7 On Your Side: Which online reviews are real?

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- There is a thriving industry around the posting of fake reviews. People are actually getting paid to write glowing reviews, which leaves consumers wondering which ones are real. 7 On Your Side looks into what shoppers can do to protect themselves.

Offers from both those who pay for reviews and those who write them are blatant. The intent is to get a positive review about a product or service the reviewer may have never even tried.

Courtney Archibald saw a job posting on Craigslist involving social media and thought it would perfect for her. She told 7 On Your Side, "Social media comes really easy for me."

The Oakland resident replied to a blind email box and received a job offer to write a review for a plastic surgeon. Archibald had never even heard of the doctor, yet she was sent a glowing review and was told simply to cut and paste it onto Yelp.

"I just said, 'I'm not doing this. You know, this is crazy unethical,'" Archibald told 7 On Your Side.

She may have backed away from the job, but there are plenty of others ready and willing.

We found several people advertising their services to write reviews on a site known as Fiverr. Some people said they were willing to write a high-quality positive review, a 300-word positive product or service review for money, or to post any review that is simply sent to them.

"That is extremely unethical because they haven't either purchased that product or they haven't had an experience with that product," JT Buser, the head of authenticity at Bazaarvoice, said.

It is Buser's job to make sure reviews posted onto a company's site are legitimate. He said, "We tend to flag about two percent of content as suspicious."

That content goes through additional testing and content confirmed as fraudulent is removed from a client's site.

We asked 7 On Your Side associate producer Ricquel Newman to apply for a job as a reviewer to see what would happen. The ad seemed innocent enough -- get paid to post reviews on Yelp or Angie's List in San Francisco. It didn't take much to get hired.

"All I had to do was reply to the Craigslist ad and what they want me to do is write a review," Newman said.

She was asked to review a diet supplement, but no one ever asked if she had ever used the product.

"I've never used a weight loss product that's a form of a pill. So I have no experience with it, but they want me to write a positive, five-star review," Newman said.

Earlier this year, Yelp flagged 85 businesses with an alert warning consumers the company's rating may be inflated.

"There's a description of the evidence that we've found behind the scenes. They can read that and make their own decision about if they'd like to spend their money on that business," Rachel Walker from Yelp told 7 On Your Side.

Yelp says certain kinds of businesses tend to use fake reviews.

"We have seen evidence of medical businesses and dentists trying to game our system and purchase or offer an exchange for reviews," Walker said.

Archibald was asked to review a plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Barnett on Yelp. He has offices in San Francisco and Walnut Creek and has five-star reviews from 46 out of 51 people posting on Yelp.

7 On Your Side contacted Barnett about the reviews. He declined to go on camera, but told us a business called Future Solutions Media worked on his behalf, without authorization, and later billed him. He went on to say, "Let me be perfectly clear. I did not and never have paid anyone or asked anyone to write a fake review."

7 On Your Side also reached out to Future Solutions, but never heard back.

"I think he has four-and-a-half out of five stars. And which of these reviews are real? Are any of them real?" Archibald questioned.

Yelp has issued 300 consumer alerts since 2012. The alerts expire after 90 days. Right now there are no active alerts on Yelp.

To distinguish a fake review from a real one, don't rely on a single review, look for trends. Consumers should also compare reviews across websites and read sites such as Expedia that require reviewers to purchase from them before they're allowed to leave a review.