Investigation: fake five-star forums that only praise the site’s menu

Updated on November 7, 2026 · 4 min read

In short: while searching for recent platforms, we found a new tactic. These are fake forums on free blogs, with the platform’s name in the address, a rating of 5 out of 5 and real news from major media around them. The striking part is what the review says: it praises the menu and the loading speed, and says nothing about money. We found five, as well as dozens of pages on other free services. It all serves the same purpose: making searches for the name return results that look normal.

What a fake forum looks like

We saw this format on five WordPress.com blogs, created between 22 October and 2 November 2026, for Patrivelle, Ducatella, Fonds Thesorelle, Fondo Oraventa and Rentaurel. All five follow the same template, in the language of the country:

• It is called “[Platform] Forum” and claims to be a review forum, although there is only one text.
• It puts the names of major media under the title. In France, Le Monde, Le Figaro and franceinfo. In Italy, Corriere della Sera, ANSA and Il Sole 24 Ore. Those media have nothing to do with it.
• It gives 5 stars out of 5.
• It includes real news from that day, with the newspaper’s name and the date. The stories are not about the platform: they are there as set dressing.
• On the ones we could open, it carries a comment written by the same account, to make it look as if there is a conversation.

A review that says nothing

This is the text of the French review, summarised: the menu is simple and well organised, the pages load quickly on computer and mobile, and using the website is a pleasure. The Italian one says the same, almost word for word.

There is not a single line about returns, regulation, withdrawals or who is behind it. That makes sense: whoever wrote it does not want to make a claim that can be checked. All they need is for the phrase “5/5” and the platform’s name to appear together.

If you read a review of an investment platform and it only talks about the design, it is not a review of an investment.

The same technique on other services

We also found other formats:

• Digital collections. 15 pages on a free service designed for museums and libraries, with the platform’s name in the address and a promotional text. Several link to redirect domains such as portafex[.]com, invexios[.]com and capitalorya[.]com, and to an author from one of the bulk review sites. That ties this network to the one we already knew.
• Blogs with template titles. Titles such as “[Platform] Avis Forum-{RETOURS DE PROFIT À 100 %}-Fonctionnalités”, with curly brackets that give away text generated in bulk. They happily mix “100% profit” and “beware of fraud”, because the aim is to capture both searches. We saw this on platforms from several countries, and the same text is repeated on other free note-taking and website-building services.
• Free pages that lead to a blog. In the case of Valoirine, three free websites link to the same external “review”.

The owners of these services are not to blame: anyone can open an account in minutes. That is why an address ending in a well-known name says nothing about who published the content.

Why they do it

When someone sees an ad and searches for the name, a newly invented platform would have no results. That would be suspicious. With these pages, the search returns a list that looks normal: a forum, some reviews, an article. Hardly anyone opens them all: a quick glance is enough.

How to recognise them

1. The address ends in a free service and starts with the platform’s name.
2. A forum with no conversation. A real forum has several users, different dates and complaints.
3. Media logos or names unrelated to the content.
4. Generic text: the review could apply to any website.
5. Everything was published on the same day.
6. Nothing on what matters: who the company is, what licence it holds and whether anyone has managed to withdraw money.

However good it looks, what counts is whether the company is authorised. You will find more signs in how to recognise fake reviews.

Limitations of this investigation

• We only read these pages as text, without filling anything in.
• We checked some of the most recent platforms. There are certainly more pages like these.
• We do not know who publishes them. Three of the five forums come from the same account, and the other two use the same template.
• Some services blocked us and others do not show up properly in search engines, so we cannot rule them out.