Mover IP Check

Movers cannot review themselves or other movers. One method Citimove uses to detect this is the IP address. Each computer has a unique address (IP address) to identify itself when it makes a connection to the internet. This address is usually assigned by your internet service provider.
Each time a mover logs in, Citimove checks to see if they are logging in from a new IP. A log of the IP addresses is created. The IP address of each reviewer is also logged. If any review is submitted by an ip address used by a mover, Citimove staff is immediately notified to investigate.

This check is not foolproof. Sometimes movers and customers log in from public computer terminals which can also be used by customers. Other Internet Service Providers (like AOL) assign you a new IP address each time you connect to the internet. Even cable modem and DSL users are sometimes assigned new IP addresses. However, 95% of the time this check will correctly identify a review in violation of our policies.

Unique Phone Check

All Verified Reviews on Citimove.com have a job attached to them. Citimove.com checks each job to ensure that the phone number is unique, and was not used by another customer, or by another mover.

If a review has passed this check, this indicates that Citimove.com has a unique phone number to call and verify the review if the validity of this review is ever questioned. Movers and customers typically point to reviews that they feel are suspect. Citimove.com will call to verify the validity of the review.

Citimove.com allows movers to change their phone numbers in their profile. However, Citimove.com maintains a log of all phone numbers used by movers, in case they should decide to attempt to insert a fake job with that phone number in the future. Movers are heavily penalized if they attempt to review themselves or create a fake job.

Similar Email Check

Since customers cannot submit multiple reviews from the same email address, and movers cannot submit reviews of themselves, many people try to create fake email addresses in an attempt to submit a review in violation of our policies.

Citimove has developed complex algorithms to detect similar email addresses and notify Citimove staff of potential violations. For example, a customer may choose the following 2 email addresses:

johndoe1@hotmail.com
johndoe1@yahoo.com

That is very easy to detect. Other users may try something like this:

johndoe1@hotmail.com
johndoe2@yahoo.com

These are very simple examples. Many people try more complex methods. In the efforts to maintain our security techniques, we will not divulge all of our secrets. Rest assured, our algorithm is much more complex and can detect similarities much less obvious than these.

Unique Address Check

All jobs have a source address and a destination address. Citimove.com checks these addresses to see if they match the addresses on any other moves. (Or the address of any mover.)

A daily report is sent to Citimove.com staff indicating any similar addresses. Citimove.com staff investigates all suspect jobs, and reviews from these jobs.

Movers are allowed to change their address in their profile. Citimove.com keeps a log of each address used. This log is used to detect movers who attempt to submit fake jobs.

Public Email Check

Public email addresses include accounts from yahoo.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com, aol.com, etc. Citimove maintains a list of over 100 different public email accounts. Reviews from these accounts are scrutinized more thoroughly by Citimove.

Reviews submitted from Non-Public emails are considered more reliable. These include reviews from .edu address, .com companies that don't offer free email addresses, and .org companies. If you see a review is submitted from a non-public email address, this is a good sign that the review is from a legitimate customer.

Unique Email Check

Citimove checks to ensure that the same customer is not reviewing the same mover twice, unless they have returned a year later to move again. This is a simple check, but you would be surprised how many people try to get away with this. Citimove staff receive a daily report of any email address used to submit reviews of more than 1 mover. All suspicious reviews are investigated.

Additional Checks

In addition to checking ip addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, cookies, and sessions, Citimove.com has numerous other ways of detecting fake reviews. We will not divulge all of our methods, but here are some simple examples:

1. Movers are very competitive, they check each others reviews frequently and will not hesitate to speak with us when a review of themselves or their competitors appears to be in violation of policy.
2. Citimove.com software detects if there is an unusually large number of reviews of an individual mover in a given day.
3. Citimove.com software detects if there is an unusually large number of reviews submitted for all movers in a certain time period.
4. Citimove.com will ocassionally email suspect reviewers from a random email account requesting a moving quote. If a response is given, it's a clear indication that the person is a mover reviewing himself or another mover.
5. Citimove.com does analysis on how quickly a review is submitted after the job is submitted. Movers who attempting to submit false reviews frequently will attempt to review themselves shortly after creating a fake job.