What's wrong with this data?
Kaiser Fung (Numbersense) invites readers to help decide whether the data are fake, using a Yelp account as an example.
I've talked about "fake data" before. A lot of fake data come from people trying to game algorithms or skew metrics, and oftentimes, automated bots are involved. Attempts to obscure these tactics typically involve creating layers of complexity so it is not easy to connect the dots.
I come across suspicious data all the time, and it's not always clear what's going on or why. So I thought I'd feature some of them here and see if anyone can figure it out.
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This account on Yelp caught my attention because this user apparently uploaded a photo of her desktop to one of the restaurant pages. She has uploaded a total of four photos, all of them are unrelated to food. The four photos were uploaded to two New York City restaurants while she indicated that she lives in San Francisco. She did not review either of those NYC restaurants but she has written one review for a cafe in Long Island City. The review seems genuine (although it's hard to tell unless you've been to that cafe).
She has five friends. While she lives in San Francisco, these friends live in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Scottsdale and Oceanside. She has no friends in the Bay Area. None of these friends have ever written a single review and have no likes. However, each of these friends have 100-400 friends. It's not clear why one would be friends with someone on Yelp who has no reviews or likes.
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Is this account fake? If so, why was it created? How did those photos get uploaded? How did they get placed in those particular restaurants? Who are these friends? Are they fake as well? If the account is fake, was that review also fake? Is it possible to predict that the review is fake?
So many questions, and so hard to get answers. What do you think is going on?
