Towards Reliable App Marketplaces: Machine Learning-Based Detection of Fraudulent Reviews

Online reviews significantly influence consumer decisions, making the increasing prevalence of fake reviews in app marketplaces concerning. These deceptive reviews distort the competitive landscape, providing unfair advantages or disadvantages to certain apps. Despite ongoing efforts to detect fake reviews, the sophistication of fake review generation continues to evolve, necessitating continuous improvements in detection models. Current models often focus on precision, potentially overlooking many fake reviews. This research addresses these challenges by developing a machine learning model since experiments on app reviews were published on a popular App Marketplace. The developed model detects fake reviews based on the textual content and the reviewer’s behavior, offering a relevant approach to enhancing the integrity of app marketplaces.