Later, thecalifornia2021 asked P G to review another business, this time SureSir, a contractor in Beverly Hills. A fourth person who was seemingly the husband of one of the reviewers also left their own 5 star review. This is likely using a GPS spoofer Motherboard previously used such a tool to artificially place our phone’s location in North Korea and trick an app into thinking we were there.ĭean found that thecalifornia2021 followed three other apparent Yelp Elite members on Instagram, and found that all of them also provided detailed 5 star reviews for Regenics, suggesting they may also have been solicited to do so. In another message though, P G said they had a way to manipulate their GPS location to use Yelp’s check-in feature. They also used Yelp’s check in feature, which signifies the reviewer has actually visited the business. (Regenics acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide a statement). P G agreed and posted the same review text on Yelp, according to another screenshot. Thecalifornia2021 then pasted a long body of text that they apparently wanted to be used as a review for Regenics, the weight loss center. Two replies read “Check Pm,” and “Hi I have many elite yelpers available.”Īnother post from 2019 reads “Looking for Elite Reviews in CA-Payment (PayPal) after Review Live-PM Ur Profile & Price.” “Need some YELP Elite Account review, Must be Female Account, Please PM me, thank you,” one person posted. In Facebook Groups with names such as “Yelp Reviews Exchange-East Coast USA” and “Yelp Review Exchange” people post that they are looking for Elite members to provide reviews. Dean shared with Motherboard a cache of screenshots and other files she has collected while investigating Yelp Elite reviewers. Being an Elite member “isn’t just about recognizing folks who share a ton of pictures or write long reviews, it’s also a mark of trust,” the website continues.īut some Elite members are undermining and using that trust for their own wallet by selling Elite-stamped reviews to those willing to pay. Real reviews,” Yelp writes on the Elite section of its website.

The benefit to Elite members themselves is that they may be invited to special events and meet-ups. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on or email become an Elite member, users have to apply directly to Yelp and provide their real name, a photo, and explain why they would like to be a member. The playing field is pretty much just unfair” between companies that pay for Yelp Elite reviews and those that don’t, Dean told Motherboard in a phone call.ĭo you know anything else about fake reviews? Do you have documents about their prevalence? We'd love to hear from you. She has found a thriving ecosystem of people seeking to buy fake reviews from trusted Yelp writers, and Yelp Elite members happy to meet that demand. P G also explained his dip into writing fake reviews in a phone call with Motherboard.įor years, Dean has been following online scams that harm consumers. We know that this review is fake because P G admitted it to Dean and provided screenshots of the conversation between him and the person who bought the review. Instead, P G betrayed his Yelp Elite reputation and accepted money from a third-party to post that review, according to screenshots and analysis by Kay Dean, a former federal investigator who now runs a YouTube channel tracking social media scams called Fake Review Watch. They hadn’t realized their “growth hormone and testosterone levels were both low,” nor did they do cryotherapy at Regenics on days where they pushed themselves too hard physically, as the review said. But P G hadn’t really been to that business.

Yelp reviewers