Latest news with #TransparencyReport2025
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Time of India
Tripadvisor removed 27 lakh reviews identified as fake in 2024. Here are the 10 countries that topped the paid review list
Glowing hotel reviews or expertly crafted lies? Tripadvisor's 2025 transparency report reveals a global network of paid reviews, with Indonesia and Vietnam leading the pack. As 2.7 million fake submissions are wiped clean, the data exposes how digital manipulation is shaping your next vacation—one suspicious star at a time. Tripadvisor removed a jaw-dropping 2.7 million fake reviews in 2024, and the countries topping the paid review list might surprise you. From digital deception to review farms, the platform's latest report uncovers the dark underbelly of travel ratings—where trust is bought, and five stars may not mean what you think. The next time you're planning a trip based on five-star ratings and glowing feedback, you might want to tread carefully. According to Tripadvisor's latest Transparency Report 2025, a staggering 2.7 million reviews submitted to the site last year were found to be fake. And if that number doesn't alarm you, this might: nearly one in every 12 reviews posted on the platform in 2024 was identified as fraudulent. Even more revealing? The top sources of paid, fake reviews weren't limited to obscure corners of the internet — they came from countries you probably wouldn't expect. Review or Racket? A Global Game of Digital Deception Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Fake reviews, it turns out, are no longer just the work of disgruntled customers or overenthusiastic fans. There's a growing underground economy of paid reviewers, often part of organized 'review farms,' whose job is to make average experiences look like paradise — or tank a rival's reputation. In 2024, Tripadvisor removed more than 1 in 10 reviews from its site, and it flagged a significant portion for being incentivized or paid for. While the platform says it's improving its detection game, the sheer scale of fraudulent content is a stark reminder that online trust is up for sale. Fake reviews are no longer just the work of disgruntled customers or overenthusiastic fans. There's a growing underground economy of paid reviewers Countries Behind Most Paid Reviews One of the most eye-opening findings of the report was a breakdown of paid reviews by country of origin. Indonesia and Vietnam alone accounted for more than one-third of all such submissions. Here are the top 10 offenders when it comes to paid reviews: Indonesia – 20.03% Vietnam – 14.06% United States – 8.89% Italy – 5.67% United Kingdom – 4.47% Pakistan – 3.60% Egypt – 3.11% India – 3.08% Russia – 2.54% Netherlands – 2.38% Top 10 countries with fake reviews according to Tripadvisor's 2025 transparency report While Asia dominated the paid review map, countries across Europe and North America were far from clean. And despite only 17% of all legitimate Tripadvisor reviews originating from Asia in 2024, the continent remains the epicenter for paid review submissions. How Fake is Fake? Boosting, Vandalism, and Fraud Tripadvisor classifies fake reviews into four distinct categories: boosting, where businesses write their own glowing reviews; vandalism, where rivals post negative feedback to hurt competitors; member fraud, where users post false content without direct influence; and paid reviews, the most malicious of all. Interestingly, boosting (54%) and member fraud (39%) make up the bulk of fake reviews — not spiteful sabotage, as many might think. Spotting the Scam: Not as Simple as Reading Between the Lines Forget awkward grammar and generic praise — Tripadvisor says it's not what a review says, but how it's submitted, that raises red flags. The company uses a combination of AI, behavioral biometrics, and pattern detection to flag suspicious activity. That includes looking for IP masking, sudden submission spikes, and even the style in which reviews are written. In a move that sounds more Mr. Robot than MasterChef, Tripadvisor investigators now pose as fake review brokers to catch scammers in the act. Once a fraudulent review is posted, the company traces its digital footprint across hundreds of data points to track repeat offenders. What Happens to Cheaters? It's Not a Ban, But It Stings The AI Twist: Not Fake, But Not Welcome (Yet) Surprisingly, not all rejected reviews were fraudulent in the traditional sense. In 2024, over 200,000 reviews were taken down for being AI-generated. Here's the twist — businesses caught cheating aren't kicked off Tripadvisor. Instead, they're punished algorithmically. Their rankings plummet for a year. Repeat offenders get a red badge slapped onto their listing that reads: 'This property is trying to deceive you.' Not exactly what you'd want hovering over your holiday rental in not all rejected reviews were fraudulent in the traditional sense. In 2024, over 200,000 reviews were taken down for being AI-generated. Though not dishonest per se, Tripadvisor says it currently does not allow AI-assisted content — even if it's written by real travelers — to avoid a flood of repetitive, polished but soulless reviews. Tripadvisor's report might sound like a success story in transparency, but the numbers also paint a troubling picture. With 31 million reviews submitted in a single year, even a 7–8% fraud rate represents millions of travelers being misled — potentially booking bad stays based on polished lies. And while the company insists that its detection systems are improving, it also admits this is a never-ending chase. 'We might not catch a fake the first time,' said Becky Foley, the company's head of trust and safety, 'but we'll catch it eventually.' Your Five-Star Stay Might Be a Five-Star Scam So what does this mean for travelers? That postcard-perfect guesthouse might be a hidden gem — or a manufactured fantasy. As long as reputation can be monetized, fake reviews aren't going anywhere. The best defense? A healthy dose of skepticism, a wide reading of reviews, and maybe—just maybe—looking past the star rating. Because in the world of digital tourism, sometimes the view is better than the reality.
