Fake reviews and a lesson well learnt

In this weekend's national newspapers broke a story of how The Southbank Centre, one of London's leading cultural centres, attempted to fool theatre goers into believing two false reviews which quickly followed poor reviews to the new Wizard of Oz production. A beady-eyed moderator had noticed that three comments in quick succession had come from the same IP address! When exposed, the Southbank Centre owned-up to the attempt to manipulate public opinion, and are being investigated further.

It's been well documented, and learnt by many, that participation in web2.0 requires openness and honesty, and this case illustrates the point well. The general public are now well versed in spotting a fake, be it by their tone of voice, or in this case, by identifying repeated IP addresses.

What the Southbank Centre should have done was to 'listen' to the general public with open ears,

Categories: WOM.