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Fake Review Data & Trends

Original findings from our dataset of analyzed Google Maps places, plus enforcement actions and platform policy changes.

Trends

Amazon and BBB Won a Permanent Injunction Against a Fake-Review Broker

A King County court permanently barred a review-selling operation from serving Amazon and the Better Business Bureau, in the first joint fake-review suit the two have filed together. The broker economy the case describes works the same way on Google Maps.

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 22, 2026 · 5 min

Trends

AI-Generated Reviews Are Here: How Detection Is Changing

Google is deploying its Gemini models to catch review fraud and scam patterns before they publish, and blocked 292 million policy-violating reviews in 2025. But AI-written review text breaks the one detection method that's easiest to explain — near-duplicate wording — which is why timing and account patterns matter more than ever.

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 10, 2026 · 4 min

Trends

The FTC's Fake-Review Rule: What It Bans and the Fines So Far

The FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans buying fake reviews, insider reviews, and suppressing negative ones, with penalties up to $53,088 per violation. Since December 2025's warning letters, two cases have closed with real payments — here's what's banned and what enforcement has actually produced as of August 2026.

Andrew Keymaster · Jul 31, 2026 · 7 min

Trends

What Share of Places Have Manipulated Reviews? Our Data, July 2026

As of July 2026, 33.5% of the 242 Google Maps places we've analyzed show signs of review manipulation, and 12.4% score high enough to be called Likely Manipulated. Here's the full breakdown by verdict, signal type, and what's driving it.

Andrew Keymaster · Jul 23, 2026 · 4 min