What Type of Evidence Helps Us Verify Your Review?

Most review platforms prevent fake reviews via automation to help buyers make better decisions. But at The Trust Search, where automation is only a step, all reviews are manually checked based on their transaction evidence to make sure they come from genuine customers and help businesses build authentic reputations.

To maintain the highest standard of trust, we occasionally request a little extra documentation to confidently champion your genuine experience, even when it already follows our reviewer guidelines.

This guide explains what type of evidence we require in our additional review verification, why we ask for it, and when we ask for it to help your review get verified and stay published.

Why Do We Ask for Evidence?

Sometimes a review needs additional verification to ensure it’s real and based on a genuine experience.

While your initial transaction invoice successfully verifies most reviews, we gladly welcome additional details whenever they can further highlight your authentic customer journey.

When that happens, we may ask you to provide us with evidence that connects you to the experience described in your review. This helps us resolve issues like flags and disputes and keep our platform more trustworthy for everyone, including businesses and buyers like you.

What Type of Evidence Can Help Verify Your Review?

We gladly accept a wide variety of documents, giving you the excellent freedom to share whatever clearly illustrates your successful interaction or purchase with the business.

Federal consumer protection agencies regularly advise buyers to save receipts, emails, and order confirmations to help resolve potential merchant disputes. Having these documents on hand not only protects your consumer rights but also makes verifying your reviews incredibly easy. 

So evidence can take different forms that can still help. Depending on your experience, useful evidence may include:

• Invoices or receipts showing your purchase from the business. (very helpful)

• Tickets showing your booking of a seat. (helpful)

• Order confirmations containing relevant transaction details. (helpful)

• Delivery records or reports connected to your purchase or service. (helpful)

• Screenshots of your account or order history showing your interaction with the business. (very helpful)

• Emails or messages exchanged with the business about your purchase or service. (very helpful)

• Other transaction-related evidence that reasonably connects you to the business and the experience described in your review.

Even without a traditional invoice or receipt, you have fantastic opportunities to showcase your authentic connection to a business using simple items like a friendly text message or a call log.

What Do We Look for in Review Evidence?

When you provide us evidence, you greatly help us establish a connection between you, the business, and the experience described in your review.

Depending on the type of evidence provided, we may look for information such as:

• The business name

• A transaction order or date

• The date of the purchase

• Information connecting the evidence to the review

Other details that really help us establish that the evidence relates to the business being reviewed.

You don’t need to provide the same kind of evidence for every review. Any piece of evidence can be of great assistance as long as it can support the customer experience described.

What If I Don't Have an Invoice or Receipt?

An invoice or receipt is not the only kind of evidence that we accept. So there’s no need to worry if you don’t have any of these. We gladly accept other types of evidence that prove that your purchase is real.

You may have an order confirmation, for example. Or you may have chatted with the company’s delivery person. If the evidence helps demonstrate that you interacted with the business, it can be very useful during the verification process.

We thoughtfully evaluate your submissions to find the most helpful details, ensuring a smooth and highly accommodating review evaluation process for you.

When Do We Ask for Evidence?

We may ask you for evidence when there’s a reason to confirm it’s authenticity, such as when:

• A user flags the review, believing that it’s not based on a genuine experience.

• The business disputes the review, believing that the transaction didn’t occur.

The exact reason behind flags or disputes can vary, but if the matter requires further review verification, we may reach out for more evidence.

How Does Evidence Help Keep Reviews Trustworthy?

According to the FTC's official guidelines for evaluating online reviews, one of the biggest red flags for modern shoppers is a platform flooded with unverified and easily manipulated feedback. 

The Trust Search works by preventing fake reviews through evidence. It is a part of the process we use to support the authenticity of reviews. We actively champion verified evidence to build a wonderfully reliable community, ensuring your authentic voice is valued and protected.

Requiring evidence when additional verification is necessary helps create a stronger connection between a review and the customer experience behind it. This can make it more difficult for fabricated experiences or unsupported claims to enter the review system.

Protect Your Personal Information

Your evidence may contain personal or sensitive information that is not necessary for the verification process. Before submitting evidence, avoid providing information that is not needed to establish your customer experience.

For guidance on what exactly constitutes sensitive data—such as bank account details, partial credit card numbers, or personal identification numbers—you can refer to the FTC’s guide on protecting personal information. Please cross out or redact this kind of sensitive data before uploading any files.

How to Submit the Evidence

Submitting your helpful evidence is a very simple and rewarding process. You may need to submit the evidence through the relevant flag or dispute screen. Simply locate the evidence request notification in your notifications panel, locate the evidence submission area, drag and drop the file, or click to open your device storage and select the file to upload.

If you’re new to The Trust Search and interested in learning how to write a review, check out our guide on how to write a review on The Trust Search.

What Happens After You Submit Evidence?

Once the requested evidence is submitted, it can be reviewed as part of The Trust Search's verification process.

The evidence is considered alongside the review and other relevant information to determine whether the review meets the platform requirements.

Providing evidence does not guarantee that a review will be published or remain published. Reviews must still comply with The Trust Search's applicable guidelines.

For more information on how we operate, visit how The Trust Search works.

Conclusion

The Trust Search may ask you for additional evidence if a review requires further verification. We do this to confirm that the review is genuine and prevent fake reviews, which helps us keep our platform more trustworthy. The type of evidence that can help verify your review may include invoices or receipts, tickets, order confirmations, delivery records or reports, screenshots, emails or messages, or other kinds of evidence that can reasonably support the review.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is evidence for review verification?

Evidence is information that greatly helps us demonstrate that a reviewer had a genuine purchase or experience with the business they’ve reviewed. Examples of good evidence types can include invoices, receipts, booking confirmations, delivery records, or relevant communication with the business.

Do I need an invoice to verify my review?

Having an invoice is helpful. However, you’re free to provide any piece of evidence other than an invoice, which will still be helpful. An invoice is just one type of evidence, but other kinds of evidence, like a booking confirmation or communication with the business, can also serve as reasonable proof and get your review verified with ease.

What evidence can I provide if I don't have a receipt?

You can provide other relevant evidence, such as an order confirmation or delivery record, as long as it helps establish your connection to the business.

Can I hide my personal information from my evidence?

Yes, you can freely hide your personal information that’s not required to verify the review. We’re happy as long as your evidence supports your review description and does not require you to provide us with additional information.