VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

“Jnana Sangama”, Belagavi-590018

Project Phase-1 Synopsis Report

on

“Deceptive Review Detection using Deep Learning”

Submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the award of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING DEGREE

In
COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE &MACHINE
LEARNING)
Submitted by
Name USN
Name USN
Name USN

Under the guidance of

Name of the guide
Assistant/Assoc. Professor
Department of CSE(ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE &MACHINE LEARNING)

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING (ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE &MACHINE LEARNING)

ATME College of Engineering,

13th Kilometer, Mysore-Kanakapura-Bangalore Road
Mysore-570028
 2024-25

ABSTRACT:

Fake online reviews have become a significant problem, misleading consumers and impacting
businesses. The rise of deceptive opinion spam has created challenges for e-commerce
platforms, product vendors, and service providers. Traditional methods for detecting fake
reviews, such as manual moderation and rule-based filtering, are time-consuming and prone to
inaccuracies.
This project aims to develop a Deceptive Review Detection System utilizing Deep Learning
techniques to classify reviews as genuine or fake with higher accuracy and automation. The
system will employ Natural Language Processing (NLP) for text preprocessing and feature
extraction, combined with advanced deep-learning models such as Convolutional Neural
Networks (CNNs), Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTMs), and Bidirectional
Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). These models will analyze linguistic
patterns, sentiment polarity, and contextual embeddings to improve classification performance.
The model will be trained on datasets such as the Yelp Fake Review Dataset, which contains
both authentic and fraudulent reviews. The system's performance will be evaluated using metrics
like accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, ensuring robustness in detecting deceptive
content. The project aims to provide an automated and scalable solution to enhance online
review integrity and protect users from misinformation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1- Chapter Name Page No.
REFERENCE
S ALONG
WITH PAGE
NUMBER
PREPARE
TABLE
(SAMPLE)Cha
pter No.

1.1 Overview 1
1.2 Existing System 1
1.3 Problem Statement 1

1.4 Proposed System 2

1.5 Advantages Over Current System 2-3
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION:

1.1 Overview
In the digital era, online reviews have become a critical factor influencing consumer decisions
across various industries, including e-commerce, hospitality, and entertainment. However, the
increasing presence of deceptive reviews has led to misinformation, financial losses, and
reputational damage to businesses. Deceptive reviews, also known as fake reviews, are
intentionally written to mislead potential customers by either falsely promoting or discrediting
a product or service.

The detection of fake reviews is a challenging task due to the complexity of language
manipulation and the evolving tactics of spammers. Traditional detection methods, such as
manual inspection and rule-based filtering, are no longer sufficient due to the vast amount of
data generated daily. Hence, there is a growing need for automated, AI-driven solutions that
can efficiently and accurately distinguish between genuine and fake reviews.

Deep Learning, a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI), has demonstrated remarkable

performance in natural language processing (NLP) tasks. By leveraging models such as CNNs,
LSTMs, and BERT, this project aims to develop a robust Deceptive Review Detection
System that can analyze textual patterns, sentiment cues, and contextual embeddings to
identify fraudulent reviews effectively.

1.2 Existing System

Current fake review detection systems rely on manual moderation, rule-based models, and
traditional machine learning approaches. These methods typically involve:
 Keyword-based detection: Identifying fake reviews by detecting exaggerated or
misleading words.
 Source credibility scoring: Assigning a trust score to reviewers based on past behavior.
 Behavioral analysis: Monitoring user activity patterns to identify suspicious review
behaviors.
 Traditional machine learning models: Using algorithms like Naïve Bayes and Support
Vector Machines (SVM) with handcrafted features.
1.3 Drawbacks

Despite various advancements, existing fake review detection methods suffer from several
limitations:

 Limited Context Understanding: Traditional approaches rely on keyword detection and

sentiment analysis, which fail to capture complex linguistic manipulations.
 Scalability Issues: Manual and rule-based systems struggle to handle large-scale data
efficiently.
 High False Positives: Many methods incorrectly classify genuine reviews as fake due to
rigid rules.
 Inability to Adapt: Traditional models do not generalize well to new deception techniques
and evolving spam tactics.
 Dependence on External Databases: Some systems require external fact-checking
sources, which may not always be updated or available.

1.4 Proposed System

This project proposes a Deep Learning-based approach using models like CNN, LSTM, and
BERT to detect deceptive reviews. The system will:

 Use NLP techniques to preprocess and extract text features.

 Train and evaluate deep learning models for classification.
 Improve accuracy over traditional methods.
 Provide an automated, scalable solution for real-time fake review detection.

