What Are Fake Trustpilot Reviews?
Any review that does not represent an actual buying or service experience and is deliberately made to positively or negatively affect the business’s image is a fake review.
Fake reviews on Trustpilot are often tricky to identify, even though most customers are confident that they can distinguish review manipulation from genuine reviews. According to a study of 25,000 people, only 57% of the people are able to accurately identify non-genuine reviews.
The main reason behind the confusion is that customers often relate generic words with paid fake reviews and a lack of a profile picture to being a fake profile. Though their reasoning is not wrong, almost half the time, such reviews and profiles are found to have had genuine purchase experiences with the business.
Why Fake Reviews Are a Serious Problem for Businesses
Consumers in recent times are much more likely to go/look online before deciding on any business. A 2019 study found that 90% of local customers choose their businesses online. This makes reviews have more of an impact on a business’s revenues than ever before.
While negative fake reviews can harm your business, even positive Trustpilot verified reviews can end up having the opposite effect if customers mistake them for fake reviews. The prevalence of fake reviews makes it that much harder for your businesses to regain the customer’s trust once it’s lost. According to research, 82% of customers have read fake reviews within the last 365 days.
Sometimes businesses don’t even realize they might be losing existing/potential customers because another business boosted its rating with fake reviews. Studies have found that 91% of customers feel more drawn to a business when they see positive reviews. Many businesses rely on platforms like TheSMMExpert to manage and strengthen their overall online reputation.
Common Signs of Fake Trustpilot Reviews
- You might be looking at fake reviews if there is a suspicious review spike within a particular period. While good businesses are bound to have a stream of reviews, it never results in review bombing.
- If reviews from a different source show very different opinions from customers, one of the sources is likely trying to mislead the customers.
- Suspicious reviews from freshly created profiles that lack any verifiable information are often fake reviews meant to divert or mislead customer attention.
- A sudden shift in the review ratings, where the business is constantly getting 5-star or 1-star reviews, also indicates that the reviews might be artificial.
- Reviews that act like disguised marketing campaigns are often fake reviews designed to influence unsuspecting customers.
- Reviews from profiles that have no picture or additional information are often fake reviews, made to harm the business’s reputation with suspiciously low ratings or negative comments.
- An increased influx of reviews from profiles with unverified purchase information also indicates fake reviews.
How to Identify Suspicious Review Patterns
Suspicious timing
Suspicious timing is the first pattern to look for when identifying fake review patterns. Check to see whether there was a sudden influx of reviews during peak times or seasons.
IP / location inconsistency
If the reviews are coming from unrelated locations or profiles with suspicious IP addresses, it often indicates that the reviews may be fake.
Unnatural rating distribution
Fake reviews can create a U-shaped pattern. In such cases, you will notice a lot of 5-star reviews or 1-star reviews, with a few different types of reviews in the middle.
Identical wording or sentence
Check to see if the reviews look identical. In other words, if the reviews look like they have been copy-pasted while changing a few words each time.
Incomplete profiles
Try to see if all or most of the IDs that don’t have profile pictures or details are leaving the same kind of reviews, whether positive or negative.
Extreme sentiment
Check to see if there is a pattern of extreme emotion in particular reviews. This often indicates that the review might be fake.
Bot Profiles
If suddenly review profiles are giving robotic or artificial answers to your comments on their reviews, there is a high chance of them being bot profiles.
How to Report Fake Reviews on Trustpilot
To report fake reviews or flag a review on Trustpilot, businesses can log into their Trustpilot business account, flag the suspicious review, and provide evidence to support their claim.
Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to report a Trustpilot review.
Step 1
Log in to your Trustpilot business account with your credentials.
Step 2
Go to manage reviews and look for the “Find Reviewer ” tool to use it to locate the suspicious reviewer.
Step 3
Select the suspicious review and click the flag icon on it.
Step 4
Choose your reason for suspicion from the list of 5 flag reasons provided by TrustPilot.
Step 4
Submit your evidence against the fake review. This is the most important part of reporting a fake review.
Step 5
Submit your report and track the outcome. Trustpilot review flagging process may usually take 3 to 10 business days, but it might stretch to several weeks based on different factors.
How to Remove Fake Trustpilot Reviews
You need to go through multiple steps to remove false Trustpilot reviews.
Step 1
You must first claim ownership of your business account with the necessary credentials before being able to use the necessary tools to flag the suspicious reviews.
Step 2
You need to accurately identify the fake reviews and submit your report to the Trustpilot review removal service with your reason for suspicion and substantial evidence for them to judge your claim.
Step 3
Wait for TrustPilot to review your complaint. The process can take 3 to 10 business days, or in some cases, longer if the issue is complicated and Trustpilot needs to do a thorough investigation. The review will remain as it is until TrustPilot is done with its research and accepts your report.
