Online reviews have become the primary tool for making purchasing decisions on the internet. The problem is that they are also the most easily manipulated. Paid reviews, those generated by artificial intelligence, those written by the seller themselves, or those posted by fake accounts skew the results and make it difficult to distinguish a trustworthy seller from a scammer.

Reviews on the seller’s website: the least reliable source

Reviews posted directly on the seller’s website are by far the least reliable source of information. The seller has full control over what is published and can delete negative reviews, post fake ones, and moderate content as they see fit. If a site shows only 5-star reviews with no negative comments, it’s not because the service is perfect—it’s because the reviews are filtered or fabricated.

External platforms: better, but not perfect

Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and similar platforms are more reliable because the seller cannot delete negative reviews. However, even on these platforms, there are services that sell fake reviews for a fee. Look for suspicious patterns: a large number of positive reviews concentrated within a few days, generic and repetitive text, reviewer profiles with only one review, or extremely polarized ratings (all 5-star or all 1-star, nothing in between).

Technical verification: the data doesn’t lie

Unlike reviews, a website’s technical data cannot be easily falsified. The domain’s age is an objective fact: a site registered yesterday cannot have a three-year history. The presence or absence of a VAT number is verifiable. The SSL certificate, DNS configuration, server geolocation, and presence in international security databases are all measurable parameters that cannot be manipulated by the seller.

Ghost Stores on Marketplaces

Even large marketplaces aren’t immune. On Amazon, for example, third-party sellers can open an account, sell for a few weeks by exploiting the trust consumers place in the marketplace itself, and then disappear before complaints pile up. Warning signs: sellers with few or no reviews, prices significantly lower than the market average, very long shipping times, and communication that encourages completing the transaction outside the platform.

How to verify in practice

Before buying from an unknown seller, follow these steps: check the website on ShopSicuro for technical details; search for the website’s name on Google by adding “scam” or “reviews”; check if the seller has a genuine social media presence with a consistent history over time; verify the legal information (VAT number, business name) on the Italian Revenue Agency’s website; finally, if the seller is on a marketplace, check their seller profile, reviews, and account creation date.