What counts as a fake or abusive review

Not every review you disagree with is fake. A bad experience honestly told is a legitimate review even when the business does not like it. We act on reviews that fit one of these categories:

• Fake transaction. The reviewer never bought from or used the business.
• Paid or incentivised. The reviewer was paid, given free product, or otherwise compensated to write the review.
• Coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Multiple reviews from the same source, the same network, or a coordinated group pushing the rating up or down.
• Wrong business. The reviewer is talking about a different business with a similar name.
• Off-topic. The review is not about the business's service or product, for example, complaints about a politician or general venting.
• Defamatory. Factual claims about the business that are demonstrably false.
• Abusive content. Slurs, harassment, personal attacks, sexual content, or threats of violence.
• Conflict of interest. The review is written by the business owner, an employee, a competitor, or a close associate.
• Private information. The review exposes a private individual's contact details, address, NIN, BVN, or other protected personal data.

How to flag a review

1. Open the review. Go to the business profile and find the review you want to flag.
2. Click the flag icon. Each published review has a small flag icon next to it.
3. Tell us what is wrong. Pick the category that fits best and add a short note explaining your concern. The more specific you can be, the faster we can act.

You need to be signed in to flag a review. This is so we can ask follow-up questions if needed and so we can spot when the same person flags many reviews in a short window.

What happens after you flag

Every flagged review goes into a moderation queue.

1. Initial check (within hours). Our automated systems re-score the review against fake-review signals, conflict-of-interest patterns, and abusive language detection.
2. Human review (within two business days). A trust and safety team member reads the flag, the review, and the business profile, and makes a call.
3. Outcome. The review stays, gets edited (rarely), or comes down. We email you the outcome and the reasoning.

If the flag is upheld, the reviewer is also notified, told what rule the review broke, and given a chance to appeal. Repeated violations against the same account lead to suspension. See our content moderation policy for the full process.

How Ratecrest detects fakes behind the scenes

Flags from users are one signal among many. Our trust and safety systems work continuously, not just when someone reports a review.

Automated detection

We use a mix of signals to score every review before it publishes:

• Account history, age, and review velocity (a brand-new account writing five glowing reviews in an hour is a red flag).
• Device, IP, and network fingerprinting to detect coordinated networks.
• Linguistic analysis to spot AI-generated text, copy-pasted reviews, and templated phrasing.
• Cross-checks against known paid-review marketplaces and broker networks.
• Sentiment-rating mismatches (a five-star rating with a description of a terrible experience, for example).

Reviews scoring above our automated risk threshold are held for human review before going live. Lower-risk reviews publish immediately and get re-checked when new signals come in (more flags, account behaviour changes, etc).

Manual moderation

A small trust and safety team handles every flagged review, every appeal, and every escalated case. Our moderators are human, in Nigeria, and trained to apply our policies consistently. We do not outsource final moderation decisions to overseas vendors or to a fully automated system.

Account-level action

When a pattern emerges around an account, whether a reviewer or a business, we act at the account level. Consequences range from a written warning, to a published note on the business profile, to account suspension or permanent removal. The most common pattern we act on is a business attempting to manipulate its rating, whether through fake positive reviews of itself or fake negative reviews of competitors.

Account-level actions are logged in your account history and you can appeal them through our dispute resolution process.

When flagging is not the right action

You disagree with the review but it is honest

A negative review you disagree with is still the reviewer's experience. Reply to it instead. Public, professional replies do far more for a business's reputation than removing critical reviews.

The business and the customer are still in dispute

If a transaction is still being resolved (refund pending, repair in progress, etc), use our dispute resolution process rather than flagging the review. Once the issue is settled, the reviewer can update their review to reflect the outcome.

You believe the review is defamatory

Defamation is a legal matter, not just a content moderation one. Flag the review with the "defamatory" category, and reach out through our contact form with details. We will hold the review while we review the claim and may require evidence before taking further action.

Found one to flag?

Open the business profile, find the review, click the flag icon, and tell us what is wrong. We will get back to you within two business days.