[News Today] Fake reviews target rival clinic

[LEAD]

Online reviews can weigh heavily when people are deciding whether to get certain health procedures done.

But police have caught an outsourced marketing worker for a dental clinic in Gangnam, Seoul, for allegedly posting fake reviews targeting a rival clinic. Investigators believe dozens of malicious reviews were written using not only the worker's own account, but also accounts belonging to acquaintances.

[REPORT]

A dental clinic specializing in laminate veneer procedures.

Starting in April last year, reviews defaming this clinic were posted online.

The reviews recommended a different dental clinic, claiming that their teeth stuck out or their face started looking strange after the procedure.

Head dentist / ○○ Dental Clinic

Even after paying deposits, customers saw the reviews and cancelled reservations. Our sales dropped about 20%.

The clinic found out that the malicious reviews had been repeatedly posted by specific accounts. It filed a complaint with police against those responsible for some 50 defamatory posts.

In January this year, the person who posted these reviews was caught after a four-month investigation and identified as a marketing employee for a rival clinic.

It was the clinic that was repeatedly recommended in the reviews.

Police believe that the individual wrote the reviews using accounts of three acquaintances.

The rival clinic said that there was no direct instruction or organizational involvement, adding that it was unilateral action by the outsourced marketing employee.

The individual responsible for the malicious reviews declined to respond to reporters' questions, saying that the case is now on trial.