Woowa Brothers, operator of the country’s leading food delivery app Baedal Minjok, said Monday it will file police complaints against businesses that posted fake food reviews on its app, after being paid.

According to the company, the firms received about 5,000 won ($4) to 10,000 won for posting positive reviews registered on Baedal Minjok. For instance, they would be paid about 23,000 won to order one fried chicken that cost 18,000 won on the app, write a positive review, and gain 5,000 won.

Many such fraudulent acts have occurred across franchises, Woowa Brothers said.

To catch the misdeeds, the company said it created a monitoring team in September and has kept watch on all reviews. Last year, the company said it caught 20,000 cases and took punitive measures against the businesses. 

To raise the detection rate of fake reviews, it has introduced artificial intelligence technology for monitoring in October. The AI tech first screens all reviews to sort out obscene or wrong contents for the monitoring team to run a second screening.

Woowa Brothers said it will terminate the contract with registered restaurants that continue to post fake reviews.

“For Baemin to become a good platform, restaurants should be chosen by customers for the taste of their food, and for that, credibility of the reviews is crucial,” a Woowa Brothers official said.

“Even though these are limited cases, we will make sure that any kind of manipulation will be banned from Baedal Minjok, and bolster our monitoring capability so that everyone can use the app with trust.”

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)