Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

Summary

Today marks the end of an era. After nearly a decade of helping millions of shoppers navigate the murky waters of online reviews, Fakespot has officially closed its doors. If you tried to check a product listing this morning and found Fakespot not working, you're not alone. The service has permanently shut down.TL;DR: Fakespot, the popular fake review detection tool acquired by Mozilla in 2023, shut down today, July 1, 2025. Founded by Saoud Khalifah in 2016, it helped millions identify unreliable Amazon reviews with 90% accuracy before Mozilla discontinued it due to sustainability challenges.Fakespot's originsBack in 2016, Saoud Khalifah bought a product on Amazon, trusting the glowing reviews, only to discover he'd been duped by fake feedback. Instead of just leaving his own angry review, Khalifah took a more proactive approach: he built Fakespot.What started as one person's frustration with deceptive sellers became a tool that analyzed millions of reviews across Amazon and other major retailers like eBay and Walmart. The premise was simple but powerful: use AI to spot patterns that human shoppers might miss, like suspiciously similar language or reviewer profiles that didn't quite add up.The magnitude of the deceptionFakespot's technology revealed some eye-opening statistics. About 43% of the best-selling Amazon products had reviews that were unreliable or fabricated, according to a study by app company Circuit. The problem was even worse in certain categories. Clothing and jewelry led the pack with a staggering 88% of reviews deemed unreliable.These numbers painted a sobering picture of the online shopping landscape. Most of us rely on product reviews as a major factor when deciding what to buy, but nearly half of the feedback you read might not be genuine.Funding and acquisitionAs Fakespot gained traction, investors took notice. In November 2020, the company raised $4 million in Series A funding, bringing their total funding to $7 million and signaling strong c...