CNBC
25-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Here's how many fake reviews Tripadvisor found on its website in 2024
Around 8% of the 31.1 million reviews submitted to Tripadvisor in 2024 were fake, according to the company's "Transparency Report 2025." That's more than twice the number detected in 2022, according to company reports. But that doesn't mean the number of fake reviews on the site doubled, said Becky Foley, vice president and head of trust and safety at Tripadvisor. While submissions to the website increased, Tripadvisor's policies on fake reviews also changed, she said, citing the company's more aggressive stance against "incentivized reviews." These occur when companies offer customers discounts or freebies in exchange for reviews, or provide incentives to employees whose names are mentioned in reviews. "The employees get their mom, best friend or cousin to submit reviews, mentioning their names," she said. "It ends up leading to businesses having reviews that aren't actually valuable to our community." According to Tripadvisor, it is "any review submitted by someone who is knowingly submitting biased or non-firsthand content, in an effort to manipulate a property's reputation." But there's a bigger reason detections are on the rise, she said. "Our system is always getting better," she said, citing Tripadvisor's three-pronged process that relies on auto-detection, human review and community feedback. Some 7% of submissions in 2024 were auto-rejected before being posted, the report said. Auto-detections also flagged another 5% of submissions for human review. However, Tripadvisor's trust and safety team ultimately moderated more than 4.2 million reviews, amounting to more than 13% of all submissions in 2024, according to the report. Another 244,000 reviews were disputed by members at the third stage of review, the report showed. Of these, some 72% remained on the site, and 28% were removed, it said. Tripadvisor has four categories of fake submissions: boosting, vandalism, member fraud and paid reviews, Foley said. There's a misconception that vandalism accounts for most fake reviews, Foley said, adding that boosting (54%) and member fraud (39%) have long made up the bulk of those reviews. Paid reviews (4.8%) are a smaller, but "more pernicious," category of fakes, she said. This includes "review farms," she said, adding that these people are often involved in other types of online fraud too. Most paid reviews originate in Asia, Foley said, even though only 17% of real submissions come from the continent. In 2024, more than one-third of all paid submissions detected by Tripadvisor came from Indonesia and Vietnam, while in 2022 most paid reviews came from India, the company said. Rooting out fake reviews is a constant "cat and mouse" game, Foley said. But Tripadvisor is getting better at detecting them every year, she said. "We are the first to admit that we're never going to reach absolute perfection," said Foley. "We might not catch [a fake] the first time, but we'll catch it eventually." Tripadvisor uses its own technology, developed over 25 years, to flush out fakes — a system that increasingly relies less on what a review says, and more on how it's posted, she said. The company uses artificial intelligence and behavioral biometrics to find patterns, which can detect abnormalities like submission spikes and IP address masking attempts. To catch paid reviewers, Tripadvisor investigators pose as fake review brokers, Foley said. When a bad actor posts their first paid review, "we have all of the data … hundreds of data points associated with it," which the company uses to build patterns to identify other reviews submitted by the author in the past. Violators aren't pulled off the site, but their rankings are penalized for a year, Foley said. Repeat offenders receive a red badge on their listing "that says this property is trying to deceive you," she said. Most reviews written by AI are not fake, Foley said, calling that "one of the myths I love to bust." "'It's somebody that's trying to use AI, because they'd like their writing to be more polished," she said. Still, the company doesn't allow them — at least not for now. In 2024, Tripadvisor removed more than 200,000 reviews that it suspected were written by AI, according to the company's 2025 transparency report. "We will continue to monitor the trends and patterns. But right now, we just don't want travelers to come to TripAdvisor for a sea of sameness."
