In recent years, two types of businesses have become common. One creates positive or negative online reviews depending on what the client wants. The other related business promises to eliminate negative reviews from a website. These businesses are aware that many people place their trust in online reviews and that many businesses will pay for good reviews and to eliminate bad reviews. For a price, these companies will create a certain number of positive reviews over a period of time. For a price, these companies will also create bad reviews for the competitors of their clients giving their clients a competitive advantage. For an additional price, these companies will delete the negative reviews they have placed on a website without informing the client that they created the negative review. Such conduct is highly unethical but does exist and is constantly growing. Many of these operations are located in other countries making it very difficult to pursue legal action against them. The lesson is clear. Checking references is far more reliable than relying on online reviews.

When online reviewers do not provide their name, you can be certain the review is fake and that the reviewer is afraid they will be caught making a false and defamatory statement.

There are now people advertising on Craigslist who will write positive or negative fake reviews for $10 each. Need 10 reviews from different fake names? The cost is only $100.

In addition, doing business with a company that has been in business for more than 10 years is an excellent sign.

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