\n<\/p>\n
These unfair trade practices contravene the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. Under the act, it is an unfair practice for businesses to post false reviews to deceive or mislead a consumer.<\/p>\n
If a court finds that a supplier has engaged in an unfair practice, it can order restitution or award the consumer damages, among other consequences.<\/p>\n
A Carousell spokesperson said that the company takes a serious view of the sale of prohibited content, including listings on buying and selling Google reviews.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware of such listings and are in the process of using relevant keywords to identify and remove them,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that moderation takes place after the listing is posted, so it may take time before its artificial intelligence system detects it.<\/p>\n
Users can also report problematic listings, and reports are typically reviewed within 24 hours of submission, said Carousell.<\/p>\n
Google did not respond to CNA’s questions about fake reviews, but its user-generated content policy page said it has automated systems and trained operators monitoring Google Maps for suspicious behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cContributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business, and a review or rating should reflect an actual experience with a business, and be genuine and unbiased,\u201d the website said, adding that content is sometimes removed when policy violations are identified.<\/p>\n
But several fake reviews that this reporter posted remained on Google\u2019s platform for some time before she took them down.<\/p>\n
Listings on Carousell also appear to avoid detection for months. As of Sep 25, there are multiple listings seeking people to post reviews, requesting a review exchange, or advertising their services to businesses willing to pay for fake reviews.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccount must be at least one year old, and at least local guide level five and above,\u201d said one listing seeking to enlist reviewers by paying S$5 for each fake post. \u201cPayment will be made 24 hours after review.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s local guide level increases based on the user\u2019s activity, such as posting reviews, photos and captions. Posts by a user with a higher local guide level are usually seen as authentic.<\/p>\n
Another Carousell user seeking to entice businesses to buy fake reviews claimed he has 10 Google accounts and can post \u201cvery good reviews for very cheap\u201d, adding that those who buy more than five reviews can get a discounted rate.<\/p>\n
After CNA made a Carousell offer to someone claiming to be a supplier of fake reviews, the conversation was moved to Telegram, where \u2013 within minutes \u2013 this reporter was told exactly what to post for the first assignment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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These unfair trade practices contravene the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. Under the act, it is an unfair practice for businesses to post false reviews…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--R_93aSxk--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/28\/online_five_star_review_fake.jpg?itok=FbQWXl4M","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2538,500,18958,4601,1970,4426,30777,5722],"class_list":["post-88706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-fake","tag-online","tag-persistent","tag-positive","tag-post","tag-reviews","tag-scourge","tag-sold","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}