TrustPilot is increasingly proving to be a dangerous source of fake realities. At least when it comes to protecting consumers and retail investors against scams. From our investigations, we know dedicated marketing companies are busy performing star and reputation management on TrustPilot for scams and cybercriminals. They become paid TrustPilot clients and have ratings written by people with fake IDs and/or professionals. Even financial market regulators are powerless against scammers on TrustPilot because many consumers simply trust this review platform.
FinTelegram experience
Specifically, after registering with Capital Way aka Capital Way Group, and checking critical points, one of our reporters wrote a 1-star review on September 10, 2020, and drew attention to the investor warning of the UK regulator FCA. That’s important information, isn’t it?
Within only a few minutes, this correct, and for potential investors very important information was taken offline by TrustPilot saying that a possible violation of their guidelines would be investigated based on a complaint by its customer Capital Way.
OK, we gave it another try. Another FinTelegram reporter, also a registered client of Capital Way, wrote a second 1-star review. Again referring to the FCA warnign and, sgain, within minutes the review was being taken offline with the above-mentioned notice. In both cases, we provided Capital Way with the client number, the full name, and email address. TrustPilot asked us to do this and we complied.
4 days later still nothing
FinTelegram has informed TrustPilot via Twitter about the problem with Capital Way. No answer. Our reviewers have also not received an update from TrustPilot.
As of today, September 14, 2020, TrustPilot has not, or rather probably did not want to, manage to verify whether the FCA actually issued a warning against the TrustPilot client Capital Way aka Capital Way Group. In concrete terms, this means that potential client victims of Capital Way looking for clues to possible scam activities will not find anything on TrustPilot.
What value does such a review platform have in the fight against scammers and for a secure cyber environment? Correct, none at all! On the contrary, TrustPilot may become a dangerous source of fake news and fake realities.
