Online shopping is tricky and hard—that’s where user reviews come in handy. In fact, majority of users will NOT buy an item, hire a business, or eat out at a restaurant without looking at the reviews first. Reading comments and looking at how many stars a place receives is key. In 2012, 57% of restaurant-goers said they rely on online reviews before choosing where to dine. In addition, 90% of Yelp users said a positive review influences their choices.

But here’s the bad news:

Not all reviews are reliable. Most of them are just sneaky SEO/Social Media tactics companies do to make themselves rise up against the ranks of other business owners/ products. TripAdvisor just recently came under fire for allegedly failing to prevent fake reviews. For example, some hotels pay reviewers to post positive reviews without ever stepping foot in the establishment. They do it to boost business, but that comes at the cost of a surprised and angry customer who feels tricked by the power of the Internet.

Buckle up; here are a few ways you can spot a fake review online.

1. The reviewer hasn’t reviewed anything else.
This applies to Amazon, Yelp, Foursquare…so on and so forth.

2. The reviewer posts multiple reviews with similar language, and similar sentences

3. The reviewer’s language is oddly specific.
Fake reviewers will go all out, stating the full name as often as possible, because it juices up SEO points for the product.

4. Too! Much! Enthusiasm!

5. A hotel review focuses too much on family and activities.

6. Filter out the phonies.

• Verified reviews: Some sites have a means of verifying reviewers. For example, Amazon marks whether or not a commenter actually purchased a reviewed item from the online store.
• Social media accounts: Some sites require commenters to post comments by using their Facebook account. Thus, it puts a face to the comment. You can always click on that person’s account and check out the profile to see how “real” he or she is.
• If you’re hunting for hotels, try Review Skeptic, a beta site based on research from Cornell University. Copy and paste reviews onto the site’s homepage and it’ll let you know if they’re real or fake, based on language analysis.