--- title: "How Review Verification Works: The 4 Verification Levels" description: "What a \"verified\" review proves depends on who verified it. The 4 verification levels, from open platforms to processor-attested proof." url: https://signedreviews.com/how-verification-works/ --- Verification # How Review Verification Works Four levels of "verified", from self-attested to processor-attested. What each one actually proves, and why the verification source matters more than the badge. **A "verified" review is only as strong as its verification source.** Every review platform puts a badge on some of its reviews, but the badge can mean anything from "the business emailed this person" to "a payment processor independently confirmed a real charge from this customer." Here are the four levels, what each one actually proves, and why the source of the verification matters more than the badge itself. ## The four verification levels ### Level 0. Open platforms (no verification) Anyone can post a review about any business, with or without an account, with no proof of any interaction. Examples: parts of Google Maps reviews, forum-style feedback, and platforms that accept reviews from non-customers. These reviews can still be useful in aggregate, but no individual review proves anything about a real purchase. ### Level 1. Email invitation (self-attested) The business invites a customer by email, and the review platform trusts the business's claim that this email belongs to a real customer. The reviewer's identity is never independently confirmed. This is the model used by most review platforms, including Trustpilot's "Verified" label, which means "the business invited this reviewer," not "this person bought the product." The cost of this model is baked into every platform's pricing: [what Trustpilot's pricing page hides](https://signedreviews.com/blog/trustpilot-pricing-explained/) explains how invitation limits and add-on fees shape what merchants actually pay. ### Level 2. Receipt or order-number upload The reviewer attaches a receipt, order number, or screenshot as proof of purchase. Stronger than an invitation, but the evidence is supplied by the reviewer themselves and is trivially falsifiable, receipts are easy to generate, and order numbers are guessable. Platforms that offer this usually apply it only when someone disputes a review. ### Level 3. Merchant-supplied order data The business sends the platform a feed of its own orders (or connects its e-commerce system), and the platform matches reviews to records in that feed. This is the model behind Yotpo's "Verified Buyer" (Mail-After-Purchase matching) and Feefo's invitation-only reviews. It is a real improvement over Levels 0–2, but the party being reviewed (the merchant) is also the party supplying the verification data, and the merchant controls that data in its own systems. ### Level 4. Processor-attested A neutral third party, the payment processor, holds the record of a real charge between this specific customer and this specific business, and a review can only exist if it matches that record. The merchant cannot invite a reviewer whose payment the processor has not seen, cannot edit the record, and cannot remove the verification after the fact. This is the level Signed Reviews provides: every review is bound to a specific Stripe charge ID and cryptographically signed at submission. | Verification level | Who supplies the evidence | What "verified" proves | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Level 0. Open | Nobody | That a review was posted | Open platforms | | Level 1. Email invitation | The business | That the business sent an invite | Trustpilot "Verified" | | Level 2. Receipt upload | The reviewer | That the reviewer attached something | Dispute flows on some platforms | | Level 3. Merchant-supplied feed | The business (its own records) | That the review matches a merchant order | Yotpo "Verified Buyer", Feefo | | Level 4. Processor-attested | The payment processor | That a real payment occurred | Signed Reviews (Stripe) | ## Why the verification source matters The source decides whether fake reviews are _prevented_ or merely _detected_. On Levels 0–3, a fake review is an invitation list or a doctored order away. The platform can only police reviews after they appear. On Level 4, a non-customer cannot post a review at all, because the review flow starts with a real charge in the processor's records rather than a claim about one. Faking one means running a real payment, which costs money and leaves a record. The scale of the problem is measurable. Trustpilot removed **4.5 million fake reviews in 2024, which is 7.4% of all reviews submitted** to the platform that year. That is a detection system working at scale, not a prevention system: the fakes were already live, already influencing shoppers, before they were removed. Regulators have noticed the same gap. The FTC's rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (effective October 2024) targets exactly the practices that Level 4 makes much harder: reviews from non-customers, purchased reviews, and "verified" claims without substance. The FTC's own guidance answers the question directly: a platform's "verified" label must mean the platform actually verified what it claims. ## How processor attestation works at Signed Reviews Signed Reviews connects to a business's Stripe account via Stripe's official OAuth: with **least-privilege scopes** that allow reading charges, customers, and subscriptions, but can never create charges, issue refunds, or move funds. Then: - **A charge succeeds.** Signed Reviews picks up the new charge from Stripe and, for a customer it has not invited before, creates a unique, expiring review invitation bound to that specific charge ID. - **The invitation goes to the payment email.** The address Stripe has on file for the actual payment, not an address the merchant typed into a list. - **The review is signed at submission.** The rating, review text, charge ID and timestamp are cryptographically signed together, creating a tamper-evident record anyone can check on the public verification page. - **Refunds hide reviews automatically.** A background check re-reads charges every 6 hours. If a charge is fully refunded or disputed, the review is hidden from public display and kept for audit, with no merchant action. Partial refunds stay visible. The result is a review that proves three things at once: a real customer, a real purchase, and unchanged content. The cryptographic signature makes edits detectable: if the review text or its charge reference changes, the signature no longer matches, and anyone can see that on the review's public verification page. ### The verification hierarchy in one sentence A review platform cannot verify a purchase more strongly than its verification source. If the source is the merchant, the platform verifies the merchant's records. If the source is the payment processor, the platform verifies the payment. Everything else (badges, policies, moderation) is downstream of that choice. ## Frequently asked questions ### What does a verified review actually prove? Depends entirely on who did the verifying. An email-invitation "verified" badge proves the business sent an invitation. A merchant-feed badge proves the review matches a record the merchant supplied. A processor-attested badge proves the review matches a real charge in the payment processor's records. Before trusting a badge, ask what the platform verified, and against whom. ### Can processor-verified reviews be faked? Not without a real payment. To produce a fake processor-verified review you would need to run a genuine payment through the merchant's Stripe account and then have the cardholder submit a review: an attack that costs money, leaves a financial record, and gains nothing that paying customers don't already provide. That is the structural difference between prevention and detection. ### Which review platforms verify against the payment processor? Signed Reviews is the only review platform that attests reviews against Stripe's own charge record. Other platforms verify against data the merchant supplies: an email address, an uploaded order list, or an e-commerce feed. None of them confirm the payment independently. [Start collecting processor-verified reviews →](https://platform.signedreviews.com) Related: [What "Verified Buyer" means](https://signedreviews.com/learn/what-does-verified-buyer-mean/) · [What Is a Verified Review?](https://signedreviews.com/blog/what-is-a-verified-review/) · [Are Trustpilot Reviews Reliable?](https://signedreviews.com/blog/are-trustpilot-reviews-reliable/)