1.5 Working
The deceptive review detection system operates in multiple stages. First, it collects review data
from online platforms and datasets such as the Yelp Fake Review Dataset. The text is then
preprocessed by removing stopwords, tokenizing sentences, and applying lemmatization.
Feature extraction techniques such as TF-IDF and word embeddings (Word2Vec, BERT)
are used to convert textual data into numerical vectors for model processing.
Once preprocessed, the text data is passed through a trained deep learning model (CNN,
LSTM, or BERT). The model classifies the reviews as genuine or deceptive based on
linguistic patterns, sentiment, and contextual analysis. If needed, the system can cross-check
 review authenticity using metadata such as user behavior and past review history.
The final classification results are displayed on a user-friendly interface, allowing users to
input a review or a product/service and verify its authenticity. The system also provides a
confidence score, indicating the likelihood of the review being fake, along with relevant
insights derived from the analysis.

Chapter 2 LITERATURE SURVEY

[1] Deceptive Review Detection: A Machine Learning Perspective
  Authors: J. Li, M. Ott, C. Cardie, E. Hovy
 Published In: ACL, 2021
 Summary: This paper examines machine learning-based techniques for detecting deceptive
reviews, comparing traditional models like Naïve Bayes and SVM with deep learning
models. It highlights challenges in detecting human-written fake reviews.
[2] Detecting Fake Reviews Using Deep Learning and NLP
 Published In: IEEE, 2022
 Summary: This study evaluates NLP techniques such as TF-IDF, Word2Vec, and BERT
for deceptive review detection. It compares CNN, LSTM, and transformer models on real-
world datasets and discusses improvements in accuracy.
[3] Sentiment Analysis and Deceptive Opinion Spam Detection
 Published In: Elsevier, 2023
 Summary: The paper investigates the role of sentiment analysis in detecting fake reviews.
It introduces a hybrid deep learning model combining LSTM with attention mechanisms
for better context understanding.
[4] A Survey on Fake Review Detection Techniques
 Published In: Springer, 2021
 Summary: A comprehensive review of fake review detection methodologies, including
machine learning, deep learning, and rule-based systems. The study evaluates the
performance of different classification models across various datasets.
[5] Transformer-Based Approaches for Fake Review Detection
 Published In: Journal of AI Research, 2024
 Summary: This paper explores the effectiveness of transformer-based architectures like
BERT and RoBERTa in detecting deceptive reviews. It demonstrates how self-attention
mechanisms improve classification accuracy.
[6] Real-Time Fake Review Detection Using AI
 Published In: IEEE, 2023
 Summary: The study proposes a real-time fake review detection system using neural
networks and reinforcement learning. It discusses the integration of behavioral analysis
with NLP for improved detection.
[7] Enhancing Fake Review Detection with Explainable AI
 Published In: Springer, 2022
 Summary: This research focuses on making fake review detection models more
 interpretable by integrating explainable AI techniques. It discusses how transparency in AI
decision-making can improve trust and reliability.

Chapter 3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The rapid rise of deceptive online reviews has misled consumers and harmed businesses by
artificially inflating or deflating product reputations. Traditional review moderation
techniques, such as manual fact-checking and rule-based filtering, are inefficient, time-
consuming, and struggle to handle the sheer volume of reviews posted daily. Additionally,
sophisticated AI-generated fake reviews have made it even more challenging to distinguish
between genuine and deceptive content.
This project aims to develop an AI-driven deceptive review detection system using deep
learning techniques to classify reviews as real or fake with high accuracy and efficiency. By
integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP), sentiment analysis, and linguistic pattern
recognition, the system will enhance the detection of deceptive content. The model will be
trained on large-scale review datasets and employ advanced architectures such as LSTM,
CNN, and BERT for improved contextual understanding.
The goal is to create a fast, automated, and scalable solution that helps consumers, businesses,
and e-commerce platforms verify the authenticity of online reviews, thereby improving trust
and transparency in digital marketplaces.

Chapter 4 OBJECTIVES
  Develop an AI-based deceptive review detection system capable of classifying online
reviews as genuine or fake using machine learning and deep learning techniques.
 Enhance detection accuracy by leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based
techniques, sentiment analysis, and contextual embeddings (BERT, LSTM,
Word2Vec, etc.).
 Integrate real-time review data by fetching reviews from e-commerce platforms, social
media, and review aggregator APIs to analyze and verify authenticity.
 Create an interactive and user-friendly web application where users can input reviews
or URLs for real-time verification.
 Improve scalability and efficiency of fake review detection models to process large
volumes of reviews with minimal latency.
 Ensure cross-validation with existing review datasets and fact-checking mechanisms to
enhance system reliability and reduce false positives.
 Deploy the system using Flask/FastAPI to provide API support for integration with e-
commerce platforms and third-party applications.
 Evaluate system performance using standard NLP metrics such as accuracy, precision,
recall, and F1-score to optimize classification models.

