BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) denied any involvement in a series of fake reviews for BBM on Google Play, and said that it has nothing to do with such fishy reviews. The Canadian smartphone maker has said that it is not responsible in any way for the suspicious 5-star ratings given to the app.
“We have no knowledge of how these reviews were created or populated. We do not approve of or condone such activities,” a spokesman from the company told in a statement to TNW.
BlackBerry denying
a BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) spokesperson said that the company came to know about strings of fake feedbacks on BBM for Android on Google Play, and ratings vary from one to five stars. The spokesperson said that BlackBerry is completely unaware of how these reviews were created or populated. The spokesperson also said that besides fake ones, there are some genuine reviews from BBM fans and users on Google Play. The company “would like to encourage our fans and users” to continue providing true assessments of the BBM experience through the proper channels.
Is BlackBerry involved?
On Monday, BlackBerry launched BBM on Android and iOS, after which some users posted rave reviews on Tuesday and Wednesday that looked fishy, but the matter gained traction when tech blogger Terence Eden reported after seeing over 182,000 reviews.
After taking a deeper look, Eden came across poorly written English and some of the reviews seemed to be just copy and pasted over and over again.
There are many businesses in the market who post false reviews for app developers, and after the incident there were concerns that BlackBerry might have sought out a shady provider. It may also be possible that the marketing firm hired by the company might be doing this without informing BlackBerry.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) ported BBM on Android and iOS after postponing it by several weeks. Until now there has been hardly any criticism or complaint for BBM from users, but there is no surety that the app will not attract more controversies in the near future.