Can you trust healthcare provider reviews? How to spot fakes
Houston - When you’re choosing a doctor or a dentist, would their online reviews pass a checkup?
An analysis by The Transparency Company, which probes online reviews, found up to 20% of physician reviews are suspicious, meaning they may not be from real patients.
It caught our attention when former federal investigator Kay Dean of Fake Review Watch posted a video on its YouTube channel about Glo Dental Group, which has received hundreds of glowing reviews on Google and Facebook. Dean says they’re not all what they seem.
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"When you see reviewers reviewing Glo Dental locations reviewing far-flung businesses in common, that’s always a red flag and indicative of a fake review ring," Dean explained in an interview with FOX 26.
Dean charted the activity of 49 of the reviewers, a sampling of a larger set that she says were posting fake reviews.
"Twenty recent reviewers of the Glo Dental locations in the Houston area reviewed the same restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Twelve recent reviewers of Glo Dental locations in Houston reviewed the same moving company in Florida," Dean told us.
She says multiple reviews were the same, word for word.
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"Carrie Gunnels posted the above review about her sensitive sister’s experience at Spring Branch Dental Group. But I guess Roland Munez has a sensitive sister as well, because he posted the same review on Google," Dean said in her video on the Fake Review Watch.
Dean says one review includes directions on how to post reviews.
"Use any one of the following keywords: Dr. Pham, implants, cosmetic," she read from the review.
And she pointed out the Facebook profiles of three reviewers saying that they sell reviews.
So we wrote to one of them, asking how much she charges for fake reviews. We didn't hear back.
Our next call was to Glo Dental Group.
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The owner set up an interview for us with its marketing manager, Maria Arenas.
We asked if Glo Dental has been paying for positive reviews.
"No we have not. We had not been aware of that. As soon as we got made aware of that, we immediately reported it, and we have no control over who decides to post reviews, whether it’s positive or negative," said Arenas.
Arenas tells us they do invite patients to review their business, including taping video testimonials for their social media pages.
"We’ve been encouraging our patients to give reviews based on their experience with us, and they’ve been pretty positive," she said.
Google just removed 525 of nearly 1000 Glo Dental reviews across its four locations, telling us they "are removing policy-violating content." After Dean posted her video, Glo Dental says they reported the reviews to Google. But Dean says Google usually removes reviews after she posts her videos on the Fake Review Watch YouTube channel. But both Arenas and Dean say Google should do more to stop fake reviews.
We asked Google what it's doing to stop them.
A spokesperson writes that Google has removed 170 million policy-violating reviews, have taken malicious actors to court, and is collaborating with the FTC to find lasting solutions for the whole industry.
The Google statement reads: "Our policies clearly state that reviews must be based on real experiences, and we use multiple methods to catch fake content – including automated systems, trained operators, and reports from the community."
But we also asked Google why some of the allegedly questionable Glo Dental reviews stayed online for more than a year. Google didn’t answer that question.
Then we asked Facebook about Dean’s report on Glo Dental reviews and the Facebook users selling fake reviews. We asked them these questions twice. We haven't heard back.
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a rule that it could fine businesses up to $50,000 for buying or selling fake reviews. But the rule would not apply to platforms, like Google or Facebook, due to a federal law protecting them from content that people post.
We asked the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners how it would respond if a dental practice used fake reviews. It writes that "purchasing fake reviews may be a violation" of its rules, but that no complaints have been filed about Glo Dental Group's reviews.
Since Glo Dental says they didn't generate the suspicious reviews, we're left wondering how they got there.
We asked Arenas if she had any idea why that might have happened.
"I can’t say for certain, I’m just, again, very confident in our service and our patients' results and happiness. So that's all I can say on that," she answered.
How can you spot fake reviews when looking up healthcare providers or businesses?
Experts say look for a cluster of reviews posted on the same day, identical wording, and click on the reviewer's profile history. If it's hidden or locked, or they have reviewed businesses in multiple cities, those are some of the red flags.
Some platforms, such as Yelp, post a 90-day alert that they have removed reviews. However, Dean says she’d like platforms to post permanent alerts, so that consumers know that suspicious reviews were previously there.