The benefits of buying a product or service online are undeniable.
You can do it whenever you want, in your pajamas, without leaving your home.
And in this world of online shopping, reviews play a key role.
Who would buy a toaster with a one-star rating or book an appointment at a hair salon with awful reviews?
However, fake reviews on platforms like Google are a real problem.
These can easily be purchased online and, as a BBC investigation found, even medical clinics, at least in the UK, pay for these kinds of reviews to improve their visibility and score on the web.
Positive reviews are not the only problem, negative reviews are also sold to damage a competitor.
¿So what can we do to distinguish a fake review from a genuine one?
These recommendations can help you.
1. Excessive praise
Generally speaking, most fake positive reviews give the product or service five stars, and fake negative reviews rate it with one star.
Real reviews usually fall somewhere in the middle.
If you see that the review is extremely positive but gives no real details, be wary, says BBC business journalist Emma Vardy.
We’re talking about reviews like, “This product is great, I love this company,” that don’t specify what exactly they’re referring to or what they find particularly valuable about the product or company in question.
Most likely in this case, it was not written by a genuine customer.
Real reviews tend to include not only praise, but are more balanced in terms of advantages and disadvantages.
In the case of a garment, they may for example praise the material it is made from or acknowledge that it looks as advertised, but criticize the delivery time.
2. Doubtful deed
See if the comment has grammatical or spelling errors.
This may indicate that they copied and pasted information from somewhere and used an online translator, says Vardy.
Also the language and tone in which it is written. A genuine review has natural language.
If the user mentions the brand too much, more than is really necessary, as if it were a marketing campaign, there is a chance it is a fake review.
3. Reviews worldwide
See if the user who has made the review has other comments on local businesses or has commented on products and services from around the world.
If the latter is the case, it is likely to be a fake review, Vardy points out.
Also look at his profile to see how many reviews he has written and what other products he has purchased.
Google says it removes fake reviews and suspends accounts that are not genuine.
Yet evidence shows that some still get past those filters and are posted on the web.