Online reviews by pseudo writers con Net users

Hyderabad: With online marketing and e-commerce becoming a norm, a new occupation, that of “pseudo feedback writers”, has emerged and such writers being frequently employed by companies.

In fact, in many cases of cyber bullying cracked by the cyber crime police, such methods being employed to hamper reputation of competitors have come to light.

As per cyber crime officials, in the recent past, high-end IT companies, hospitals and even educational institutions have been involved in such cases. As many consumers and potential buyers turn to the Internet for online reviews, make comparisons and zero in on a potential service provider, be it a hospital, school, college or e-commerce site, the competition for maintaining a good image online has become tougher.

Specialised professionals employed by many IT companies solely concentrate on writing negative feedback of products and services. The pseudo writers also write favourable reviews for their employers. “We have been getting complaints from rival IT companies, hospitals and even colleges about such postings. Companies have been found to be employing people to create a negative image of the rival by logging in through multiple email ids created just for the purpose and post negative comments. Similarly, they flood the Net with positive comments about their employer company,” said G. Pala Raju, the DCP of Central Crime Station.

IT company insiders too say that the trend has picked up since the online marketing and service options have become popular.

Online reviews, rather than being posted by real users, are increasingly being tailor-made to suit the profile of companies. One must think twice before believing online reviews, say insiders. Be it competition between schools, colleges or companies, the reviews are being written by a set of professionals and might be misleading.

“We have specialised people for this kind of competition management. Their job is to sit on the Net and post reviews and feedbacks. It is very common to find products of specific brands with most positive feedbacks and others have negative feedbacks, that too similar negative things being pointed out,” said the insider.