Sitting in for Angela today is attorney James M. Walsh. Thanks, James!!! 🙂
OVERVIEW
- Trustpilot does not know which 5-star reviews are fake. It doesn’t appear that they have a way of preventing scammers from posting 5-star reviews about their own companies.
- Trustpilot has programs for companies that range from $259-$1059/month. They also have a free program. Trustpilot makes no money from consumers posting reviews.
- Trustpilot routinely removes negative reviews. They will contact the reviewer, offer to let them edit the review if it (supposedly) violates their guidelines, or let the reviewer upload proof that the review is true. However, per my and Angela’s experiences, even if you have proof, they may still remove the review. In my experience, I had to contact their legal department and it then took them 2 1/2 months to put my negative review back up.
- There are many companies online that offer, for a fee, to negotiate with review websites to have a company’s negative reviews removed. The two we looked at today specifically mention Trustpilot on their websites. One states, “Design & Launch Removal Campaign – Our team of experts takes action using various insider connections to businesses, legal options, SEO strategies, software reporting, or a combination of multiple facets.” (The bold was added by me.) Companies can also pay to have fake positive reviews posted about them online. “Review” websites are rife with abuse.
- In my opinion, the Better Business Bureau, while not perfect, does a much better job than Trustpilot.
Seventy-one percent of US consumers surveyed in 2022 agreed that a good Trustpilot score makes them more likely to buy from a brand. Fifty-four million reviews were posted on Trustpilot in 2023.
“Real reviews by real people,” proclaims Trustpilot’s home page. Unfortunately, that is simply not 100% true.
Like Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook, Trustpilot has been beyond compromised by the onslaught of self-publishing Predators. Fabricated five-star reviews are poisonous arrows that Predators use to hoodwink and bamboozle aspiring authors into forking over their money. The Predators throw in deceptive Clutch, Sitejabber, and Bark “endorsements” to cloak their criminal enterprises with perceived credibility. How can this be?
A good way to spot fake five-star reviews is to see how many are posted in a very short time-frame, and some of them a very short time after a company has launched their website, before they’ve had time to perform all of those services for an author. Some of these so-called publishers aren’t even listed on Amazon as having published any books…yet they have 5-star reviews from authors on Trustpilot and other sites.
Almost without exception, these fraudulent “publisher” sites contain stolen book covers (from books they did not publish, which is copyright infringement) or “covers” for books that were never published (fake covers), bogus reviews/endorsements/testimonials along with fake customer and employee photos, and fake statistics and awards, such as Google Partner, 95 New York Times Best Sellers, and 10,000+ satisfied customers, along with bogus affiliations with venerated publishing houses like Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book Group. And, of course, there are the false affiliations with Esquire, Los Angeles Times, BBC, Fox, NBC, and the like (trademark infringement). Using deception to trick customers into doing business with you is FRAUD, which is a crime.
Posting fake 5-star reviews about your company is also fraud.
It’s important to note that companies can pay Trustpilot $259-$1059/month for a variety of services (there is also a free option) while consumers pay them nothing.
Trustpilot can censor derogatory reviews (as they originally did to me). Yet, there are countless fake 5-star reviews on their website. Why aren’t those being scrutinized as well?
Just examine the Trustpilot page for Publishing Mojo, the company that scammed my co-author. Do I believe the 5-star reviews about them on Trustpilot? No, I do NOT! Here’s the true negative review that I had to debate Trustpilot for 2 1/2 months about:
This article will show you how Publishing Mojo REALLY does business. It ain’t pretty!
This article levels some serious allegations against Trustpilot’s business model.
This is a typical boilerplate response to negative reviews by Trustpilot’s Content Integrity Team:
Hi,
Thank you for your detailed submission.
After reviewing your content, we regret to inform you that we cannot publish your review at this time because it still contains potentially defamatory statements. Our guidelines are in place to ensure that all reviews are fair, honest, and do not include harmful or misleading claims.
You are welcome to submit a revised review that complies with our guidelines, focusing on your personal experience without making allegations that could be considered defamatory.
If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re happy to assist.
Umm, folks, Truth is an absolute defense to defamation! This tact begins with the presumption that what an individual reviewer has submitted is false. Again, why aren’t the 5-star reviews given the same scrutiny? Just like you can purchase likes and followers on social media, companies can also pay people to post fake positive reviews on sites like TrustPilot. Or, they can simply do it themselves under a variety of fake names.
Trustpilot Group PLC’s website proclaims: “Trustpilot is here to help you shape and improve the world. We do it by giving you a powerful, open-to-all review platform where you can share and discover experiences, and connect with businesses to help them improve.”
Really ?
“The only thing we ask is that you respect and follow these guidelines (together with our Terms of Use) to help us all keep Trustpilot a collaborative and trustworthy place for everyone to enjoy. Thanks for getting on board — let’s upgrade the world!”
Jabberwocky! Here’s my personal experience as an actual consumer who worked with an actual scammer:
I posted a negative review about Publishing Mojo, which I and my co-author had been working with. I spent 2 ½ months debating Trustpilot’s Content Integrity Team before I finally reached out to its Chief Legal & Policy Officer, Carolyn Jameson. I implored:
Trustpilot has a fiduciary responsibility to vet usurious and unscrupulous predators. And that is what I am asking for Publishing Mojo. Their favorable reviews are questionable at best. You have a fox in your hen house, and it has indelibly tarnished Trustpilot’s credibility. Our experience with Publishing Mojo has been a nightmare. Look closely at this predatory scam.
