The Mark & Grether Group Exposed 2023: Deceit and Dishonesty
If you’re looking to buy or sell properties in Malibu, California, you might have heard of the Mark & Grether Group.
It’s a duo of realtors that uses shady marketing tactics to deceive customers. Hence, before you give them a call or book an appointment, it would be best to understand what shady tactics they are using and how they are lying to consumers:
About the Mark & Grether Group:
The Mark & Grether Group is a real estate agency in Malibu, California. Their office is located at 24903 CA-1, Malibu, CAQ 90265, US and their contact number is 310-230-5771.
Tony Mark and Russell Grether are the people behind this firm. They claim to have over 30 years of combined professional experience in the real estate market. Together, they claim to sell luxury properties in Malibu and promote themselves through their Instagram page @themarkandgrethergroup.
Both of them claim to be among the most successful realtors in the region. Furthermore, both of them claim to be honest, fair, kind and possess integrity.
To some extent, their claims sound trustworthy. But as soon as you read their reviews, things take a turn for the worse.
It turns out that Tony Mark and Russell Grether aren’t as honest as they claim to be. They are using dubious and misleading marketing tactics to deceive consumers. Their tactics aren’t limited to mere lying about something.
It’s more than that.
The Mark & Grether Group uses fake reviews to make it seem as if it’s a reliable firm. More on this below:
Thus, before contacting or scheduling an appointment with the realtors, it’s important to be aware that they may use deceptive marketing tactics to mislead customers. It’s wise to educate yourself on their tactics and how they may be dishonest with consumers.
Using Fake Reviews to Dupe Consumers:
When you look up “The Mark & Grether Group”, you see their website, their business listing, and of course, their Google reviews.
You’d see that they enjoy a phenomenal 5 out of 5 stars rating there. Having a perfect rating with 27 reviews seems difficult but not impossible to do.
However, if you’d take a closer look at their reviews, you’d notice something quite peculiar.
Most of these reviews are from temporary accounts. They give this business a 5-star rating without saying anything in particular. Furthermore, many of these accounts have only given ratings to this business only.
In other words, these reviewers have only posted one review on Google and that’s a 5-star rating which doesn’t even have a single word of praise for the company.
Having 2-3 such reviews can be a coincidence. But if almost all the reviews follow this format, something seems fishy.
There’s a good chance that the Mark & Grether Group paid a sketchy service provider to post these ratings on their business listing. Having so many 5-star reviews would make it seem more reliable than they are.
There are a ton of vendors who claim to sell these kinds of services. You can find them with just one Google search.
Keep in mind that for most consumers the overall star rating of a local business is the most important criterion.
Posting Fake Reviews on Yelp:
What’s worse is that the Mark & Grether Group didn’t stop at Google. They have done a similar thing on Yelp.
Unlike Google, Yelp has been a review platform since the start. It uses various AI algorithms to identify whether a review is reliable or not. They have been facing the problem of fake reviews for ages and started using these algorithms to get rid of any suspicious ones.
Yelp marks any review which seems fake under “Not Recommended”
The Yelp listing of this realtor currently has 6 reviews under that category. Notice that all of them give this business a 5 out of 5-star rating:
This goes to show that the Mark & Grether Group has added fake reviews to its Yelp listing in the past. Luckily, not all of them went through as Yelp detected them.
This is a serious issue, however. Such fake reviews help shady businesses attract consumers through manipulation. People trust these reviews thinking they are genuine and end up making the wrong decision.
Moreover, it’s a pretty common tactic among scammers to post fake reviews. Sam Ovens, a notorious online guru has been using this tactic for years to promote his courses.
It seems Tony Mark and Russell Grether are doing the same.
Verdict
There’s no doubt that the realtors behind the Mark & Grether Group are experienced. However, if they have to rely on lies and deceit to gain new customers, it certainly puts a question mark on their integrity and honesty.
Why do they need to use such a heinous marketing tactic? It’s shady and unethical.
Certainly, you can’t trust them. There are plenty of realtors in Malibu who are far more honest and ethical. So, you don’t have to pick these guys.
I’m happy Yelp began using AI to find fake reviews. This kind of stuff helps build transparency and makes things easier for everyone of us. Now you know if a company is legit or not.