In a landmark decision, a TripAdvisor reviewer from Italy was sentenced to nine months in prison for fraud after selling fake reviews.
According to The Guardian, the court convicted the owner of Italian tourism promoter Promo Salento of selling fake reviews to hundreds of hospitality companies. The judge found that writing fake reviews under a false identity was a crime under Italian law.
The court also ordered the unnamed fraudulent reviewer to pay €8,000 in fines.
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TripAdvisor originally launched its investigation into the fake reviews in 2015 after business owners forwarded messages from Promo Salento that revealed the company was selling positive reviews.
“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,” TripAdvisor vice president Brad Young told The Guardian. “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.”
Italian police found there was enough evidence of criminal misconduct to press charges after TripAdvisor identified and blocked more than 1,000 attempts by Promo Salento to post reviews.
While posting misleading reviews has led to fines and companies being shut down in the past, the landmark case in Italy was the first time a paid-review fraud case resulted in jail time.