Yelp Consumer Alerts: Know Before You Spend

Yelp has been dedicated to preserving consumer trust since day one. That’s why we don’t mess around when it comes to shady business activity. We are releasing a new round of 59 Consumer Alerts, which will remain up for 90 days. Our team of sleuths tracked down these extreme attempts to manipulate ratings and reviews because consumers deserve to know what’s happening behind the scenes.

Think about these examples:

• Before choosing to go under the knife with Simon Ourian, MD, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, CA, you’d probably want to know that his practice was caught trying to boost its reputation by offering free lip augmentations.
• You might also think twice before rushing your ill child to the First Choice Emergency Room in Humble, TX if you knew that they were offering Starbucks gift cards in exchange for positive reviews.
• Likewise, before choosing to rent your next home through Cabrio Properties in Ann Arbor, MI, you’d probably want the tip that they were caught offering rent credits in exchange for 5-star reviews.

Beyond giving consumers a false perception of the place where they are about to spend their money and violating Yelp’s Terms of Service, posting a testimonial without revealing you’ve been compensated is also false advertising.

Consumer Alerts is just one aspect of the work our team does every day to ensure the content on Yelp truly reflects the experiences of our community of users. We’ve also taken a stance against reputation management companies that scam businesses by offering to remove bad reviews or boost ratings for a fee. Business owners, be alert and let us know if you’ve got a hunch you’re being targeted by one of these companies.
Community tips are vital to Yelp’s success in tracking down businesses that aren’t playing by the rules. If you see any suspicious behavior on Yelp, please report it to help us continue the fight to protect consumers and honest businesses.