A number of prop trading firms have had their ratings on review site Trustpilot suspended, presumably for abusing the site by posting fake reviews.
The trio were highlighted – but not named – in a new report on prop firms by marketing agency FYI.
Having looked into the matter further, TradeInformer found that Blue Guardian, Audacity Capital, and AquaFunded have all had their ability to access the platform revoked.
Trustpilot’s guidelines block a range of activities, like offering certain incentives to leave reviews.
However, in the case of the three props mentioned the site says that all of them have had fake reviews left on their profiles.
It’s not particularly difficult to spot this activity, with many ‘glowing’ reviews all left on the same day and making a very similar set of claims.
Reviewers also tend to be from emerging market economies, where buying a bulk package of fake reviews is much cheaper and easier to do.
Trustpilot has become a key trust market for prop firms, as it is many other companies operating in the financial services industry.
Online reputation management has arguably become a bigger part of prop activities than it would be for brokers.
This is in large part because there are so many fraudsters targeting props, who themselves leave fake reviews if their efforts to defraud props fail.
At the same time, the fact that prop firm clients lose their accounts based on rule breaches – rather than margin calls – means the end client can often be in a position where they feel they were scammed by the prop, in a way that would not be as pronounced if they were trading with a broker.
