Tripadvisor Transparency Report: Indonesia and Vietnam are the 'kings' of fake reviews

CNBC cited a report showing that about 8% of the 31.1 million reviews submitted to Tripadvisor in 2024 were fake, double the number in 2022.

Vietnam ranked 2nd

According to Tripadvisor, a fake review is "any review that intentionally provides biased content or is not a firsthand experience, with the intent of manipulating a location's reputation."

The company categorizes fake reviews into four groups including review boosting, vandalism, member fraud, and paid reviews.

The majority of paid reviews come from Asia, and only 17% of reviews from this region are genuine.

In 2024, more than one-third of all paid reviews detected by Tripadvisor originated from Indonesia and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the majority of such reviews came from India.

Tripadvisor - Ảnh 2. — Vietnam ranked 2nd among countries submitting fake reviews to Tripadvisor in 2024 - Screenshot

Becky Foley, Tripadvisor's vice president and head of trust and safety, said the company has tightened its review curation process, using three steps: automatic filtering, manual review, and feedback from its member community.

About 7% of reviews submitted in 2024 were automatically rejected before being published. About 5% were then passed on to a team of human moderators for manual review and selection.

In the final step, Tripadvisor members have the right to appeal reviews. As a result, about 72% of reviews remain on the site, while 28% are removed.

The game of "kidnap and drop the plate"

In many cases, businesses offer discount codes or free gifts to customers in exchange for good reviews, or reward employees if their names are mentioned in reviews.

“Employees will ask their moms, best friends or cousins to write reviews and mention their names,” Ms. Foley said. “Those reviews are not really valuable to our community.”

Hunting down fake reviews is a never-ending hunt, according to Foley.

Tripadvisor uses proprietary technology developed over 25 years to detect fake reviews. The system relies less on the content of the review and more on how it's submitted.

The company uses artificial intelligence and behavioral biometrics to detect anomalies like spikes in submissions or hiding IP addresses. To spot paid review writers, Tripadvisor investigators pose as fake review brokers.

Offenders will not be removed from the site, but their rankings will be reduced for a year. Repeat offenders will receive a red warning label on their page, indicating that the site is attempting to deceive customers.

AI assessment is not yet accepted

Most of the AI-generated reviews aren’t fake. Most are written by real people, just using technology to polish their writing. That said, the company doesn’t currently allow AI-generated reviews.

In 2024, Tripadvisor removed more than 200,000 reviews suspected to be written by AI. "We will continue to monitor trends and patterns that emerge. But right now, we don't want travelers to come to Tripadvisor and see a sea of identical content," Foley said.

DAWN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bao-cao-minh-bach-cua-tripadvisor-indonesia-va-viet-nam-trum-danh-gia-gia-mao-20250526175125817.htm