It's very easy for companies to fake positive reviews on Google. Obviously there's a huge number of negative reviews for R&J Car Sales which I'll cover in the next post. But here are a few things that stood out to me when I read the reviews that there were.
First, one common feature of a company faking reviews is if there are similar names leaving five star ratings. This can happen when people get their own or their staff's family to leave positive comments. Possible examples I saw:
Second, if you look at the actual profiles for some of the people leaving reviews for R&J Car Sales - their photos are promo photos of various cars at the R&J garage and sometimes of the garage itself. The angle of the cars and the spot most of the photos are taken in are identical to the promo photos the company uses on their website.
That one didn't make sense to me though. If it was a real review, why would you copy photos of cars you didn't buy off the company's website and attach them to your review?
Of course if it's a fake review, why plaster your firm's car ads all over it to make sure people think it's definitely a fake review? Doesn't make sense either way.
Third, here are some lines from the positive reviews for this company. Please tell me I'm not the only that thinks people real people simply don't talk/write like this:
"Very helpful and knowledgeable staff! With dozens of brands and hundreds of models available, this is the best place to find your dream car."
"If you are looking for your next purchase please do pop over . You will be greeted with a friendly smile and no pressure from a professional sales team."
"loads of choice and a lovely clean environment... all facilities under 1 roof"
"Great prices and Great team!"
"The choice of cars is amazing, so many to choose from."
"Great car supermarket with competitively priced cars . Fixed prices so no more wondering if you got the best price you could. "
"Car chosen was lowest priced in market and fair value. "
"They have a huge selection of cars, at fair prices."
"The advert for the car I purchased was a true reflection of the car itself & well presented."
"Its number 1 for a reason. Great variety of vehicles. Excellent staff. Great prices."
No really!! I'm not making this up! These are copy/pasted from Google Reviews. These are meant to be genuine, independent reviews from actual customers. We're meant to believe these are real sentences a real person would really type into Google after buying a used car. It's not just me, right? Those look extremely odd ....
Fourth, the 'Likes' on these 1 comment, five star, advert-including, sales-pitching reviews are all by other p