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Fake Online Review Crackdown in New York Leads to Fines for 19 Companies

Dennis Schaal photo
Dennis Schaal

Photo Credit: Yelp was called out for it's better-than-average capabilities to screen out bad reviews.  PlaceIt by Breezi

Skift Take

Many reputation management firms have made a living out of criticizing Yelp and TripAdvisor, and some of them have crossed the line and gotten into the fake-review writing business themselves. There are reputation management firms with integrity out there, but these 19 companies are not among them.

XVIO, a reputation management and SEO company, tells potential customers that it can use its "army of highly regarded bloggers, journalists, and reviewers" to generate "the HIGHEST volume of 5-star reviews." The New York City-based company "posted hundreds of fake reviews of clients on consumer-review websites," and was one of 19 reputation management, SEO and client firms, including charter bus company US Coachways, fined by the New York State Attorney General and ordered to cease writing fake online reviews. eBoxed, also known as Zamdel Inc., was another company caught up in the sting. The Attorney General's Office stat

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