Step 4
You can file a formal dispute if your initial report is denied. This gives your business another chance to resolve the problem and attach additional evidence that may not have been provided with the initial report or had surfaced after the fact. On the other hand, if your report is accepted, Trustpilot will remove the fake review.
But even with a positive outcome, businesses can’t negate the negative impact a fake review has on a business as long as it stays up. Businesses often utilize platforms such as TheSMMExpert to maintain their reputation and trustworthiness with genuine reviews.
Best Practices to Protect Your Business from Fake Reviews
- Closely monitor your business’s review section for fake review detection within the newly posted reviews.
- Stay alert during peak seasons to resolve any sudden issues caused by bulk fake reviews that might be targeting your Trustpilot star rating.
- Do not immediately engage with negative reviews. Try to look for the validity of the statements and fake review warning signs before commenting.
- Engage professionally to maintain your image. How you react to negative or even fake reviews can impact your business’s image.
- Watch out for extreme sentiment in reviews. Reviews with extreme emotions tend to attract more customer attention in general and need to be treated accordingly.
- Avoid public disputes at all costs. Fake reviews can often try to get a reaction out of you to ruin your reputation.
- Flag and report fake reviews when you have made sure of the invalidity of their claims against your business.
- If the review can’t be removed, acknowledge and apologize without taking direct responsibility to show professionalism.
- Conduct a timely review pattern analysis to see identify issues or attacks on your business review profile.
Real vs Fake Reviews (Comparison Table)
Real Reviews |
Fake Reviews |
| Detailed experience | Vague sentences |
| Genuine opinion | Disguised marketing(Positive/Negative) |
| Real/Valid profiles | Shady profiles with no data. |
| Simple tone | Extreme emotions |
| Varied over time | Sudden spikes |
| Solution seeking | Arguementative |
| Directly about the complaint | Ambiguous complaints |
| From valid profiles | From Incomplete profiles |
What to Do If You Can’t Remove a Fake Review
There are a few options your business can take if you are not able to remove a fake review.
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- Resubmit your report with more evidence/information:
Lacking evidence is the main obstacle during a Trustpilot review dispute. If the initial report fails, attach more info, such as screenshots of the review, the profile of the reviewer, and anything you can find that proves the review does not represent a genuine experience, and attach them to your Trustpilot review appeal.
- Resubmit your report with more evidence/information:
- Use the L.A.S.T response framework:
If the Trustpilot review investigation fails, your business must take a professional stance even after you identify fake reviews. You must listen to and acknowledge their complaints, apologize for whatever part of the complaint is actually valid, even if vaguely, solve or state concrete steps you are going to take to solve their issues, and lastly thank them for bringing the issue to your attention.
- Seek legal support
In extreme cases, a defamatory Trustpilot review might be the result of a coordinated fake review attack aimed at destroying the business’s reputation. In such situations, your business might need to consider taking legal action.
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- Encourage positive reviews from your customers
An influx of genuine and positive reviews from satisfied customers can easily negate the effect of a fake bad review. Invite more reviews from your customers to ensure that your review profile is strong, and the negative reviews are taken as isolated cases.
- Encourage positive reviews from your customers
- Increase engagement with genuine reviews
Negative fake reviews indicate the importance of having a healthy review profile and online reputation management. Maintain consistent engagement with genuine reviews to maintain and increase your position of trust with your customers.
How to Build a Strong Review Profile
- Invite reviews from your customers
A strong profile needs a substantial number of reviews from its customers. Though many customers leave reviews without needing to be asked, some need a little nudge to share their experience with your business. Businesses must have a strong online review management and reach out to customers to increase their review count and build a strong profile.
- Makes the process easy
Leaving a review should require minimal effort from the customer’s end. While review sites like Trustpilot have already made leaving reviews easy, it’s your business that is responsible for bringing the customers and making them feel at ease as a part of its review generation strategy. This can be done directly through steps such as providing your customers with review links or providing review instructions on your business website.
- Showcase your best reviews
Utilize your best authentic customer feedback to market your business to existing and new customers. This attracts the attention of potential customers while making your existing customers more likely to write better and more genuine experience reviews for your business.
- Engage with all genuine reviews
Your businesses must make sure to interact with all reviews given by the customers, whether if its to thank the reviewer for leaving a positive review or to apologize to a reviewer who has had a bad experience and assure them that your business will solve the issue. Engaging with reviews encourages other customers to make reviews as well and attracts new customers to your business.
- Show genuine progress
Show actual steps taken to resolve issues that customers leave reviews about. Showing care and initiative towards customer reviews will increase both customer trust and their chance of giving more genuine reviews.
FAQ
Q1: Can fake Trustpilot reviews be removed?
Yes, fake reviews can be reported and removed if they violate Trustpilot guidelines.
Q2: How do I know if a review is fake?
Look for vague content, repeated patterns, and suspicious timing.
Q3: Does Trustpilot verify reviews?
Trustpilot uses automated and manual systems to detect suspicious reviews.
