A landmark legal ruling in Italy has seen a fraudulent online reviewer sentenced to jail, in one of the first cases of its kind. The owner of PromoSalento, a company which sells fake review packages to hospitality businesses in Italy, was sentenced to nine months in prison after the Criminal Court of Lecce ruled that writing fraudulent reviews under a false identity was “criminal conduct”. The defendant was also ordered to pay €8,000 in costs and damages. Recommended Supermarket tunnel tops TripAdvisor ratings at seaside resort It’s one of the first cases of paid review fraud, which is the act of selling fake reviews to business owners, to result in a criminal conviction. TripAdvisor supported the prosecution as a civil claimant, providing evidence from its in-house fraud investigations team. The leading online review platform uses tracking technology and has a dedicated team of investigators to catch paid review companies and prevent them from operating on the site. “We see this as a landmark ruling for the Internet,” said Brad Young, VP, associate general counsel at TripAdvisor. “Writing fake reviews has always been fraud, but this is the first time we’ve seen someone sent to jail as a result. “We invest a lot in fraud prevention and we’re successful at tackling it – since 2015, we’ve put a stop to the activity of more than 60 different paid review companies worldwide. “However, we can only do so much alone, which is why we’re eager to collaborate with regulators and law enforcement authorities to support their prosecutions.” TripAdvisor has advised anyone approached by companies or individuals offering fake reviews to refrain from engaging with them and to share the information with TripAdvisor directly at paidreviews@tripadvisor.com. Pascal Lamy, chairman of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, said: “Online reviews play a major role in tourism and consumer purchasing decisions, but it’s important everyone plays by the rules. “Fake reviews clearly contravene the World Committee on Tourism Ethics guidelines, which we published last year to guide the responsible use of ratings and reviews on digital platforms. “The recommendations were developed in collaboration with TripAdvisor, Minube and Yelp and we know that industry collaboration has an important role to play in tackling review fraud.”<doc-sep>"We see this as a landmark ruling for the Internet,” said Brad Young, an attorney for TripAdvisor. "Writing fake reviews has always been fraud, but this is the first time we’ve seen someone sent to jail as a result.”<doc-sep>The online travel giant heralded the decision by the Criminal Court of Lecce as a “landmark ruling for the Internet.” Needham-based TripAdvisor on Wednesday said a user in Italy was sentenced to nine months behind bars after being accused of selling fake reviews to hospitality businesses there. If you’re considering leaving a fake review on an online shopping site, here’s a new reason to think twice: It could get you thrown in prison. In Italy, at least. Brad Young, TripAdvisor’s associate general counsel, said the company can block users and penalize businesses that post fraudulent reviews, but the company is increasingly pushing law enforcement to take legal action against people who misuse its site. Advertisement “By working together with the prosecutors in Italy, we have shown those trying to offer paid reviews that they have some skin in the game . . . and there are repercussions coming for their real-world actions,” he said. Internet commerce sites have long struggled with the bane of paid reviews, which erode the trust of users who rely on their fellow customers to help them decide what to buy, whom to hire, and where to travel. A Washington Post examination this year, for example, found that a majority of Amazon reviews in popular categories such as Bluetooth speakers appear to violate the company’s prohibition on paid reviews. TripAdvisor said it has found and stopped more than 60 companies that post fake reviews since 2015. In this case, the company said, its fraud detection programs blocked or removed more than 1,000 reviews posted by the owner of a company called PromoSalento. The review covered hundreds of lodging and dining businesses. The company said it worked with postal police in Italy to uncover the scheme. PromoSalento’s owner now faces jail time and a penalty of about 8,000 euros in costs and damages. PromoSalento officials could not be reached to comment. Advertisement Paid reviewers in the United States are not likely to face prison time, according to attorneys who follow legal issues surrounding online reviews. “I’ve never seen anything like that happen here in the US, but then again our laws are very different from those of Europe,” said Anette J. Beebe, an Arizona attorney who leads the American Bar Association’s committee on digital communications. “The US seems to see these a lot more as civil matters.” She said much of the legal action involves restaurants, hotels, and other establishments suing people who post negative reviews that the proprietors believe are misleading. Nonetheless, there are federal laws against making paid endorsements without disclosing financial ties. Violations can result in civil penalties such as fines. TripAdvisor said it intends to work closely with federal officials to crack down on organized efforts to offer positive reviews in exchange for cash. The Federal Trade Commission has been particularly interested recently in social media “influencers,” who can wield their large digital followings to secure perks like complementary hotel stays. The agency says those freebies should be disclosed under the law. Tommy Noonan, founder of ReviewMeta.com, which helps Internet users spot fake reviews, said reviewers who accept payments are just part of the problem. Another problematic class of reviewers, he said, are those who have a murkier relationship with a product they’re reviewing. “You have reviewers who, maybe they stayed at the hotel and they were offered some kind of incentive, or discount to write the review,” he said. “Of course, textbook fake reviews are terribly misleading, but I think the real problem is on these businesses really doing all they can to maximize the amount of positive reviews and minimize the negative reviews.” Advertisement TripAdvisor said it did not let the hospitality sites in the PromoSalento case off the hook. It downgraded the rankings of some and hit others with “red badges” alerting users that the businesses were caught trying to manipulate reviews. The PromoSalento case also underscores the difficult job that TripAdvisor faces in policing its site. The company had been investigated by Italian authorities for not doing enough to remove fake reviews. But the company has also gotten into trouble for what it does remove. Last fall, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that TripAdvisor had removed reviews that included reports of rapes and assaults after determining them to be inappropriate or off topic. Dan Donahue, president of the Saunders Hotel Group, which includes The Lenox in Boston, said hospitality businesses should focus on offering good service over the long haul rather than trying to game review websites. “Paying one person to write a review, it’s not worth it. Even paying 50 people to write a review, it’s not worth it,” he said. “Over time you’ll see the real product come through.” Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com.<doc-sep>NEW A vastly improved search engine helps you find the latest on companies, business leaders, and news more easily.<doc-sep>
The owner of a business that sold fake favourable TripAdvisor reviews to hotels and restaurants in Italy has been jailed for nine months in what the travel website hailed as a landmark ruling. In one of the first cases of its kind, a court in Lecce in the southern region of Puglia ruled that writing fake reviews under a false identity is a criminal offence. The unnamed businessman, who ran a website called Promo Salento, tried to sell more than 1,000 fictional reviews to hundreds of restaurants and hotels as a way of boosting their rankings. He charged €100 for 10 reviews, €170 for 20 and €240 for 30. As well as the jail term, he was ordered to pay €8,000 in costs and damages, in what TripAdvisor called "a pivotal legal ruling". "Paid review fraud - when companies or individuals 'sell' fake reviews to business owners - is a violation of the law in many jurisdictions, but this is one of the first cases of enforcement resulting in a criminal conviction," the company said in a statement. TripAdvisor collaborated in the case by sharing research from its own investigations into fraudulent reviews. "We see this as a landmark ruling for the internet. Writing fake reviews has always been fraud, but this is the first time we've seen someone sent to jail as a result," said Brad Young, a vice-president of TripAdvisor. In the last three years, the company had put a stop to the activities of more than 60 online enterprises offering made-up reviews, he said. Irish Independent