Review websites are accessed by millions looking for advice - whether it be a hotel for their summer holiday or a recommendation for a good book.
But now it appears that major sites, including Amazon and TripAdvisor, have had hundreds of fake reviews posted by companies who employ teams of writers to rave about certain products - and slate others.
Some hotels have paid out thousands of pounds for 'reputation management' to maintain fake profiles that appear to be former customers, according to The Times.
The move can lead to a huge boost in sales.
Novelists have paid people to write favourably about their books - bumping them up the bestseller's list.
Companies have also had to seek help to salvage their reputations after being trashed by rivals.
It is difficult to find the source of comments posted on the internet as the location and the IP address of computers can be hidden.
Mark Scott, director of reputationmanagementfor.com, said a variety of clients have sought to protect their name - including one construction company who lost $1million in business after customers read negative reviews and cancelled their orders.
He said: ‘Our clients range from vets and doctors through to financial and sales companies.
'People who have had a good experience don’t usually speak about it - more often, it’s those wanting to get something off their chest.
‘As we’ve seen after the injunctions, the internet has made it possible to post comments anonymously, that are unable to be traced.
'These comments can be very damaging to businesses. Bad reviews can be good if they are a genuine complaint and the company are shown to have dealt with an issue.
'Our company helps businesses get good reviews by encouraging genuine customers to give feedback and show some balance.’
Chris Angus, founder of digital marketing agency Warlock Media, said: ‘While we don't participate in offering paid reviews ourselves, it does happen frequently, especially where companies rely heavily on other people's experiences to sell their products.
'Companies have become more desperate to give themselves an advantage, even if they have to indulge in questionable PR practices.
'Reviews are frequently created by poor people that have no alternative but to work for just pennies an hour in some cases, I've heard of "review sweatshops" starting to crop up.
'Online companies view paid reviews very seriously and are actively taking serious action against people it catches doing so, while simultaneously improving their systems to automatically filter out suspicious reviews.'
Last year, a respected academic was left red-faced after it was discovered he had trashed books published by rivals and lavished high praise on his own.
Orlando Figes, posted reviews on amazon.co.uk describing his own book as 'uplifting' and 'fascinating' and a book by another historian as 'awful'.
Mr Figes, a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London said he had made 'foolish errors'.
Spokesman for TripAdvisor, Emma O'Boyle, said: 'We have a zero tolerance policy on fraudulent reviews and have numerous methods in place to verify the legitimacy of the content on TripAdvisor.
'TripAdvisor receives thousands of positive – and negative – reviews each week.
'We post an average of 23 reviews, opinions and photos every minute and believe that the sheer volume of content allows travellers to get the facts, spot trends among reviews and determine whether a property is right for them.
'We also take serious steps to penalise businesses who are caught attempting to manipulate the system, such as applying Red Badges against such business’s listing warning potential travellers of the activity and demoting their ranking on TripAdvisor.'
A spokesman for Amazon said: 'The company works hard to maintain the integrity of its customer reviews.
'We have very clear guidelines which prohibit the posting of reviews by or on behalf of a person, company or website with a financial interest in the product.'
But now it appears that major sites, including Amazon and TripAdvisor, have had hundreds of fake reviews posted by companies who employ teams of writers to rave about certain products - and slate others.
Some hotels have paid out thousands of pounds for 'reputation management' to maintain fake profiles that appear to be former customers, according to The Times.
The move can lead to a huge boost in sales.
Novelists have paid people to write favourably about their books - bumping them up the bestseller's list.
Companies have also had to seek help to salvage their reputations after being trashed by rivals.
It is difficult to find the source of comments posted on the internet as the location and the IP address of computers can be hidden.
Mark Scott, director of reputationmanagementfor.com, said a variety of clients have sought to protect their name - including one construction company who lost $1million in business after customers read negative reviews and cancelled their orders.
He said: ‘Our clients range from vets and doctors through to financial and sales companies.
'People who have had a good experience don’t usually speak about it - more often, it’s those wanting to get something off their chest.
‘As we’ve seen after the injunctions, the internet has made it possible to post comments anonymously, that are unable to be traced.
'These comments can be very damaging to businesses. Bad reviews can be good if they are a genuine complaint and the company are shown to have dealt with an issue.
'Our company helps businesses get good reviews by encouraging genuine customers to give feedback and show some balance.’
Chris Angus, founder of digital marketing agency Warlock Media, said: ‘While we don't participate in offering paid reviews ourselves, it does happen frequently, especially where companies rely heavily on other people's experiences to sell their products.
'Reviews are frequently created by poor people that have no alternative but to work for just pennies an hour in some cases, I've heard of "review sweatshops" starting to crop up.
'Online companies view paid reviews very seriously and are actively taking serious action against people it catches doing so, while simultaneously improving their systems to automatically filter out suspicious reviews.'
Last year, a respected academic was left red-faced after it was discovered he had trashed books published by rivals and lavished high praise on his own.
Orlando Figes, posted reviews on amazon.co.uk describing his own book as 'uplifting' and 'fascinating' and a book by another historian as 'awful'.
Mr Figes, a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London said he had made 'foolish errors'.
Spokesman for TripAdvisor, Emma O'Boyle, said: 'We have a zero tolerance policy on fraudulent reviews and have numerous methods in place to verify the legitimacy of the content on TripAdvisor.
'TripAdvisor receives thousands of positive – and negative – reviews each week.
'We post an average of 23 reviews, opinions and photos every minute and believe that the sheer volume of content allows travellers to get the facts, spot trends among reviews and determine whether a property is right for them.
'We also take serious steps to penalise businesses who are caught attempting to manipulate the system, such as applying Red Badges against such business’s listing warning potential travellers of the activity and demoting their ranking on TripAdvisor.'
A spokesman for Amazon said: 'The company works hard to maintain the integrity of its customer reviews.
'We have very clear guidelines which prohibit the posting of reviews by or on behalf of a person, company or website with a financial interest in the product.'
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