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What are Falsified Reviews and how does Clutch address them?

Any reviews left by an individual impersonating a different person or an individual who has no legitimate client-customer relationship with the service provider are considered falsified reviews.

Our team strives to eliminate artificial or falsified reviews to help buyers make informed decisions when seeking a service provider. To find out more about how we do this, you can read about our Review Verification practices

When users submit a review that does not represent an authentic business relationship, the content will not be published on the site. 

 

Examples of Falsified Reviews:

  • Reviews solicited in exchange for favors or money
  • Reviews for projects that never occurred
  • Projects with an intentionally concealed conflict of interest
  • Misrepresentation or impersonation of a reviewer’s identity

Submitting any inaccurate, fake, false, or defamatory information in a company profile or a review violates Clutch’s Terms of Service

If you believe a published review on Clutch to be a falsified review, please submit a report. Our Content Operations team investigates all reports of falsified content. 

How does Clutch address falsified reviews? 

When Clutch’s Content Operations team identifies that a review has been falsified during the editorial process, we do not move forward with publishing the content. 

If a review has been published, and we later become aware that it violates our Terms of Service or Review Guidelines, we will immediately remove the review from Clutch. At this time, the review will not contribute to the provider’s organic rank on Clutch. 

How does Clutch address providers that are purposefully violating our Terms of Service? 

Clutch audits all service providers suspected of violating our Terms of Service. Each audit consists of re-verifying every review on their profile using our most current verification process; we consider each review within the context of submission trends on that profile and across Clutch as a whole. 

We base these audits on both internal trends and reports from platform users. To address any confirmed violations, Clutch may: 

  • Remove all falsified, inaccurate, or inauthentic reviews from a provider’s profile
  • Suspend a provider’s access to their Clutch account
  • Remove a provider’s profile verification without a refund
  • Prohibit access to free and paid promotional opportunities like sponsorship and press releases