Ask HN: Hotel posts review for themselves under my account

[Ylmaz]

I recently stayed in a hotel and on my way home I received an email from booking.com thanking me for a positive review. However, I was surprised because I never left a review and my account credentials were secure. The review was glowing and rated the hotel 10/10, leading me to believe that the hotel posted the review under my account. I contacted customer support, but they claimed it was impossible. Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight on how it could have happened?

[kidgorgeous]

sign on through one of their web pages, sniffed password through wifi, secret alliance with booking.com. take your pick

[Ylmaz]

These are all good ideas.

I'm careful with my login. I used my Google account with two-factor authentication to log in on booking. I never signed through one of their web pages. I also only use HTTPS.

It is a small independent hotel, not a chain so it seems a lot of work just for a review.

[justinclift]

Wonder if there's some way a booking.com backend/ops person can extract the IP address info of whoever made the edits?

There's potentially (low level) fraud involved with people making fake reviews, so you might be able to find a legal avenue to get it looked into.

[Ylmaz]

I contacted customer support again they flagged the review for their fraud/security team. They will get back to me.

[justinclift]

Cool. Hopefully this gets properly figured out. :)

[ssss11]

Wow that’s outrageous! Haha. The lengths people will go to, to receive good reviews.