As consumers shifted their buying habits online, the platforms through which we made purchases changed. We were no longer faced with a curated collection of products from a single retailer; we were presented with thousands upon thousands of options for a single product. Against this backdrop, product reviews blossomed and to stand out from the crowd, a five-star rating became crucial.

What's a business to do to secure that high rating? Increasingly, they turned to fake or false reviews, paying people to say nice things about a product they've never used and bestow five stars on items they've possibly never even held.

So how did we get to this point, what does it mean for consumers and, importantly, what can be done about the issue? 

Assistant professor Shreyas Sekar joined the Executive Summary to break down the real risks and possible solutions of the billion-dollar fake review industry.

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast now. Prefer to read than listen? Check out the transcript of this episode here. 

Listening for the first time? Catch up on season one here.