Anyone running a company has one or two things they constantly worry about. Currently, my biggest concern for GoodMigrations is preventing fake reviews on our site. So many review sites suffer from spam reviews submitted by shady companies trying to boost their ratings or competitors trying to discredit their competition. I’m constantly thinking through ways to prevent this from becoming a problem. For instance, our marketing efforts have focused solely on reaching out to fellow expat bloggers. I’ve specifically avoided letting moving companies know GoodMigrations exists because I know that as soon as I do, the spam reviews will flood in. While we audit every single review before publishing it and perform additional diligence on some, it’s only a matter of time before a fake one sneaks through. Still, I was surprised to find one already submitted. The below review was submitted yesterday by a John Lyn, who moved from the United States to India.
| Cost: 3/4 Time: 4/4 Condition: 4/4 Would use again: Yes Additional Comments: “Though a bit of cost additions, the move went on well and i do not have second thought to recommend this company to others.” |
A few things made me suspicious:
1) The use of English wasn’t great. John Lyn is not an Indian name, and since he moved from the United States to India, we can assume he’s American-born. American-born people don’t talk like that.
2) The email used was a Yahoo India email address. Yahoo email has been around in the U.S. for a very long time. There’s no reason someone moving from the U.S. to India wouldn’t retain their U.S. Yahoo account.
3) The review was submitted on the same day the company profile was created on the site. I mean, come on people, show some self restraint.
(However, I was a bit impressed that the person only gave a 3 out of 4 rating on Cost, as if to throw off the scent by not giving too laudatory a review).
So what did I do? First, I sent a message to the Yahoo email address requesting some additional information in order to publish the review. That message was returned as undeliverable. Then I called the company out, sending them this message:
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Thank you for creating a company profile for <Company Name Removed> on GoodMigrations. We have approved this profile and it is now visible on the site.I also want to emphasize our Site Rules: submitting fake reviews is not tolerated. A suspicious review for your company was submitted yesterday. This seems a bit too coincidental considering the company profile was also just created yesterday. In addition to the suspicious timing, our audit of the review found the email address used to be invalid. This review will not be published. If this happens consistently a public warning will go on your company profile page.
We’re just getting started out. As we grow, real <Company Name Removed> customers will find the GoodMigrations site and submit real reviews. And if you take good care of your customers they will be good reviews 🙂 |
The mover responded denying any tampering, saying that this John Lyn found GoodMigrations, reviewed his move, and then sent the company an email to let them know about it. Whatever. Just don’t try it again. Ultimately, the only real defense against spam reviews is to get tons of legitimate reviews. So please spread the word to all your expat friends and ask them to rate their international moving experience.