A client got a Fake POSITIVE Reviews Attack, on multiple listings. They are all 5 Stars. Never saw this. What to do?

[vinchenson]

Hello guys, I hope everyone is doing great.

I never saw what happened to a client. He has different GBP's on different locations. Normally he was getting 1 legit review per week as an average number. Out of nowhere, we have noticed in a few listings of his, a spam of different positive 5 star reviews. The texts are positifve, non-duplicate, of someone "thanking them" for their service, even mentioning the brand name of the listing in the review...

I have triple-checked with them if they or someone working in their IT team could have purchased a lame fake review package but they PROMISE not to have doing such thing.

To be honest I'm worried, I expect them to be contacted soon by some guy asking to pay them an insane amount of money for those fake reviews or else threatening them to change all those to negative or some other illegal activity.

Anyone suffered of this? I don't know how to proceed.

How would you guys approach this?

tldr: 10 fake reviews per day, 5 star, big texts, positive, no one in the business can identify the reviews names in the database. I don't know what to do.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

You can flag them and if that doesn't work I would start a thread at the Google Business Profile help forum.

 

[vinchenson]

What do you think is the objective of whoever is making this? I don't understand.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

What do you think is the objective of whoever is making this? I don't understand.

One thing that came to mind is possibly trying to get the profile suspended for fake reviews.

Think about it, if you post a bunch of fake 1-star reviews on a competitor's profile, the reviews may be filtered, or the company would probably report them and try to get them removed.

If you post a bunch of fake 5-star reviews, maybe the company doesn't realize they are being attacked or maybe the company won't report the fake reviews because the reviews make the company look good. If Google then sees a bunch of suspicious 5-star reviews, they may assume the company is trying to game the system and suspend the profile.

It's just a theory, but that's what came to mind.

 

[keyserholiday]

What do you think is the objective of whoever is making this? I don't understand.

They could be trying to build up the review profiles of the fake reviewers or they could be trying to pit two businesses against each other. I’d need to know one of the business names and addresses

One thing that came to mind is possibly trying to get the profile suspended for fake reviews.

Think about it, if you post a bunch of fake 1-star reviews on a competitor's profile, the reviews may be filtered, or the company would probably report them and try to get them removed.

If you post a bunch of fake 5-star reviews, maybe the company doesn't realize they are being attacked or maybe the company won't report the fake reviews because the reviews make the company look good. If Google then sees a bunch of suspicious 5-star reviews, they may assume the company is trying to game the system and suspend the profile.

It's just a theory, but that's what came to mind.

Google has never suspended a business profile for having fake reviews. I have reported countless businesses for having fake reviews or running review contests and Google only removes the reviews, even for repeat offenders.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Google has never suspended a business profile for having fake reviews. I have reported countless businesses for having fake reviews or running review contests and Google only removes the reviews, even for repeat offenders.

Interesting. Admittedly, I don't have any evidence for my theory. Just a theory.

 

[Niki]

I had a similar issue and reported it as I was afraid that the business listing would get suspended/penalised:

Remove positive but fake reviews from clients business listing - Google Business Profile Community

After a couple of hundred were submitted, they eventually stopped. I was fully expecting someone to blackmail the client somehow... but to date we heard nothing else and it all remains a mystery...

 

[keyserholiday]

Fake review attacks are on the rise. It's a horrible form of negative SEO. I am seeing a lot of it with carpet cleaners and garage door companies. The fake review sellers are now posting negative reviews and asking to be contacted to remove the reviews and sell fake positive reviews.