Man Jailed For Hundreds of Fake TripAdvisor Reviews (tripadvisor.com) 59
An Italian man was sentenced to nine months in jail for selling fake reviews on TripAdvisor to several hundred businesses. He'll also be fined 8,000 euros (about $9,300).
TripAdvisor had threatened businesses with a red badge icon warning travelers thatreviews had been manipulated, after which "several businesses were willing to share information to support TripAdvisor's investigations." From TripAdvisor's Insights blog:
Back in 2015, our dedicated team of fraud investigators identified a new illegal business in Italy called PromoSalento that was offering to write fake reviews for hospitality businesses... PromoSalento attempted to avoid our scrutiny by regularly changing their usernames and email addresses, but our fraud detection processes use a suite of advanced technologies to evaluate hundreds of review attributes such as IP addresses, browser types and even the screen resolution of a reviewer's device. Based on that analysis, we were able to see a trail of digital and behavioral 'breadcrumbs' that led our team straight back to PromoSalento....
Writing fake reviews on TripAdvisor has always been a violation of the law in many jurisdictions, for instance falling under the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, as well as national laws relating to consumer protection, fraud and false advertising. However, this is the first time we have seen the laws being enforced to the point of securing a criminal conviction.
"As many as 16 percent of online reviews are fake, according to research by the European Parliament," reports CBS News. Yet they add that when it comes to accountability and consumer safety, many Americans believe online reviews are more effective than government oversight.
TripAdvisor had threatened businesses with a red badge icon warning travelers thatreviews had been manipulated, after which "several businesses were willing to share information to support TripAdvisor's investigations." From TripAdvisor's Insights blog:
Back in 2015, our dedicated team of fraud investigators identified a new illegal business in Italy called PromoSalento that was offering to write fake reviews for hospitality businesses... PromoSalento attempted to avoid our scrutiny by regularly changing their usernames and email addresses, but our fraud detection processes use a suite of advanced technologies to evaluate hundreds of review attributes such as IP addresses, browser types and even the screen resolution of a reviewer's device. Based on that analysis, we were able to see a trail of digital and behavioral 'breadcrumbs' that led our team straight back to PromoSalento....
Writing fake reviews on TripAdvisor has always been a violation of the law in many jurisdictions, for instance falling under the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, as well as national laws relating to consumer protection, fraud and false advertising. However, this is the first time we have seen the laws being enforced to the point of securing a criminal conviction.
"As many as 16 percent of online reviews are fake, according to research by the European Parliament," reports CBS News. Yet they add that when it comes to accountability and consumer safety, many Americans believe online reviews are more effective than government oversight.
not a contradiction (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not a contradiction because:
(1) people are pretty good at spotting fake reviews
(2) government oversight is often nearly useless and at times simply corrupt
Reviews, govt are for very different purposes (Score:5, Insightful)
That sounds to me almost like saying "glue is more effective than wheels", they are for different purposes.
Government oversight of a hotel or restaurant is supposed to make see if they meet basic health and fire codes. The health department wants the food to be safe. Reviews tell you if the good is delicious.
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Food poisoning typically takes 4 hours - 10 days (Score:5, Informative)
Also, if someone gets sick shortly after lunch, they are likely to blame lunch; it's more likely causd by breakfast several hours before. Here's a chart from the FDA showing typical onset times for various bacteria. Rarely would one get sick within an hour. More likely the cause would be YESTERDAY'S dinner.
https://www.fda.gov/food/resou... [fda.gov]
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Great link, thanks, I'm going to save that in my references folder.
I believe staph infections are fairly common, as it the reason for it, and can produce symptoms within 1 hour.
Staphylococcus aureus Staphylococcal food poisoning 1-6 hours Sudden onset of severe nausea and vomiting. Abdominal cramps. Diarrhea and fever may be present. 24-48 hours Unrefrigerated or improperly refrigerated meats, potato and egg salads, cream pastries
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Your elderly mother is pretty good at dying from food poisoning, and businesses are pretty good about changing their names to avoid word of mouth. Especially when they can buy good ratings, a la the BBB. Better Buy...uh, Bonhomie.
