SINGAPORE, Sept. 30 -- Singapore's competition watchdog has taken action against a fake review service provider and 45 businesses that admitted buying fabricated online reviews, in its largest investigation of such practices to date.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) found that two websites, BuyReviewSG and GetReviewSG, had supplied fake review services to about 100 businesses, The Straits Times reported.

The websites were operated by Julian Tung Yan Kai, sole director of Reputifly, who admitted helping businesses generate fabricated reviews, recruit and pay people to post them, and make the content appear genuine.

The first phase of the CCS investigation covered the service provider and 47 businesses, with 45 ...