CURRY house owners in Oxford have criticised a popular review website claiming people can post bogus scores.

TripAdvisor currently allows visitors to hotels, restaurants and local attractions to rate their experience out of five, with no need for proof of having visited.

On August 15, Indian restaurants in Oxford and Bicester received one-star reviews they believe were not genuine, which mentioned a rival business.

Aziz Rahman, manager of Aziz in Cowley Road, said: “There is interest in TripAdvisor among tourists coming into Oxford. “We worked very hard on our restaurant and in the last few months had four-star and five-star ratings. This came up and it was a real shock.

“When my son looked into it, he realised others were submitted against Temple Lounge, Majliss and Kadai & Naan in Oxford, and a place in Bicester.”

Following complaints, the comments were removed from TripAdvisor on Wednesday.

But Mr Rahman, 50, says they should not have been posted in the first place.

He said: “Clearly it’s not legitimate.

“How can you verify you dined in the restaurant? TripAdvisor should make a rule where you can only report with your receipt, or scan a receipt when you do a review.”

Prakash Sharma, 40, of Kadai & Naan, said: “Ratings affect how many people come in and mine has gone down.

“TripAdvisor should have more mechanisms to check whether the review is relevant. Nobody should be writing fake reviews.”

The reviews appeared to be from another Cowley Road restaurant, Malika’s, but manager Mohammed Miah believes someone hacked an existing account to implicate his business and drive a wedge between them and others.

He said: “We contacted the police. This is defaming my restaurant all the way through.

“We could laugh about it but it’s serious. All the restaurants need to get on board with TripAdvisor and complain.”

TripAdvisor’s James Key said: “A number of reviews for Oxford restaurants were reported to us.

“Following an investigation these reviews, including the review in relation to Aziz, were found in breach of our guidelines and removed.”

“A number of reviews for Oxford restaurants were reported to us and following an investigation by our content specialists, these reviews, including the review in relation to Aziz, were found to be in breach of our guidelines and thus were removed from the site.

"With regards to the introduction of receipt scanning, if this model was better for consumers, we would have adopted it years ago.  We have considered all of the verification options out there, and have elected to use our current model for one simple reason: the volume of opinions provides for the most in-depth coverage of consumer experience, and it is the model that consumers prefer.

"We believe that every experience counts, not just the experience of the person who paid the bill. For example, if four friends go out to dinner there will be four different opinions but under a verified model only the one person with the receipt would be able to leave a review. We don’t think that’s fair. If we required people to submit a receipt, then a lot of people who have had a genuine customer experience wouldn’t have a voice and that goes against what we stand for.

"It’s also worth noting that requiring a receipt to write a review wouldn’t prevent the most common type of fraud attempted – property boosting – as nobody has better access to receipts than a property owner themselves.”

WHAT THEY SAID

The following one-star or “terrible” reviews were posted on TripAdvisor by a user called ‘Noor M’ on August 15:

* Aziz restaurant, Cowley Road: “It was good a very long time ago. Tasteless and the manager is cold. I didn’t find anything good. Malikas is far better with good food and quality of service”

* Kadai & Naan, Cowley Road: “Food is useless and tasteless. I can’t find any good curry houses on the Cowley Road apart from Malikas.”

* Majliss, Cowley Road: “Not that good. I have been to many restaurants. Not even one good apart from Malikas. I had biryani no taste. Very angry. You can’t beat Malikas, far far from it”

* Temple Lounge, Temple Street: “I went there and I found food and service very bad. It was not that good. I highly recommend Malikas on Cowley Road for better food. Here I feel no comfort and sheesh a waste of time.”