Negative reviews cannot be paid for removal, nor can a higher TrustScore be purchased by businesses. Trust is cultivated by him for ecommerce brands through customer-driven review management that is equitable and adaptable, spanning all stores and markets. Despite its advantages, the platform has imperfections, and concerns regarding bias linked to its paid-tier model persist, even when the company refutes these issues.
Out of curiosity, I reposted the exact same review — word for word — but gave the company five stars instead. To my surprise, it was approved and published without issue. Meanwhile, scammers pump out one-liner five-star reviews that sail through. That’s a business model built on reputation manipulation. And yet, on Trustpilot, I’m painted as a “terrorist” while scam companies rake in five-star reviews unchecked. I even work with the FBI, Homeland Security, and the IRS to provide intelligence on international fraud networks.
However, as The Guardian and others note, many fraudulent or misleading reviews still slip through, especially when combined with real feedback. For industries like VPNs, whcih advertise strict no-log policies, this raises serious concerns. Some also claimed positive, verified reviews vanished after trustpilot review moderation refusing paid service upgrades, raising concerns over editorial independence. Reddit users have reported that negative reviews were removed, even when accompanied by documentation. “These scammers see Trustpilot as a vital part of their playbook” — KwikChex, via The Guardian In some cases, scam firms have used entire fake reviewer networks to boost their own scores while posting negative reviews on competitors.
Take RecoveryFin, one of hundreds of shady “crypto recovery services” that endlessly rebrand and pump out new websites targeting desperate scam victims. Newapexway is a trusted 4.5 on trustpilot and it’s my experience that they are sofistacated scammers as they have taken 140k from me Why are trustpilot allowed to continue with fraudulent report’s This policy is subject to change at any time and without notice. This critical examination of Trustpilot highlights the need for transparency and integrity in online review platforms.
BankFive is a community bank in SouthCoast Massachusetts and Rhode Island with a “claimed profile” (i.e. paying subscription) on Trustpilot with over 5,000 reviews and a 4.7 of 5-star rating. FreeCash.com is not accredited at the Better Business Bureau and has 1 of 5 stars at the BBB from 32 reviews. Petrović is a serial Ponzi schemer, according to an investigation by BehindMLM.com. Users who had still assets in their wallets cannot withdraw them anymore and remain defrauded. Users have no way to retrieve the holdings they put into the platform and remain defrauded. Despite this, its Trustpilot account remains active with a 4.4-star rating.
The Risk of Manipulation and Deception
“Trustpilot is viewed by these scammers as an essential element in their strategy,” remarked Chris Emmins, co-founder of KwikChex. Operators were found by an investigation conducted by the verification firm KwikChex, using counterfeit reviews, fake certificates, and stolen corporate identities to deceive victims. Google does not impose any charges to investigate claims of misleading or fraudulent reviews, thus granting everyone the same right to contest reviews and ensure they accurately represent the service provided.
Our company is involved in financial activities including but not limited to Forex, Stock, Agro Farming, Nft, Bond, Oil & Gas, Real Estate Investment, Loan, Private Equity funds and largely, Cryptocurrency Trading and Cryptocurrency Mining. Mergtrade receives 4.7-stars on Trustpilot, while its website mergtrade.ltd is offline. InFace Invest Group is a company based in Mahe (Seychelles), founded by Zoran Lazarević and Mladen Pejić. Reviews for Swift-Finance Ltd on Trustpilot show the typical markers of a financial scam, by users giving it 5 stars with unprecise everything-is-always-perfect-with-them rhetoric.
Trustpilot’s Response
Nevertheless, negative reviews cannot be deleted unilaterally by businesses on the platform. Regardless of the plan, including the Free option, businesses have the ability to flag reviews for Trustpilot’s investigation and to respond publicly. Reviews that breach Trustpilot’s content guidelines (such as hate speech, conflicting interests, and factually incorrect statements) will be removed, but simply having a negative tone does not warrant removal. Companies can and do invest in fake positive reviews, while competitors may post false negative ones. The issue lies at the level of individual reviews, especially affecting small businesses, where just a few fake reviews can significantly alter a star rating.
Yes, Trustpilot is a legitimate review platform used worldwide. If something looks too good to be true, a 4.8-star rating on Trustpilot won’t convince me otherwise. If you just glance at the star rating, you’re doing it wrong.
The practice of open posting makes businesses vulnerable to review bombing (organized surges of 1-star ratings) and extortionate reviews (negative ratings aimed at coercing a business into paying). This applies universally to all review platforms, including Trustpilot (refer to the FTC rule summary). Your email will remain unpublished. Ratings may be swayed by fraudulent reviews, biased opinions, or the removal of negative feedback. Always verify with additional platforms prior to placing trust in a company. Still, this does not imply that every review available on the site is authentic or trustworthy.
If your competitor hires a review-bombing spammer to add negative reviews en masse, well, you’ll just have to upgrade to the next-tier plan.” A blog post from 2024 describes how legacy publisher Penguin-Random-House suddenly “found themselves under siege by a sudden influx of negative reviews on Trust-pilot—reviews that its management believes are fake.” Web hoster RSH writes in an October 2025 post “All those website that advertise “2000 reviews on TrustPilot” “5 star rating out of 10,000 reviews” THEY ARE ALL PAID FOR” But after seeing firsthand how they’ve enabled malicious, fake, defamatory reviews, extorted small businesses, and used AI to silence legitimate complaints—we’re done. I asked Trustpilot to check the IP addresses of the positive reviews and informed them 99% would be from the same address.