4 ms·

I am friends with 3 different businesses in my town. A baker, a cafe, and a small restaurant. All three of them have experienced the exact same thing. I've seen

I am friends with 3 different businesses in my town. A baker, a cafe, and a small restaurant. All three of them have experienced the exact same thing. I've seen it happen first-hand on their accounts.

jaktet 3y ago
So just to be clear, you unselected the default “yelp sort” and sorted by either review date or best or worst and they don’t show up?
- emodendroket 3y ago
  Sorry, not sure I understand the question. Part of what I’m saying is the default sort tends to be fairly generous to the business.
CoastalCoder 3y ago
If this is sufficiently widespread, seems like there's an opportunity for a honeypot operation. I.e.: (1) Guess at what information triggers this kind of shakedown by Yelp for a new business. E.g., credit-card sales data for new restaurants. (2) Set up a fake business that pushes all of those buttons. E.g., register a new restaurant business in the state; temporarily rent a space and maybe put up signage; generate realistic credit-card purchase data and/or cell-location data for fake customers. (3) Wait for the Yelp reviews to come in. [Possibly legal offence #1] (4) Wait for the Yelp sales call. [Possibly legal offence #2] (5) Turn down the sales offer. (6) Wait for the negative reviews. [Possibly legal offence #3] (7) Ask prosecutors to pursue criminal charges, and/or file a civil suit. Either way, get to the point of legally compelled discovery. I wonder if this would be a fun first project for a newly minted government prosecutor.
- trillic 3y ago
  Back in the 70s, the Chicago Sun-Times did this with corrupt government agents by purchasing a bar. https://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/mirage-tavern https://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/mirage-tavern
- erehweb 3y ago
  Seems like a lot of work for a speculative theory, given all the stuff government has to do.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It’s exactly the shenanigans investigative journalism used to do.

jaktet 3y ago

So just to be clear, you unselected the default “yelp sort” and sorted by either review date or best or worst and they don’t show up?

emodendroket 3y ago
Sorry, not sure I understand the question. Part of what I’m saying is the default sort tends to be fairly generous to the business.

CoastalCoder 3y ago

If this is sufficiently widespread, seems like there's an opportunity for a honeypot operation. I.e.: (1) Guess at what information triggers this kind of shakedown by Yelp for a new business. E.g., credit-card sales data for new restaurants. (2) Set up a fake business that pushes all of those buttons. E.g., register a new restaurant business in the state; temporarily rent a space and maybe put up signage; generate realistic credit-card purchase data and/or cell-location data for fake customers. (3) Wait for the Yelp reviews to come in. [Possibly legal offence #1] (4) Wait for the Yelp sales call. [Possibly legal offence #2] (5) Turn down the sales offer. (6) Wait for the negative reviews. [Possibly legal offence #3] (7) Ask prosecutors to pursue criminal charges, and/or file a civil suit. Either way, get to the point of legally compelled discovery. I wonder if this would be a fun first project for a newly minted government prosecutor.

trillic 3y ago
Back in the 70s, the Chicago Sun-Times did this with corrupt government agents by purchasing a bar. https://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/mirage-tavern https://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/mirage-tavern
erehweb 3y ago
Seems like a lot of work for a speculative theory, given all the stuff government has to do.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It’s exactly the shenanigans investigative journalism used to do.