Shady Craigslist Ad Offers Cash for Fake Yelp Reviews

How much is the soul of a Yelper worth? According to one Craigslist posting, $25. Someone is hiring New York Yelpers with 50 reviews or more to write five star reviews of restaurants. Don't worry, though: these are restaurants with "mostly positive 4's and 5's but a couple unfiltered 1's dragging them down, either from competitors or disgruntled ex-staff." Sure, if you say so.

Anyway, there's an extra $25 in it for you if you "cut and paste that same review onto a couple other social media websites." So what are you waiting for? Fame and a tiny fortune await.

In the past, emails revealed restaurants can pay around $495 for services like this, although it's unclear exactly how many reviews that buys. The restaurants offered that deal were merely promised an upgrade in their star rating. Yelp is supposedly cracking down on businesses like this, which may explain why the review requires over 50 reviews.

The thing is, though, people who have written 50 reviews of places probably take Yelp pretty seriously. For those Yelp Elite who no longer get a thrill out of degenerate feeding frenzies and extorting business owners for free food, perhaps the time has come to turn pro.

Yelp review $25 / $50
We are looking for established Yelp accounts with over 50 reviews (please link Yelp account) to write well-written reviews for a restaurant. Many of these restaurants have a bi-polar review history (mostly positive 4's and 5's but a couple unfiltered 1's dragging them down, either from competitors or disgruntled ex-staff) and need a few 5's to rebuild their rating back. If this is something you'd be interested in, let us know.

The price is a Paypal transfer of $25 for the review, and another $25 to cut and paste that same review onto a couple other social media websites.

Expect Craigslist to pull the ad soon.

· Yelp review $25 / $50 [Craigslist via Regina Schrambling]
· All Craigslist Coverage on Eater [-E-]
· All Yelp Coverage on Eater [-E-]