SOURCE: FTC is Cracking Down on the Fake Review Scourge | Cord Cutters News
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is stepping up efforts in their ongoing crackdown against fake reviews, including a new rule proposed this past June prohibiting the sale or receipt of fake consumer reviews, review hijacking and employee reviews of company products to suppress negative reviews and falsify social media influence.
- The FTC has also permanently banned deceptive reviews from the New York-based Roomster Corp. and their owners John Shriber and Roman Zaks, who saturated the Internet with fake 4/5-star reviews purchased from Jonathan Martinez, who did business as AppWinn.
- Consumers were enticed from these fake reviews into paying for access to falsified living arrangements that Roomster failed to verify.
- The company was also ordered to pay $36.2 million in a monetary judgment, as well as $10.9 million to the states of California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York.