Fake It Till You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review Fraud
Luca first author. Two datasets were used to study review fraud: restaurant reviews that the platform's own filtering algorithm flagged as suspicious, and businesses caught soliciting fake reviews in a sting. Roughly 16 per cent of restaurant reviews were filtered, filtered reviews were more extreme, and their share grew over time. Fraud was likelier where a reputation was weak, less likely among chains, and increased competition drew unfavourable fakes.
Luca first author. Two datasets were used to study review fraud: restaurant reviews that the platform's own filtering algorithm flagged as suspicious, and businesses caught soliciting fake reviews in a sting. Roughly 16 per cent of restaurant reviews were filtered, filtered reviews were more extreme, and their share grew over time. Fraud was likelier where a reputation was weak, less likely among chains, and increased competition drew unfavourable fakes.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-18.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Luca, M., & Zervas, G. (2016). Fake It Till You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review Fraud. Management Science, 62(12), 3412-3427. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2015.2304.