Chapter 5 METHODOLOGY
 Data Collection: The system will utilize publicly available deceptive review datasets,
such as the Yelp Fake Review Dataset, Amazon Deceptive Reviews Dataset, and
TripAdvisor Fake Reviews Dataset. Additionally, real-time review data will be fetched
from e-commerce platforms and review aggregator APIs for further analysis.
 Data Preprocessing: The collected review data will undergo text preprocessing,
including tokenization, stopword removal, stemming, and lemmatization. NLP
techniques such as TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) and
word embeddings (Word2Vec, GloVe, BERT) will be applied to convert text into
numerical representations for model training.
 Feature Extraction: Key linguistic and contextual features will be extracted to
enhance classification accuracy, including:
1. Sentiment Analysis to determine emotional tone in reviews.
2. Named Entity Recognition (NER) to identify brands, products, and user references.
3. Readability Metrics to analyze writing patterns and detect fake reviews.
 Model Selection and Training: Various machine learning and deep learning models
will be implemented and evaluated, including:
1. Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, and SVM (for baseline comparisons).
2. LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) for sequence-based text classification.
3. BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) for advanced
NLP-based classification.
4. Hybrid CNN-LSTM models for improved contextual accuracy.

 Evaluation: The trained models will be evaluated using standard performance

metrics, such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC.
Hyperparameter tuning will be performed to optimize model performance.
 Deployment: The final model will be deployed using Flask/FastAPI to create an
API for real-time review classification. A Streamlit-based web interface will
allow users to input reviews or URLs for verification.
 Continuous Learning & Updates: The system will be designed to continuously
update its dataset by integrating with fact-checking organizations, user feedback
mechanisms, and real-time review data streams, improving model performance
over time.
Chapter 6 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
Programming Language: Python (for model training and deployment)
Frameworks & Libraries: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, NLTK, spaCy, Pandas, NumPy
Natural Language Processing (NLP) Tools: BERT, Word2Vec, TF-IDF, GloVe
Web Frameworks: Flask/FastAPI (for backend API), Streamlit (for web application UI)
Database: PostgreSQL/MongoDB (for storing news data and user interactions)
Cloud Services: Google Cloud/AWS (for model hosting and API deployment)
Version Control: Git/GitHub (for collaboration and code management)
APIs for Data Collection: News API, Twitter API, Google News RSS
Development Environment: Jupyter Notebook, Google Colab, PyCharm, VS Code

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Processor: Minimum Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 (Recommended: Intel Core i7 / AMD
Ryzen 7 or higher)
RAM: Minimum 8GB (Recommended: 16GB or more for deep learning models)
Storage: Minimum 256GB SSD (Recommended: 512GB SSD or higher for faster data
processing)
GPU (For Deep Learning Models): NVIDIA RTX 2060 or higher (Recommended: NVIDIA
RTX 3080 or higher for training BERT models)
Internet Connectivity: High-speed internet for real-time API requests and cloud-based model
deployment
Operating System: Windows 10/11, Ubuntu 20.04+, macOS

Chapter 7 CONCLUSION
This project aims to develop an AI-driven deceptive review detection system that leverages
Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning techniques to classify reviews as
genuine or fake with high accuracy. By integrating advanced models such as BERT and
LSTM, the system will effectively analyze linguistic patterns, sentiment polarity, and contextual
embeddings to enhance classification performance.
The system will utilize publicly available datasets such as the Yelp Fake Review Dataset and
Amazon Deceptive Reviews Dataset, along with real-time review data from e-commerce
platforms. The deployment of a user-friendly web application will allow individuals and
businesses to verify the authenticity of online reviews easily.
By incorporating real-time data processing, fact-checking integration, and continuous
learning, the system will improve detection accuracy over time. The project is expected to
provide a scalable, efficient, and automated approach to combating deceptive online reviews,
thereby enhancing trust and transparency in digital marketplaces.

REFERENCES

[1] M. Ott, Y. Choi, C. Cardie, and J. Hancock, "Finding Deceptive Opinion Spam by Any
Stretch of the Imagination," Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for
Computational Linguistics, 2021.
[2] K. Shu, S. Wang, J. Tang, and H. Liu, "Fake News Detection on Social Media: A Data
Mining Perspective," ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter, 2021.
[3] A. Pathak and V. Srivastava, "Deep Learning-Based Approaches for Fake Review
Detection," IEEE, 2023.
[4] Y. Zhang, P. Bhat, and K. Lee, "Transformer-Based Methods for Deceptive Review
Detection," Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2024.
[5] H. Chen, X. Li, and R. Zhao, "Enhancing Fake Review Detection with Explainable AI,"
Springer, 2022.
[6] S. Gupta and R. Kumar, "Real-Time Fake Review Detection Using AI and NLP," IEEE
Transactions on Computational Intelligence, 2023.
[7] J. Li, C. Wang, and P. Das, "A Survey on Fake Review Detection Techniques: Machine
Learning and Deep Learning Approaches," Springer, 2021.
[8] D. Liu and X. Zhang, "BERT-Based Contextual Analysis for Fake Review Detection,"
Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Language Processing, 2023.
[9] A. Sharma and T. Patel, "Opinion Spam Detection in E-Commerce Reviews: Challenges
and Solutions," Elsevier, 2022.

Signature of Guide Signature of Coordinator

Guide Name: Name of Coordinator:
Designation: Designation: