A debt collector has branded a one star review ‘fake’ and reported the poster to police.

Cobra Financial Solutions claims the reviewer used a ‘fake name’ and hid ‘behind a keyboard’ as they slammed the company on Trustpilot.

The reviewer, who called themselves Gareth Edwards, said he made a ‘big mistake’ using the Liverpool-based debt collectors.

He wrote: ‘Not sure what has happened to these guys recently, they acted for me a couple of years ago, all OK apart from the 20% fee is way over their competitors charges.

‘But you think “hell, I’ll pay a premium for a premium service” – big mistake!!! And now they seem to be getting very defensive when they get a bad review, strange.’

Cobra soon responded to ‘Gareth’ by saying his review was ‘fake’ and ‘under investigation’ by both Trustpilot and Merseyside Police.

The company said: ‘As always if anyone person would like to speak to ourselves they can do, this would be a much better approach rather than hiding behind their keyboards using fake names and portraying to be someone they are not.’

Head of enforcements at Cobra, Steve Browne, said fake reviews are an ‘absolute killer’.

He told Metro.co.uk: ‘Do you know why they’re a killer? They put people out of jobs. They put businesses at risk.’

He said there is a ‘protocol you have to adhere to with TrustPilot’ but said the review site ‘need to do more to stop preventing people just writing stuff up’.

He added: ‘Staff can lose jobs, businesses can go to the wall, and I wanted to meet them, and they said, “Oh, do you want to come to Denmark?”

‘Well, there’s the issue.’

Trustpilot has now suspended the review pending an investigation ‘in accordance with our reporting processes’, according to a statement on its website.

Merseyside Police confirmed they were contacted by Cobra in relation to a dispute

A force spokesperson said: We were contacted at 3.30pm on Monday, August 5, following reports that a member of staff had received verbal threats over the phone from a member of the public.

‘Enquiries are ongoing to speak to the complainant.’

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