Last year, Google updated its systems to identify and take down more fake reviews “than ever before”. As a part of that update, it developed and deployed a machine learning algorithm that helped it catch fake reviews faster. The company has now announced it has blocked or removed over 170 million such policy-violating reviews in 2023.
“Last year, we launched a new machine learning (ML) algorithm that detects questionable review patterns even faster,” the company said, adding that in 2023, this new algorithm helped the company take down 45% more fake reviews than the year before.Not only that, the new algorithm helped the company stop scammers in their tracks.
How Google removes fake review and catch scammers
Google explains that the machine learning algorithm examines longer-term signals on a daily basis. These signals include reviewer behaviour. If a reviewer leaves the same review on multiple businesses or if a business receives a sudden spike in 1 or 5-star reviews, the algorithm tracks that. This works to catch both one-off cases and broader attack patterns.
When it comes to scammers, Google’s algorithm checks for a surge in reviews. This comes handy in situations where a network of scammers falsely claim that for a low fee they would connect people to high-paying online tasks, like writing fake reviews or clicking ads across the internet.
“Our new algorithm quickly identified this surge in suspicious reviews thanks to its ability to continuously analyse patterns, like whether an account had previously posted reviews on other targeted features,” Google said.
From there, a team of investigators analysed reports from merchants who recently saw a spike in fake 5-star reviews, and “worked with people who were contacted by scammers on other platforms.”
“In just a few weeks, we caught over five million fake review attempts related to this scam. To prevent this scam from impacting others, we quickly disabled the malicious accounts associated with the scam and placed protections on hundreds of businesses,” Google notes.
Key actions Google took in 2023
Here are some of the key actions Google took related to local business reviews on Google Maps and Search in 2023.
Google blocked or removed over 170 million policy-violating reviews from this year, which is over 45% more than in 2022. More than 12 million fake business profiles were removed or blocked too.
The company says it improved video moderation algorithms, like detecting fake overlaid phone numbers, helped us catch 14 million policy-violating videos in 2023 — 7 million more than the previous year.
Thirdly, business owners were protected from over 2 million attempts by bad actors trying to claim Business Profiles that did not belong to them — over 1 million more than in 2022.
Additionally, temporary protections were placed on more than 123,000 businesses after suspicious activity and abuse attempts were detected by the company’s systems.
“Last year, we launched a new machine learning (ML) algorithm that detects questionable review patterns even faster,” the company said, adding that in 2023, this new algorithm helped the company take down 45% more fake reviews than the year before.Not only that, the new algorithm helped the company stop scammers in their tracks.
How Google removes fake review and catch scammers
Google explains that the machine learning algorithm examines longer-term signals on a daily basis. These signals include reviewer behaviour. If a reviewer leaves the same review on multiple businesses or if a business receives a sudden spike in 1 or 5-star reviews, the algorithm tracks that. This works to catch both one-off cases and broader attack patterns.
When it comes to scammers, Google’s algorithm checks for a surge in reviews. This comes handy in situations where a network of scammers falsely claim that for a low fee they would connect people to high-paying online tasks, like writing fake reviews or clicking ads across the internet.
“Our new algorithm quickly identified this surge in suspicious reviews thanks to its ability to continuously analyse patterns, like whether an account had previously posted reviews on other targeted features,” Google said.
From there, a team of investigators analysed reports from merchants who recently saw a spike in fake 5-star reviews, and “worked with people who were contacted by scammers on other platforms.”
“In just a few weeks, we caught over five million fake review attempts related to this scam. To prevent this scam from impacting others, we quickly disabled the malicious accounts associated with the scam and placed protections on hundreds of businesses,” Google notes.
Key actions Google took in 2023
Here are some of the key actions Google took related to local business reviews on Google Maps and Search in 2023.
Google blocked or removed over 170 million policy-violating reviews from this year, which is over 45% more than in 2022. More than 12 million fake business profiles were removed or blocked too.
The company says it improved video moderation algorithms, like detecting fake overlaid phone numbers, helped us catch 14 million policy-violating videos in 2023 — 7 million more than the previous year.
Thirdly, business owners were protected from over 2 million attempts by bad actors trying to claim Business Profiles that did not belong to them — over 1 million more than in 2022.
Additionally, temporary protections were placed on more than 123,000 businesses after suspicious activity and abuse attempts were detected by the company’s systems.
