SITUATION
FTI Cybersecurity was engaged by a global video/telecommunication solutions provider, through external counsel, to investigate a corporate rival’s fraudulent manipulation of their online reviews. Over the course of nearly two years, the corporate rival developed and implemented a scheme to flood the online review market with fraudulent, fake reviews to enhance their online viewer ratings and diminish the client’s. Utilizing a series of fake user accounts, the rival posted hundreds of fake reviews on various sites resulting in loss of actual and potential business.
OUR ROLE
Our team analyzed documents, obtained through discovery, and conducted significant open source intelligence gathering while developing a repeatable methodology to identify fake reviews with varying confidence levels as proof of the fraudulent scheme. We provided our findings in an expert report and deposition.
OUR IMPACT
We uncovered email communications, invoices, PayPal payments, expense reports, and subpoenaed technical data, including IPs, domain names, email addresses, and usernames, from review websites that tied the defendant to the fake review scheme. Relying on our findings, damages experts calculated damages north of $40 million, which persuaded the opposing side to settle.