4-Star Fake Review Issue - Over 2.3 Million Fake Ratings on Google

[JoyHawkins]

Over the weekend, I got wind of a massive fake review campaign where businesses were blasted by dozens of 4-star reviews with no comments. There are currently over 2.3 million ratings that have been posted from profiles that are averaging over 64,000 ratings each. If you have noticed this on a business you work with, please report it on this thread.

 

[keyserholiday]

I have calculated that over 2.3 Million ratings have been posted by these 37 accounts. They are averaging 64,000 ratings per profile. The attacks are not just isolated to the US as the Global GMB thread is getting hammered with requests for help too.

 

[keyserholiday]

I also have two friends that are being indirectly impacted by this and a few colleagues' clients being affected by this.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Whoa. It's truly insidious! Insane how these schemes grow with such an impact on businesses.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I just added one of my clients to the forum.

 

[keyserholiday]

It has been added to the list

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Is there a pattern? Are there certain industries/business types being affected or is this in a specific area?

 

[keyserholiday]

So far no. There are 2,833,956 ratings left and counting since last Friday. Seeing a lot of businesses in the Denver area. Its an average of 76.593 ratings per profile. I can only see the 32 businesses that have come forward. Since its ratings and you can see the businesses being rated, I am completely blind to the pattern or motives behind the attacks. I think a class action lawsuit is warranted here.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Class action against Google?

 

[keyserholiday]

Yes. The business can show decreases in traffic, calls, and revenue they should ban together to take on Google. The articles and media coverage for the past 2 years would be more than enough ammunition to win.

 

[Phil Rozek]

It's amazing they didn't or couldn't think of more-realistic-sounding fake names!

 

[Phil Rozek]

Also puzzled as to why the perps didn't just go for the 3-star reviews, if the point is to drag down certain businesses' ratings. 3-star reviews are as unlikely to get filtered as are 4-star reviews (in my experience).

 

[keyserholiday]

As I told Joy, it's an unsophisticated sophisticated attack. The purpose is lost on everyone. Google is going to have to nuke the profiles to stop future attacks. Google still can't stop Tiger Ham's racist 1-star reviews.

 

[keyserholiday]

And Greg Gifford just stated one of his client's has been attacked by this review network.

 

[JoyHawkins]

A part of me feels like this is some hacker's attempt to show a vulnerability in Google's system kind of like Bryan Seely did years ago but this time they're trying to show that fake reviews are easy to manipulate. I can't think of any other reason why this would be happening.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

A part of me feels like this is some hacker's attempt to show a vulnerability in Google's system kind of like Bryan Seely did years ago but this time they're trying to show that fake reviews are easy to manipulate. I can't think of any other reason why this would be happening.

This is what I was thinking. Hopefully Google wakes up.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

I found one account so far has been impacted, and I reported it... thanks for the heads-up @JoyHawkins!

I've alerted my team, and asked them to notify me of any accounts they come accross, and I will report those as well.

 

[Damian Rollison]

@keyserholiday We have a client affected by this as well. Are you trying to build a list of fake reviewer names? I ask because we'd like to scour all of our accounts to see if we can track down any further examples that haven't been noticed yet by us or the client.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

@keyserholiday we'd like to scour all of our accounts to see if we can track down any further examples that haven't been noticed yet by us or the client.

I would like to do the same. I'm more worried about the possibility of these being seen as review solicitation. I think it would also be a good idea to flag the reviews as we come across them. I'm just not sure how much good it will do since there is only a star rating.

 

[keyserholiday]

I think we have all of the review profile names: Four star attacks
If you see new ones, let me know