Around 100 businesses in Singapore bought fake online reviews from a provider that used methods including generative AI and paid reviewers recruited through Telegram, according to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS).
In the first phase of what CCS described as its largest fake-review investigation to date, 45 businesses admitted on Wednesday, 30 September, that they had bought fabricated reviews.
They have agreed to stop the practice, remove the fake reviews and publicly apologise for six months.
The businesses come from a wide range of sectors, including medical services, beauty, restaurants, professional services, logistics and education.
Fake Reviews Were Sold Through 2 Websites
CCS found that the fake-review services were offered through BuyReviewSG and GetReviewSG.
Both were operated by Julian Tung Yan Kai, the sole director of digital marketing company Reputifly. The service began in or before 2023 and eventually supplied fake reviews to around 100 businesses.
Businesses could buy packages of reviews that would be posted over a period of time.
One package, for example, offered 35 five-star reviews over seven days for S$219. There was even a calculator that businesses could use to work out how many five-star reviews they needed to reach their desired Google rating.
The reviews appeared on platforms including Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Carousell, Yelp and Trustpilot.
Generative AI Helped Make Reviews Look Real
The operation did not simply churn out identical five-star comments.
Generative AI was used to produce reviews with different writing styles and sentence structures, Singapore-specific details and deliberate imperfections intended to make them appear more natural.
The system could also use information from a business’s existing positive Google reviews when producing new ones, while clients were able to edit the generated content before it was posted.
People were recruited through Telegram to publish the prepared reviews and ratings using their own accounts in return for payment. They were instructed not to duplicate reviews, reducing the chances of detection.
The provider even offered replacements for some reviews that were removed by online platforms.
45 Businesses Have to Display Public Apologies
Because of the scale of the case, CCS divided its investigation into two phases.
The first involved 47 businesses. Of these, 45 admitted buying fake reviews and gave undertakings to the watchdog.
Besides stopping the practice and removing fabricated reviews, the businesses must strengthen their compliance measures and report their progress to CCS.
Their apologies must remain prominently displayed for six months on their websites, official social media accounts and at their physical premises or outlets.
The two other businesses in the first phase did not agree to CCS’s required undertakings. They were not identified, and investigations into them are continuing. CCS said firmer enforcement action could follow if warranted by its findings.
The second phase will cover the remaining businesses and potentially others that may also have obtained fake reviews from the provider.
Reputifly has separately admitted to helping facilitate the unfair practices. It agreed to stop offering fake-review services, display an apology on its website for six months and donate proceeds from the fake-review business to a registered charity.
Under Singapore’s Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, using false reviews to deceive or mislead consumers is an unfair practice.
CCS has also called on other fake-review providers and businesses that have bought such services to come forward voluntarily, saying cooperation before formal investigations begin will be viewed favourably.
