Italy fines TripAdvisor €500,000 (£392,000 / US$600,000) over false reviews – It is very clear that TripAdvisor has no way of detecting fake reviews and / or damaging lies.
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/dec/23/italy-fines-tripadvisor-500000
Back in October 2014 we were contacted by Giovanni who claimed to be working for the Italian Watchdog and kindly asked us to post 3 what we call “Opinion Reviews” [ all positive ] for 3 different Italian establishments .
Other than the reviews themselves, all the info and details about establishments were provided.
We GLADLY got started….
On October 3rd we posted 1 review, and on Oct. 4th we posted the following 2 reviews.
The first review we posted on October 4th was approved and online within 12 hours, the second review posted on October 4th was online within 24 hours, and the very first review we posted on October 3rd took actually 36 hours to be posted online. We did not have to verify any of these reviews.
On Dec. 3rd we were again asked to post 3 Negative reviews [ which we normally NEVER do ] for the exact same establishments. We posted the 1st on Dec. 3rd, the second on Dec 9th and the final one on Dec 15th – ALL 3 were approved and posted within 24 hours – we had to verify 1 review, which of course we did..
This showed the Italian watchdog just how easy it is for ANYONE to post false and malicious reviews, and that TripAdvisor has no way of weeding out fake reviews.
In total we posted as per request 6 opinion reviews and all 6 were approved and posted online by TripAdvisor.. That is a 100% success rate.
On December 22nd TripAdvisor was fined Euro 500.000 for not doing enough [ anything ] to stop people from posting fake reviews and damaging lies..
Of course TripAdvisor does not like the fact that they have been fined, and put in their place, and that it’s true, there is no way TripAdvisor can weed out fake reviews. TripAdvisor will of course appeal, but it will not be easy to appeal something that is proven to be a lie..
As the saying goes..
“Even TripAdvisor can’t prove the impossible”
Face the truth TripAdvisor, we posted in total 6 opinion reviews and all 6 got posted are you REALLY going to appeal 100% ??
The post TripAdvisor warning posts 6 Fake reviews for Italian Watchdog appeared first on TripAdvisor Warning.
