A man who wrote fake reviews about Italian restaurants and hotels on the travel site Tripadvisor has been sentenced to nine months in prison and fined just over 80,000 kronor.
The man offered to sell glowing reviews to businesses around Italy to boost their rankings on the Tripadvisor website, which has hundreds of millions of visitors each month.
”"We see this as a milestone for internet law enforcement. Writing false reviews on Tripadvisor has always been a violation of the law in many jurisdictions... but this is the first time we have seen the laws applied to secure a conviction," the American company wrote in a statement.
The fraudster was convicted in a court in the southern Italian city of Lecce in June, according to Tripadvisor.
Source: TT
