Annoyed by the unreliability of comments posted on the community site, a British businessman has decided to set a trap for TripAdvisor by inventing a non-existent establishment. The page for the Oscar Brixham restaurant, in the United Kingdom, was thus created in May and shows a dozen rave reviews on the food and service of the imaginary establishment. It even managed to reach 29th place, out of 64, in TripAdvisor's rankings.The deception was not discovered until several months later, when customers attracted by the excellent comments went to the scene only to find a deserted alley and some garbage. Three months passed before the community site realized its new error and removed the establishment from its rankings.The story of the imaginary restaurant is part of a series of inconsistent comments posted on the website. This event recalls the ranking of a homeless shelter in the top 100 UK hotels earlier in the year (see our article in the April 29 "A homeless shelter finds itself in TripAdvisor's Top 100"). There is then a further illustration of the lack of rigorous methodology and ethics of online review sites, already denounced repeatedly by professionals.
