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About 8% of the 31.1 million reviews submitted by Tripadvisor in 2024 were fake, according to the “report on transparency of 2025”.
This is more than twice the amount found in 2022, according to the company’s reports.
But this does not mean that the number of fake reviews on the site doubled, said Beck Folley, Vice President and Trust and Security in Tripadvisor.
While the materials on the website increased, Tripadvisor policy has also changed, according to her, citing a more aggressive position of the campaign against “stimulated reviews”. They occur when companies offer customers discounts or freebies in exchange for reviews or give incentives to employees whose names are mentioned in reviews.
“Employees make them mom, the best girlfriend or cousin to present reviews, mentioning their names,” she said. “This ultimately leads to businesses that have reviews that are not really valuable to our community.”
What is a fake review?
According to Tripadvisor, it is “any review presented by a person who deliberately presents preconceive or non-pleasant contents, seeking to manipulate real estate reputation.”
But there is a big reason that the detection is growing, she said.
“Our system is always getting better,” she said, citing a trilateral Tripadvisor process, which relies on automatic detection, human review and feedback in society.
About 7% of the materials in 2024 were automatically managed before publication, the report said. Auto-performance also indicated 5% of the person’s inspection material.
However, the Tripadvisor confidence team eventually moderates more than 4.2 million reviews, which made more than 13% of all materials in 2024, the report said.
Another 244,000 reviews were disputed by members at the third stage of the review. Of these, about 72% remained in place, and 28% were removed, the report said.
How to notice a fake
Tripadvisor has four categories of fake materials: enhancement, vandalism, fraud with participants and paid reviews, said fouls.
Foley notes the misconception that vandalism accounts for most fake reviews, adding that raising (54%) and fraud with members (39%) have long made up the bulk of these reviews.
Paid reviews (4.8%) are smaller, but “more detrimental”, the category of fakes, she said.
This includes a “farm review,” she said, adding that these people often participate in other types of fraud online.
Fules said most paid reviews occur in Asia, although only 17% of real materials come from the continent.
In 2024, more than a third of all paid materials discovered by Tripadvisor came from Indonesia and Vietnam, while in 2022 most paid reviews came from India.
Game “Cat and Mouse”
Foley said fake reviews are a constant game of “cats and mice”. But Tripadvisor gets better to detect them every year, she said.
“We are the first to admit that we will never achieve absolute perfection,” said the fouls. “We can not catch (fake) for the first time, but we will eventually catch.”
Tripadvisor has been using its own technology developed for 25 years, to wash for fake – a system that is increasingly based on what is said in the review, and more about how it is located, she said. The company uses artificial intelligence and behavioral biometrics to find samples that can detect violations such as resumes and IP disguise attempts.
In order to catch paid reviewers, Tripadvisor investigators look as fake brokers reviews, said fouls. When a bad actor publishes his first paid review, “we have all the data … hundreds of data related” which the company uses to create models to identify other reviews presented by the author in the past.
Foley said the violators did not get out of the site, but their rating would be punished for a year. Repeated violators receive a red sign on their list, “which states that this property is trying to deceive you,” she said.
AI reviews: not fake but not allowed
Most of the reviews written by AI are not fake, said the fouls, calling that “one of the myths I like to confuse.”
“” This is someone who is trying to use the II because they would like their writing to be more sanded, “she said.
However, the company does not allow them – at least not yet.
In 2024, Tripadvisor deleted more than 200,000 reviews he suspected, wrote AI, according to a 2025 transparency report.
“We will continue to follow the trends and patterns. But now we just don’t want travelers to come to Tripadvisor for the sea of relativity.”
