Fake reviews on WhatUni ?

Has anyone seen any student reviews on sites like WhatUni that look like they are fake ?

I'm conducting some data analysis as part of a larger project, and coming across some very interesting findings.

There is one example of a University where over 90 reviews were added ON THE SAME DATE. This represents about a third of the total reviews, and looks mighty suspicious to me...
To the point that it seems right to report it.

There could be legitimate reasons why this might have happened - and I have yet to check with WhatUni themselves - but it appears to need
further investigation.

Visitors to the site will assume that such reviews have been added by the University.
In attempt to boost their score ?
or to point out specific areas - basically being used as a marketing tool ?
If those visitors are like me, they will be put off the University in question.

A bigger concern is that this kind of tactic - if that's what it is - could undermine the confidence of anyone visiting WhatUni.
We've already seen it happen with Trip Advisor.

Have you seen any examples of any (large scale) fake reviews?

Reply 1

username1553267

3

This prob isnt really large scale but reviews for student accomodation look fake - old reviews are deleted it seems and then a bunch of good reviews are posted on the same date, the names/profiles of reviewers look similar and generic too. Ive seen that on typical student accomodation review sites but also on Google+ reviews. Oh and theres rebranding too like some place called Tufnell House used to be called Opal 4 which i found interesting, as in theyre tryna hide their bad rep.

For the shop SportsDirect too, their Google+ reviews are suspicous in the same way. I recently looked them up because of the Secrets of SportsDirect documentary thingy. But anyway...im rambling :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Original post by Lyuz

Oh and theres rebranding too like some place called Tufnell House used to be called Opal 4 which i found interesting, as in theyre tryna hide their bad rep.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hey Lyuz, Tufnell House was rebranded because we bought the residence from the now defunct Opal Group :smile:

Hopefully it doesn't have a bad reputation?

Reply 3

Tyler K

Hi there,

My name is Tyler, I work at whatuni.com. so I can answer this one for you. The reason you often get many reviews for the same institution with the same upload date is because each review has to go through a two-step verification process. First, the reviewer must have a .ac email address, which ensures they are in fact a student, and second the review must be manually approved by a member of our team. They aren't making a judgement call on the review itself, they are just looking to ensure no defamatory comments are made, and it doesn't contain swear words.

So in the run up to our annual awards night we start getting hundreds/thousands of reviews in every week. Those reviews might then sit on our system for a little before they can be assessed by the team. That is why they often go up in batches and have similar/same dates attached. We are currently looking to improve the way reviews are displayed, which would mean changing the date to when it was written rather than when it was approved. Though you might find there are still batches with the same date because we (or the university) might dedicate a day to collecting reviews from students at one particular university to ensure we have the most up to date information possible.

As for the reviewer’s name, we don't require a full name to be associated with a review. If a user leaves that field blank the system will just assign a letter, like an initial. The reason we don't require a name is because we want our users to feel they can be honest with their feedback without any fear of retribution, and as they’ve already proven to us that they are a student by using their .ac email address we don’t need to publish their name as well.

If you have any other question about reviews or Whatuni in general, feel free to give us a shout at editor[AT]whatuni.com

Reply 4

nulli tertius

21

Original post by Tyler K

Hi there,

My name is Tyler, I work at whatuni.com. so I can answer this one for you. The reason you often get many reviews for the same institution with the same upload date is because each review has to go through a two-step verification process. First, the reviewer must have a .ac email address, which ensures they are in fact a student, and second the review must be manually approved by a member of our team. They aren't making a judgement call on the review itself, they are just looking to ensure no defamatory comments are made, and it doesn't contain swear words.

So in the run up to our annual awards night we start getting hundreds/thousands of reviews in every week. Those reviews might then sit on our system for a little before they can be assessed by the team. That is why they often go up in batches and have similar/same dates attached. We are currently looking to improve the way reviews are displayed, which would mean changing the date to when it was written rather than when it was approved. Though you might find there are still batches with the same date because we (or the university) might dedicate a day to collecting reviews from students at one particular university to ensure we have the most up to date information possible.

As for the reviewer’s name, we don't require a full name to be associated with a review. If a user leaves that field blank the system will just assign a letter, like an initial. The reason we don't require a name is because we want our users to feel they can be honest with their feedback without any fear of retribution, and as they’ve already proven to us that they are a student by using their .ac email address we don’t need to publish their name as well.

If you have any other question about reviews or Whatuni in general, feel free to give us a shout at editor[AT]whatuni.com

With respect, the possession of a .ac email address does not prove the reviewer is a student. Every member of a university's public relations, marketing and facilities management teams will have a .ac email address.

In other words every genuine reviewer and everyone with an interest in faking a favourable review will have the same type of email address.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

BigMelz

OP

10

Thanks Tyler,
That's really useful to know.

This part of your answer worries me:

Though you might find there are still batches with the same date because we (or the university) might dedicate a day to collecting reviews from students at one particular university to ensure we have the most up to date information possible.

so picture the scene, the university marketing people arrange for a selected group of students to do a task, possibly offer some kind of incentive...

No pressure then.

I'll forward the details of what I've seen to whatuni, in case it's something you need to be aware of.

Reply 6

Tyler K

Hi Nulli Tertius,

I take your point. We also spot check reviews from every university, making contact with the students who wrote them and asking them to confirm they are a student on the course they say they are on.

But more often than not our reviews are collected by members of whatuni staff who visit universities to speak with students in person, in which case the reviews are written in front of us, on campus. Short of following students to lectures this is about as sure as we can get that reviews are from actual students.

As part of our T&Cs, anything that is published on the site that is suspected of being false or misleading is subject to removal. If you have any reviews you're specifically concerned about we will definitely look into it.

@BigMelz, this is true, incentivised reviews will always be a concern when reviews are being collected for any product or service. We encourage students to be honest, which is why to protect anonymity we don’t require a full name and why reviews can be submitted online as well as in person. Please forward the details of what you’ve seen to us that you’re concerned about.

Thanks,
Tyler

Fake reviews on WhatUni ?

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