Around 8% of the 31.1 million reviews submitted to Tripadvisor in 2024 were identified as fake, according to the company’s recently released “Transparency Report 2025.” This figure represents more than double the false reviews detected in 2022. However, Becky Foley, vice president and head of trust and safety at Tripadvisor, clarifies that this increase doesn’t necessarily indicate a surge in fake reviews; rather, it reflects adjustments to the company’s policies and an overall rise in review submissions.
Foley noted that Tripadvisor has adopted a more rigorous approach toward identifying “incentivized reviews,” which are generated when businesses offer discounts or rewards in exchange for feedback. These practices can lead to reviews that lack authenticity, as employees might solicit friends or family to mention their names in reviews, ultimately diluting the value of genuine customer experiences.
Tripadvisor defines fake reviews as any submissions derived from biased sources or non-firsthand experiences aimed at manipulating a property’s reputation. The growing number of detections can be attributed to improvements in Tripadvisor’s detection systems. The company employs a three-tiered process that combines automated detection, human oversight, and community feedback. As a result, approximately 7% of all submissions were automatically rejected in 2024. An additional 5% were flagged for human review, culminating in the trust and safety team moderating over 4.2 million reviews-over 13% of all submissions that year.
The report also indicates that 244,000 reviews were disputed by users during the review process, with 28% ultimately removed from the site. Tripadvisor categorizes fake submissions into four distinct groups: boosting, vandalism, member fraud, and paid reviews. Contrary to common belief, Foley emphasized that vandalism constitutes a minor fraction of fake reviews. Rather, boosting accounts for 54%, and member fraud for 39%, whereas paid reviews, though smaller at 4.8%, represent a more insidious issue.
Many paid reviews stem from “review farms,” with a notable concentration originating in Asia, despite only 17% of legitimate submissions coming from that region last year. In 2024, more than a third of all detected paid submissions came from Indonesia and Vietnam, shifting from India’s predominance in 2022.
Foley described the ongoing battle against fake reviews as a “cat and mouse” game, acknowledging that while absolute perfection in detection may be unattainable, Tripadvisor’s capabilities improve annually. The company utilizes proprietary technology developed over 25 years, leaning increasingly on behavioral patterns rather than just the content of reviews. This includes artificial intelligence that identifies irregularities, such as spikes in submissions or attempts to mask IP addresses.
To combat paid reviewers, Tripadvisor also employs investigators posing as fake review brokers, allowing them to gather extensive data on bad actors’ activities. Instead of outright removing violators, Tripadvisor penalizes their rankings for a year and designates repeat offenders with a red badge, alerting users to potential deception.
Interestingly, Foley dispelled the myth that AI-written reviews are inherently fake. Many travelers use AI for polishing their writing rather than crafting deceitful content. Nevertheless, Tripadvisor currently prohibits these reviews to maintain authenticity, having removed over 200,000 suspected AI-generated submissions in 2024 alone. The company plans to keep monitoring trends while prioritizing diverse, genuine content over a repetition of similar reviews.
Original Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/26/heres-how-many-fake-reviews-tripadvisor-found-on-its-website-in-2024-.html
Category :
Tags:
Publish Date: 2025-05-26 05:01:00
