Online reviews: a valuable data source for analyzing a website’s reliability

To calculate its trust score, Scamdoc.com relies on numerous criteria, most of which come from technical data. While the algorithmic approach provides good results, user feedback remains essential! Online reviews are indeed valuable data that Scamdoc uses to refine its rating system. Here, we explain how it interprets them…

How are online reviews utilized?

Online reviews, positive or negative, are used by Scamdoc to influence the trust score calculated for websites.

They are used in several ways:

  • Detection of suspicious business practices: When Scamdoc detects reviews in significant quantities, it tries to identify the characteristics of potential complaints from users (examples: undelivered products, significant delivery delays, unsolicited subscriptions, use of drop shipping…). Once the information is extracted, it is sent to the algorithm for score adjustment.
  • Manipulation of online reviews: Some websites write fake positive reviews in an attempt to manipulate consumers. Scamdoc actively searches for this type of behavior and notifies the algorithm accordingly. There is even a dedicated criterion for this!
  • Behavioral analysis of customer service: The interactions of a website and its customers is also a valuable indicator. When a website responds personally to consumers, it can impact the final score.

What are the data sources used by Scamdoc?

Some information used by the algorithm comes from the Scamdoc site itself but also from other sites such as Signal-Arnaques.com, Scamwatcher.com, Fraude-Alerte.ca… as well as numerous third-party data.

What are the impacts of reviews on the final score?

User reviews have a weight that can vary from one site to another based on numerous criteria: Quality and quantity of detected reviews.