Outlook Business Desk
Fraudsters are pressuring businesses to pay hundreds of dollars by threatening to post fake negative reviews on Google Maps or by posting them first and then demanding money for removal, according to multiple business accounts and watchdog data, according to a New York Times report cited by ET.
In June, Los Angeles contractor Natalia Piper received a WhatsApp message from a number in Pakistan, warning her about an order the messeger had received to post 20 fake reviews on her Google listing. Replying to the message dragged her into a sophisticated extortion scheme.
Piper initially paid scammers in Bangladesh and later Pakistan to delete the fake reviews on her business listing page. Despite payments, new negative reviews kept appearing, forcing her to report them directly to Google. Her business’s star rating fell from 5.0 to 3.6. "It took me eight years to get my reputation in the market, and one guy can damage it in one day," she said in an interview.
Meanwhile, Betourney spent years building Budget Moving Services, encouraging real customers to leave honest feedback. His efforts earned a 5-star Google Maps rating. On August 11, he received a WhatsApp alert that 20 fake 1-star reviews had been ordered against his page, risking his reputation.
Former criminal investigator Kay Dean, who founded Fake Review Watch, a platform monitoring deceptive online reviews, found over 150 businesses targeted worldwide. She warns that fraudulent accounts often strike multiple unrelated firms within weeks, patterns she insists Google should be able to detect more easily.
Fraudsters are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate realistic fake reviews on a massive scale. Despite platforms like Google and Amazon removing millions annually, countless fake reviews continue slipping through and affecting unsuspecting businesses worldwide.
Businesses blame Google and other platforms for not offering enough support. Under US law Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online platforms are largely shielded from liability for content posted by users. This leaves business owners with limited tools to protect their reputations online.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) introduced rules in 2024 against fake reviews, but these mainly cover businesses buying positive ones. The regulations place no new obligations on Google, Yelp or Amazon to stop fraudulent reviews or extortion schemes.
However, FTC warns that reviews must be truthful, with violators facing civil fines over $53,000 per fake review. While Google lets businesses report fraudulent reviews, it provides no direct support, and the FTC may collaborate with foreign authorities or involve the Department of Justice to tackle scammers.
Trends like those observed by Dean, where fake accounts target multiple unrelated businesses with negative reviews over days or weeks, should be easy for Google to detect and remove. Yet these reviews often stay online until reported individually.