Combating fake reviews
We work around the clock to safeguard our platform and combat fake reviews
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Our Agents and legal experts help apply our guidelines fairly and equally, while our Tech Team develops and continuously improves the tools and algorithms we need to fight fraud.
Our automated systems analyze over 100,000 reviews every day on average.
Consumers can flag reviews as fake, and we’ll investigate.
Fighting fake reviews and misuse
We're using a strong combination of dedicated people and clever technology to protect our platform. Our customized fraud detection software automatically detects suspicious reviews and removes fakes. We've spent years developing and fine-tuning the advanced algorithms and AI that form its foundation, and continue to invest heavily in this area. Our software is backed by trained experts to investigate reports of misuse.
Content Integrity Team
Our Content Integrity Team comes to work every day to help reviewers and businesses understand how best to use our platform.
Together with our software, this impressive group of skilled multilinguals handles more than 200,000 requests, queries and reports every month, applying our guidelines fairly and equally and interacting with thousands of businesses and consumers across the globe.
Tech Team
We also have a technology team, the TnT Squad, dedicated to developing and fine-tuning our fraud detection software and processes to find new and better ways of weeding out fake reviews and misuse.
This brainy bunch from all over the world has diverse expertise including engineering and even a physicist who worked at CERN.
Enforcement Team
Supported by our legal experts, Trustpilot’s Enforcement Agents carefully investigate reports of misuse and stay ahead of any attempts to game the system.
They also report and request removal of advertisements from businesses asking for fake reviews or individuals offering to write them.
Help from our community
Detecting problems isn’t an exact science and even though we catch most of what’s out there, we always welcome help from anyone using Trustpilot.
We have tools enabling consumers and businesses to flag reviews that violate our guidelines, and a whistleblower function that allows anyone who notices fraudulent behavior to contact us.
What do we do if we see continued misuse?
Automated Warnings
Our robots are constantly on the lookout for suspicious reviews and behavior, and automatically warn businesses if detected. For example, if we come across misuse of our flagging function, a series of automated warnings will be triggered reminding the business to play by the rules.
Cease and Desist
If our warnings are ignored or we continue to see misuse, our Enforcement Agents will escalate the case and issue a cease and desist letter (C&D). The C&D orders the business to immediately stop the misuse, and warns that if they don't, we’ll take further action such as terminating any paid subscription, stopping their Trustpilot stars from appearing in search engine results, and placing a prominent Consumer Warning on their profile page.
Consumer Warnings
If a business doesn’t comply with our C&D or continuously breaches our guidelines, we’ll post a Consumer Warning on their Trustpilot profile. This lets all Trustpilot users know about the business's behaviour, and helps consumers make informed choices.
Dedicated teams and sophisticated technology
... working together to make sure you’re reading reviews based on real experiences
“Together with fraud investigators, technical specialists and legal experts, our team of Enforcement Agents identify and stop misuse and fabricated reviews. We like to think we’re doing a big part to help keep the trust in Trustpilot.”
David Cole
Customer Services Manager, Trust & Safety
Contact us
Want to know more?
Get in touch to find out more about what we do to build trust and promote transparency in online reviews. For editorial and press enquiries, see Trustpilot’s Press site.