We&#x27;ve witnessed this manipulation first hand. My son used to go to the local day care that had stellar reviews on Yelp - 4 or 5 stars with a single 3 star review. I knew the vast majority of reviewers because they were parents whom I&#x27;ve met through kids birthday parties and the like. Then one day Yelp called the owner of the daycare asking her if she&#x27;d like to purchase some advertising. She already had plenty of business so she politely declined. A week later 20-something reviews went into &quot;Not Recommended&quot; category, effectively becoming hidden. The only review that remained on the site for the business was the single 3-star review. This is effectively extortion. In other words yelp won&#x27;t fabricate reviews, it&#x27;ll just selectively filter reviews if you don&#x27;t pay them to pain a worse picture of your business.