Man in Italy Jailed for Selling Fake Reviews from Tripadvisor
12 Sep, 2018 – Last Week, Italy has taken a giant step against false reviews on TripAdvisor, as the owner of a company called PromoSalento, dedicated to selling manipulated criticism to hundreds of businesses in Italy, has been sentenced to nine months in prison and will also have to pay a fine of 8,000 euros.
Italy based company, PromoSalento had been selling fake reviews packages to Italian hosting sites for years, aiming to inflate their reputation on TripAdvisor, in fact, the company had been investigating them since 2015, and they have identified more than 1,000 attempts to upload false reviews by PromoSalento.
When Tripadvisor under scrutiny in Italy – economy
Tripadvisor came under scrutiny in Italy 4 Years ago and was asked about the steps being taken to address issue of fake reviews on tripadvisor.
TripAdvisor says that it came to eliminate or block these attempts, they also notified the businesses with false reviews of PromoSalento that would lower their position in the popularity lists. However, to be penalized by the platform to go to prison there is a stretch.
On TripAdvisor, they are delighted with this judicial decision
For years that TripAdvisor has to deal with false reviews, in same Italy were fined 500,000 euros a few years ago just for not controlling the fraudulent reviews. And they are far from controlling the problem completely.
The Fake Restaurant That Was London’s Top Rated on Trip Advisor | Good Morning Britain
TripAdvisor is far from perfect, but the decisions of users who seek opinions on the platform are still heavily influenced. One in which you can pay to highlight the positive comments of your business or one that can be manipulated in such a way that a restaurant that never existed becomes the number one of its lists.