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In a legal first, a man has been jailed for writing fake reviews on TripAdvisor, according to news reports. The nine-month sentence capped an unusual fraud case in an Italian court in which the owner of a marketing firm was convicted of selling fake reviews to hundreds of businesses across Italy, The Guardian reports.
In an incredible assist to consumers, the court ruled that using a false identity to write bogus reviews is indeed a crime.
TripAdvisor said that its internal fraud investigators had began looking into the marketing outfit, Promo Salento, a few years ago.
“Back in 2015, our dedicated team of fraud investigators identified a new illegal business in Italy called Promo Salento that was offering to write fake reviews for hospitality businesses to boost their profile on TripAdvisor,” the company said in a article on its website. “Several Italian businesses forwarded the emails to us, which kick-started an investigation that would ultimately see the person behind Promo Salento sent to jail!”
This particular case may have ended well for TripAdvisor, but controversy continues to follow the travel and review site. In November 2017, the company announced that it would label properties where sexual assaults had been reported with a badge. The measure came after the site was accused of deleting reviews where vacationers claimed they had been raped.
Although it has gotten better as of late, fake reviews continue to be a problem for the site. So rather than leaving it up to TripAdvisor, here are some tips on what you can do to spot a fake review.
This post was last modified on October 17, 2018 8:37 am
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