Apple's App Store and the Google Play store are both flooded with fake reviews

Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store are being flooded with fake reviews that are distorting the popularity of apps, a new investigation has revealed. Up to a quarter of reviews in the health and fitness section of Google's Play Store were suspicious, while for Apple's equivalent 17 per cent appear fake. Such is the scale of the problem that Which? also found that fake reviews are being openly sold by brokers, who pay Google to appear at the top of its search results. These services offer bulk downloads, reviews or upvotes to help push apps up the rankings, making them seem more reputable if they have been downloaded a huge number of times. Apple warned that it will remove apps that haven't been'updated in a significant amount of time', giving developers just 30 days to update them Such is the scale of the problem that Which?