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Why We Left Trustpilot: Toxic, AI-Driven & Open to Defamation

We’re stopping Trustpilot from defining our organisation and its operations.

Trustpilot logo relevant to this article — extortionate, defamatory enablers and toxic.
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ADVICIFAS
Corporate Protective
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June 22, 2025

For years, we tolerated Trustpilot’s shady practices, robotic customer service, and overpriced subscription model in the hope that they might evolve into a fair, transparent platform. But after seeing firsthand how they’ve enabled malicious, fake, defamatory reviews, extorted small businesses, and used AI to silence legitimate complaints—we’re done. Finished.

This is a breakdown of why ADVICIFAS will no longer engage with Trustpilot, and why we believe others should consider doing the same.

We want to speak directly to our clients and community about what this decision means and how it affects you.

Do not rely on Trustpilot to assess our reputation

Let’s make it clear why you shouldn’t put all your eggs in the same basket, especially with Trustpilot:

  • False and malicious reviews are allowed to stay online, even when there is evidence that:
    • They were written by people we’ve never worked with.
    • They were paraphrased copies of one another and clearly came from the same individual.
    • One was even published under a location in Sweden (SE) — we only offer services in the United Kingdom.
  • Genuine 5-star reviews from actual clients have been removed, while unverified defamatory reviews remain visible.
  • Their entire flagging system is now AI-only, meaning your experiences as clients — your truth — is not being verified or valued unless it fits their broken algorithm.
  • Their platform enables review blackmail — where users can threaten companies with bad reviews to extract unjustified refunds or favours.
  • Since we stopped paying them for their ridiculously-overpriced subscription, they actively worked against us, despite our track record of success and client satisfaction.
  • This is not just a one-off occasion, and happens at least 3 times every 3 months.

What you can trust

We’re moving to Feefo — a much more trustworthy platform that enables reviews from only those who have genuine experiences with us. ADVICIFAS is not against constructive criticism, but we’re finished with being blackmailed, extorted and misled. 

Malicious Review Spam: Repeated, Paraphrased Attacks Ignored

We flagged it. We explained it. We gave evidence. Still nothing.

  • We’ve been subject to numerous fake reviews, paraphrased and uploaded by the same individual using different accounts.
  • These reviews clearly carried malicious intent, yet Trustpilot refused to remove them—even when they were nearly identical.
  • One review was even posted from Sweden (“SE”), despite the fact that ADVICIFAS only serves UK-based clients. They still upheld it.
  • The end result? Reputational damage from fake users in fake regions, propped up by a review platform that no longer cares.

We rely on AI to determine malicious activity.

Yet here we are, proving it manually and still ignored.

The AI Review Moderation System is an Absolute Joke

Trustpilot has completely replaced their human-led review flagging system with an AI-only system, and it’s a disaster:

  • If you flag a review, the system no longer asks for proof of a genuine customer relationship from the reviewer;
  • Instead, it analyses how the reviewer’s account behaves. If their account looks “normal”, the review stays up—even if it’s defamatory;
  • We flagged a review calling us a scam, and their AI said it wasn’t defamatory. Only after forcing an escalation to a human team was it finally removed; and
  • They claim they prioritise “context over content”, but when the content itself is abuse? It still stays up.

TL;DR: Their AI system is not only flawed, it’s dangerous.

It actively enables reputation abuse while tying small business’ hands behind their backs.

£259 a Month to Be Ignored? No Thanks.

Let’s be clear: everything changed the moment we stopped paying them.

  • For £259 a month, we got no real value. Just a dashboard, vague analytics, and the “honour” of being slightly more visible.
  • The second we stopped paying? Trustpilot stopped responding. Flagged reviews were ignored. Abuse started increasing.
  • In short, they’ve punished us for cancelling their subscription by refusing to protect our page from attacks.

It’s extortion, plain and simple. Pay, or be left to rot under fake 1-star spam.

"We Own the Reviews" — Except When It Suits Them

At one point, we uploaded our clients’ own written reviews—which they owned and gave us full permission to use—on our website.

What did Trustpilot do?

  • Threatened us with a Consumer Warning on our profile if we didn’t remove them;
  • Claimed the reviews belonged to them, even though the authors themselves said otherwise; and
  • Accused ADVICIFAS of “misusing reviews” despite us simply hosting the same review on our own platform.

If this isn’t false intellectual property claiming, what is?

Legitimate Reviews Removed — Defamatory Ones Left Online

We’ve had real clients, with successful outcomes (CIFAS marker removals), leave reviews. They were:

  • Genuine clients, leaving separate reviews for the same joint case (allowed under Trustpilot’s guidelines).
  • Both reviews removed without explanation, despite verification being possible.
  • Yet 1-star reviews with no context, proof, or factual basis remain up.

Trustpilot seems obsessed with interrogating 5-star reviews while turning a blind eye to 1-star defamation.

Their Responses Are Robotic. Their Team Doesn't Care.

  • It takes days or weeks to get a response.
  • When you do, it’s a copy-pasted answer that clearly ignores your concerns.
  • If you flag a review for defamation, their AI can reject it within minutes — while a human team takes forever to respond.

You’re powerless unless you scream and escalate multiple times. Even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll be taken seriously.

Enabling Review Blackmail: Evidence Ignored

We’ve presented clear proof that someone left a negative review and tried to use it as blackmail to force an unjust refund.

Trustpilot’s response? Silence.

  • Even though this violates their own community guidelines, the review wasn’t removed.
  • Instead, they facilitated the blackmail by leaving it online, damaging our business.

If you’re a business trying to act lawfully, Trustpilot isn’t on your side.

Other UK Businesses Feel the Same — You're Not Alone

A scroll through LinkedIn and other forums reveals countless businesses raising the same complaints:

  • Ryan Badger — “Trustpilot promises to be “free and open” — in reality, they are the exact opposite, holding companies at ransom, and outright violating their own terms, as well as the law.”

  • Rishi Chowdhury — “Trustpilot has become a joke. Spam reviews, fake claims. They don’t care about small businesses anymore.”

  • Richard Mabey, CEO at Juro — “We spend £3k/month with Trustpilot. Still getting one-star spam and no response. If we’re treated like this at that price, imagine what happens to smaller businesses.”

So yes, this is it: We're Done With Trustpilot

Trustpilot is not a review platform. It’s a pay-to-play reputation extortion scheme with:

  • A broken AI moderation system that rewards defamation;
  • Extortionate pricing that punishes smaller firms;

  • Inaction against blackmail and spam;

  • A clear bias against those who don’t pay; and

  • An outright refusal to protect your business from coordinated attacks.

Good riddance, Trustpilot.

We’re officially done wasting our time, money, and mental energy on a platform that enables abuse, penalises honesty, and pretends to be a voice of transparency while doing the exact opposite.

If you’re a small UK business experiencing the same — you’re not alone.

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