Consumer Alerts: We’ve Got Your Back

At Yelp, consumer trust has always been at the forefront. From implementing restaurant health scores to incorporating health care statistics into Yelp business pages for medical treatment facilities, Yelp aims to empower and protect consumers, and allow them to make informed spending decisions.

We also believe that consumers deserve to know when someone is trying to mislead them, which is why, today, we are releasing a round of 162 Consumer Alerts. An integration of our Consumer Protection Initiative, our Consumer Alerts program adds another layer of protection against extreme attempts to mislead consumers – from cash offerings in exchange for positive reviews to attempts to pay to remove negative reviews. We place a Consumer Alert on impacted Yelp business pages for 90 days.

You’d probably want to know that someone was offering cash for 5-star reviews of Krasney Law. Or that Village Green Dental Center had a large number of positive reviews coming from the same IP address, suggesting an attempt to deceptively inflate this business’s rating. Also, you’d probably want a heads up on The Camp Transformation Center, which requires a client to write a Yelp review before returning a deposit of nearly $500.

Though our recommendation software and team of skilled investigators work together to limit efforts to skew results for consumers on Yelp, we also welcome tips from our dedicated users. If you see suspicious activity or tactics related to Yelp, please drop us a line.