, for example, all throughout the hotel industry, with hotels “negging” their closest competitors.\r
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The Angry Ex-Employee \r
Tripadvisor made the headlines in 2010 after a group of hotel owners complained that the negative reviews of their hotel were unfair. It was discovered that some of the reviewers had been employees who had been previously laid off and were looking for a way to get even.\r
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The internet has opened a pandora’s box and in spite of sites like “tripadvisor-warning” popping up every once in a while, online review sites seem to be getting more popular than ever. It is in our hands to weed out the cheaters. \r
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