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Oh, reviews can tell you much more than that. And who do you think has the least incentive to investigate the safety of a restaurant?
(1) Someone actually personally eating at the restaurant.
(2) An insurance company insuring the restaurant against injuring its customers.
(3) A government inspector, for whom a
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There are to few people in government to be overseeing every little thing, so yes it is a good idea for people to have SOME ability to judge whether a review is fake or not.
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That's not a contradiction because:
(1) people are pretty good at spotting fake reviews
(2) government oversight is often nearly useless and at times simply corrupt
I'm pretty sure #1 is due to more and more people inherently distrusting review sites, they're usually writing the fake reviews themselves. Trip Adviser is one of the worst. They'll actively insert and highlight negative reviews for businesses that aren't willing to pay up. It is essentially a shakedown for the hospitality industry... it's a nice restaurant you have there... it would be a shame if someone were to give it a bad review.
2. Fraud is well within the governments mandate to regulate, preferably
I give him 0 stars (Score:2)
His promises were broken, his service was shit, and the mint he left on our pillow after he fucked us all tasted terrible. Would not recommend.
For how long? (Score:3)
He was sentenced to 9 months in prison and ordered to pay approximately 8,000 Euros in costs and damages.
I'm looking forward to reading his review of the prison on TripAdvisor! ;)
Re: For how long? (Score:1)
Dockers 10
Phone 0 10/eruo min wtf???
Inmate #3570 100 thinks for the cell
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fake-o (Score:1)
Now if someone would do something about (Score:2)
all the "fake" reviews on Amazon...
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How the fuck you gonna send someone to JAIL just for writing fake reviews? How is that shit even ILLEGAL? Fucking EU nanny-state.
The same thing would be illegal in the U.S. It's called "wire fraud". The term "wire" refers to the fact that it takes place over an interstate communications system (this goes back to the days of telephone and telegraph), and is thus under federal jurisdiction. The term "fraud" means saying or publishing information known to be false for profit and to the detriment of others. Writing fake reviews would not be fraud; selling fake reviews is. This could land you some serious jail time over here.
Only 16 percent? (Score:2, Insightful)
I think the number is *much* higher. As another comments said, I think people are good a spotting "poor" reviews. Gushing, over-the-top reviews are pretty easy to spot. The ones that are more subdued but mention the problems with bed bugs and load neighbors that I suspect are from nearby competitors are way more difficult to spot.
Releasing numbers like "estimates are that 60% of reviews are fake" is probably a threat to their business model.
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Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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What has this nasty and completely unfactual comment got to do with anything at all?
Next off: start shouting random hateful insults from a street corner?
No, I am not German.
Government oversight (Score:1)
If you read the very next article, you will see how government oversight is also sometimes "fake". The difference is that you can simply disregard online reviews if you like, with no threat that you will be imprisoned or fined for disagreeing with them.
Nine months for fake reviews? (Score:1)
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Judge never been raped but spent his last vacation in a shit hole because of fake tripadvisor reviews.
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In [womenspost.ca]deed [nydailynews.com], except sentences for rape are at about 60% to 80% of sentences for murders (varies across states), so, no, rape is a terrible example, unless you mean rape committed by women.
One should mention, it's not even remotely imaginable that a woman in similar setting would get prison sentence.
Men seem to be particularly talented at facing ridiculous prison sentences for minor bullshit [allthatsnews.com]..
Many online reviews are fake? You don't say! (Score:2)
Check out the rampant nuttiness of Google local guide reviews, with utterly obvious fakes like this: https://www.google.com/maps/co... [google.com]
They review every business, point of interest, and yes, road sign, with made-up reviews. It's awesome, and depressing, and Google doesn't do anything about it.
"many Americans believe... (Score:2)
...online reviews are more effective than government oversight."
Yeah, many Americans believe in supply-side economics, too. Doesn't make it any less a fairy tale. :facepalm:
mnem
Sociopaths aren't cute, they aren't funny, and they aren't people to look up to; even though they are running this country.
It's Deliberate! (Score:1)
The only way to rate the Italian Jail experience ... would be to get yourself thrown into one, right? At least, in theory, he didn't have to kill anyone to get his entry pass.