Investigations carried out by KwikChex underscore the need for greater integrity in information that is supposed to guide consumers. Many times over the years, KwikChex has revealed examples of online reviews being used to deceive consumers.

In the latest example, it is shown how serial scammers can set up online profiles that include high ratings with ease.

There is a business calling itself ‘bitcoindoubler’ It makes many claims to legitimacy and great investment performance – and has a rating on reviews site Trustpilot, which is ‘excellent’ with glowing recommendations, confirming it is trustworthy and id delivering high investment returns.  https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bitcoin-doubler.eu One example reads

“Most trusted site ever Thank you so much for your services. btc-doubler.biz is legit”

Ironically, such praise is often an indication of review fraud. In this case, the fraudster forgot which business he was meant to be recommending, and praised btc-doubler.biz instead.

That’s not the only aspect that is ‘sloppy scamming’. A closer look at bitcoin-doubler reveals

• Their UK incorporated company shown on their website was struck off in 2019.
• There is a long chain of connected scam businesses, some of which have also used online reviews, including Trustpilot to deceive consumers.

There is also a spam review on the bitcoin-doubler profile for a scam bitcoin funds recovery service – something very common which KwikChex has flagged previously.

This should be an easy scam profile to spot as there are many elements that should trip review fraud detection systems, but there has been repeated online review fraud abuse without the necessary actions being taken.  In reality, if there was robust consumer safeguarding, such businesses should never make it on to reviews sites in the first place. It actually doesn’t stop there in this case, because further investigation has revealed many more businesses using the same reviewer profiles involved in the bitcoin fake review chain.

This is a classic example of the reason Veri-Good is being launched. Verification is a crucial factor in stopping scammers and of course, in doing all possible to ensure that consumers can view accurate information on the high standards of good businesses. Without such core checks, fraudsters will continue to use online reviews as a part of their illegal methodology.

Update

On 10/02/22, KwikChex was featured in an article in the Mirror newspaper following a joint investigation on cryptocurrency reviews on the Trustpilot site. Click here to view article on KwikChex.