The latest twist in the “negative review” problem is
businesses (like restaurants) reporting receiving “notice of extortion”
letters, demanding payment in bitcoins to prevent assaults by negative reviews
(especially on Yelp, it seems) and various other threats that don’t need to be
repeated. A little bit of the Mafia seems
to getting into the bad-review business.
Sounds like soap-opera stuff, maybe a future plot thread for “Days of
our Lives” (with Theresa as villain).
Webroot wrote a story about it on its blog, with an
entry, “2014: The Year that Extortion Went Mainstream”, link here. Not to mention, I don’t pay much attention
to online reviews on these sites myself, because I know a lot of them are bogus
– that is, until I run into a problem with a particular business’s customer
service (like warranty or repair service).
Typically, I’ll be skeptical of a review if it doesn’t seem to be
factual or well written. If I
was in the dating game, maybe restaurant reviews would matter more. (Oh, that brings to mind the days of
heterosexual dating back in 1971, and we didn’t go Dutch.)
Darren Paul has a story about the problem on the UK
Register here. It seems that there is an element that
wants to do this “because we can”, just like in crime films. You would think the public would wake up and
not believe “spam” reviews.
In another story on the online review issue, ABC
World News Tonight broadcast a brief report on how to avoid getting sued if you
review businesses on Yelp or Angie’s List.
Make sure that you emphasize that these are your opinions (“I believe
that …). Stick to verifiable facts,
with proof (like photos or receipts). I
wasn’t able to find the link for this story online.
No comments:
Post a Comment