{"id":805620,"date":"2026-07-16T12:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/805620\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:37:10","slug":"online-fake-reviews-involving-celebrity-names-becoming-more-rampant-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/805620\/","title":{"rendered":"Online fake reviews involving celebrity names becoming more rampant online\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many online reviews may be fake or bought by businesses. CTV’s Pat Foran explains how to spot them and shop smarter. <\/p>\n

Fake reviews can be made by anyone, but there are also \u201cfake review rings\u201d that operate in other countries. They sell reviews for a price, and businesses may purchase positive or negative reviews, depending on if they want to help their business or hurt their competition.<\/p>\n

Kay Dean, a former U.S. federal criminal investigator from San Jose, Calif., founded Fake Review Watch<\/a>, an industry watchdog and advocacy organization, where she exposes fraudulent online reviews.<\/p>\n

Dean contacted CTV News after she noticed fake reviews being posted for a Toronto window company.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kay Dean Kay Dean, a former U.S. Federal criminal investigator, is the founder of Fake Review Watch. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fake review problem in general is so much worse than what most people are really aware of,\u201d said Dean.<\/p>\n

While investigating the window company, Dean noticed that whoever was posting them was using the names of famous actors who don\u2019t even live in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scammers are using the names of celebrities, which is just absurd,\u201d said Dean.<\/p>\n

Some celebrity names Dean saw included \u201cBruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks, and Lauren Bacall.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an obvious red flag if you see that Madonna, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, or Al Pacino all took their time to leave reviews about windows and doors.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fake celebrity reviews Screenshots of fake celebrity reviews posted for a Toronto window company. Business denies buying reviews<\/p>\n

When CTV News contacted the businesses, it claimed \u201cour window company has never instructed, authorized, or knowingly engaged anyone to post fake reviews or create fake business listings on our behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean told CTV News fake reviews are rampant on the web.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just a snapshot of what\u2019s happening on Google, and it\u2019s unfair, and it\u2019s unfair for honest businesses that have to compete,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n

CTV News reached out to Google on this matter, and a spokesperson said in a statement, \u201cOur policies<\/a> clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences and information and do not allow reviews or ratings that have been paid for. We have removed these fake reviews and suspended reviews on the policy-violating business profiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Toronto-based computer business owner also shared his experience after his business had been impacted by the usage of fake reviews.<\/p>\n

\"\"Business owner A Toronto-based computer business owner who wants to remain anonymous speaks to CTV News. <\/p>\n

The business owner, whom we will call John, did not want his name or business used for this story, as he claimed he is having difficulty with his competitors, which he said are using fake Google reviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has definitely impacted my business as well as other businesses in the area as well,\u201d said the business owner.<\/p>\n

According to John, his competitor uses fake five-star reviews, which he claims are costing him customers.<\/p>\n

He feels Google should crack down on fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day when a business is buying reviews to outrank visibility against competitors in the area that\u2019s just unfair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for Dean, she says it\u2019s important for everyone to know the reviews online aren\u2019t always true.<\/p>\n

Dean says Google makes a lot of money through advertising and needs to do more to stop them and to create a level playing field.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice for consumers would be to go back to the tried and true method of getting information by word of mouth. Not to rely on reviews because the space is saturated with fake reviews, both positive and negative,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n

With files from Farah Chandani<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many online reviews may be fake or bought by businesses. CTV’s Pat Foran explains how to spot them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":["post-805620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}