Trust and Pilot carry very strong connotations. If it is as simple as an entity paying a fee, puffing their wares, and exploiting unwitting consumers, then your website really serves no useful purpose. We [my colleague and I] relied on Trustpilot, and we relied – to our detriment – on Publishing Mojo’s fraudulent sales pitch on Trustpilot.
Eventually, Trustpilot Group PLC folded and my negative review was allowed to post. Insofar as Trustpilot is concerned, when it comes to the sea of self-publishing Predators on Facebook, inflated 5-star reviews are nothing more than a huge red flag, and otherwise meaningless.
Last week, Angela Hoy posted the following on Trustpilot about BloomsPublishers.com:
This is a scam organization. They have numerous websites. 1. Fake book covers on their site (that appear on other scam sites). 2. They claim to be in Texas but Facebook says they’re in Pakistan. 3. They stole logos from
media outlets (trademark infringement) and put them on their site (very common amongst scammers). They have NEVER been on HBO! 4. Their website is only 6 weeks old. 5. They have fake Trustpilot reviews on their
homepage. None of those reviews are here.
(An interesting note is that they got a 5-star review on TrustPilot only 6 days after their website launched. Only 8 days after their site launched, they got another 5-star review from someone claiming they illustrated his book. That is NOT enough time to illustrate a book! Only three weeks after their site launched, a “woman” posted a 5-star review claiming they’d taken her idea and turned it into a book manuscript. They now have 12 5-star reviews on Trustpilot. I don’t believe any of them. Even today, if you search on Amazon (advanced search) for Blooms Publishers, ZERO books pop up.)
Trustpilot sent Angela the standard response, which tells us the company complained to them about the negative review. Angela was given the option of either editing her review, or providing proof of the allegations.
Angela went to the Trustpilot website, and posted this proof:
Below is my review with the proof under the ***’s. I have also attached screenshots to document everything.
This is a scam organization. They have numerous websites.
***We have been investigating foreign scam operations (most based in Pakistan) for our series here: A List of Publishers That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS! – https://writersweekly.com/angela-desk/a-list-of-publishers-that-all-authors-should-avoid-at-all-costs
Blooms Publishers is scheduled to be added to that large list.
Please note that WritersWeekly has been exposing scammers in the publishing industry for 26 years.
1. Fake book covers on their site (that appear on other scam sites).
***They have identical book covers on their website (bloomspublishers.com) that their other scam websites also use. Literally the EXACT same book covers, with no author names (they are fake). If you search for some of those books on Amazon, you’ll see that they don’t exist. If you do an advanced search on Amazon for the name Blooms Publishers under “publisher,” you’ll see that they have published no books at all.
***The address on their website says they’re in Texas but, like the majority of the scammers we’re tracking, the Facebook page by the same name says they’re in Pakistan.
“Page manager location is Pakistan”
3. They stole logos from media outlets (trademark infringement) and put them on their site (very common amongst scammers). They have NEVER been on HBO!
***Again, I have screenshots but you can look at their website as well. There is an entire row of logos from media outlets: Esquire, HBO, BBC, The New Yorker, and others. Their website has only been live for 6 weeks. They haven’t published any books and they haven’t gotten interviews with any media outlets. This is another common tactic of scammers. They use major media logos (without permission), which is trademark infringement.
They also have the logo of a major New York City publishing house, Random House. Not only have they never done business with that company, but that company has a warning on their website about scammers stealing their trademarks. This is not only trademark infringement but it’s also fraud.
4. Their website is only 6 weeks old.
***This is easily proven by copying and pasting their URL into WhoIs.
***I have screenshots of this as well. It looks like, overnight, they changed those to just text reviews and removed the TrustPilot references but I already had screenshots. This is further proof that they are using fraud to try to trick authors into signing up for their service. Not only is Facebook aware of this crime syndicate, but the FBI is as well. This shows how they were fraudulently tricking people into thinking those reviews were on TrustPilot.
***PLEASE KNOW THAT all of these scammers are on Trustpilot. They are posting fake positive reviews. Those are easy to notice because they’ll post several 5-star reviews in a very short time period (a few days) and many have bad syntax. If these were really authors posting these reviews, they would be using correct English.
Angela heard back from Trustpilot. They said her review could be defamatory (even with the proof!!!) and they removed it. Angela submitted a similar complaint about another publishing scammer and they removed that one as well.
INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, after that company was caught RED HANDED committing fraud on their website using the Trustpilot name and logo with completely fake 5-star reviews, Trustpilot did NOT remove the company’s listing on Trustpilot, and allowed the questionable 5-star reviews that were posted to Trustpilot to remain. Yet, Angela’s completely factual negative review, with unquestionable proof, was deleted by Trustpilot. What does that tell you about Trustpilot? Actions like this sure make it appear that Trustpilot is siding with companies (remember those hefty monthly fees above?); not consumers.
If you are using Trustpilot when considering working with a publisher, do what we do. Ignore EVERY four- and five-star review because they can’t be trusted. (Some companies give themselves a fake 4-star review once in awhile to make it appear to be a legitimate review). Only read the one-star reviews to get a true picture of what a company is doing.
Better yet, CONTACT ANGELA DIRECTLY. She has a method for checking these foreign publishing scammers that literally takes her five minutes. She’ll be VERY happy to help you out! And, if they are a scammer, you’ll be helping WritersWeekly readers out because she will add them to the publishing scammer list RIGHT HERE.
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JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.
James’ thriller, Maximum Impact, written with co-author Leo Murray, was published by Abuzz Press.
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