Coordinated Fake Review Attack - How To Fix Review Bombing

[Stefan Somborac]

I suspect that sometime in the last 12-18 months (roughly), Google really polished an algorithm that detects 1-star review attacks. From the small number of cases I’ve helped in the community forum, my recommendation to wait a few days for the algo to clean up the attack seemed to work.

I went to the forum today to find examples, hoping to confirm that my “wait a few days” approach was all it took. What I found instead was this:

1.) A large number of the review bombing cases in the forum get marked as a duplicate of an existing thread before they get an answer. So, it’s probably hard to get help in the forum for this problem.

2.) There aren’t nearly as many review bombing cases in the forum as I expected.

Maybe I’m right about the algo!

Or maybe users are finding help elsewhere.

Or maybe bad actors have moved on to other tactics.


Hoping to find out:

• Are people seeing 1-star review attacks these days?
• If so, is Google cleaning them up automatically?
• Or, if you’re flagging the reviews in the attack, is Google doing a good job of taking them down?

 

[ElizabethRule]

I have seen the same as you, Stefan. Google typically cleans up clear review attacks within a few days. I have seen them leave a few reviews live after the cleanup, but even those cases seem less frequent on the forum. Patience is key, but I can see why a business owner would want them removed quicker, or better yet, never go live in the first place!

 

[Gabriel]

I've noticed the same thing on my end actually. Had a client hit with about a dozen 1-star reviews in one afternoon a few months back, and Google pulled almost all of them within 48 hours without us even flagging most of them. The couple that slipped through we flagged and they were gone within a day or two after that. So yeah, the automated cleanup seems way better than it used to be — I wouldn't rely on it completely, but it's a huge improvement over a year or two ago.

 

[Point Dance]

Hi Stefan and everyone,

I'd like to share a case that seems to contradict the experiences described in this thread. Unfortunately, Google's automated review-bombing protection has not worked for our business.

I'm representing Point Dance Studio, a children's and adults' dance studio in Downtown Dubai, UAE.

How it started​

In September, we had an issue involving a stray cat that people had been feeding near our studio.

The cat repeatedly entered our premises and was difficult to remove because it could become aggressive. There were incidents where people, including children, were scratched.

Someone who provides services to our studio offered to take the cat home and care for her. The cat was taken away in a pet carrier, which was also captured on our security cameras.

Following this, some people who had been feeding the cat began repeatedly contacting our owner and administrator through phone calls and WhatsApp. We received hostile messages, accusations and threats of further action.

Almost immediately afterwards, our Google Business Profile began receiving 1-star ratings and reviews.

What happened with Google​

Between September 19 and October 5, 2026, we received at least 10 suspicious 1-star ratings/reviews.

Several contain no text whatsoever. Others say things like "Shameful people" or "A studio with absolutely no empathy, respect, or common sense."

These comments appear to concern the dispute rather than any experience with our dance classes. We also cannot identify the reviewers as students or clients in our records, although we recognise that this alone does not prove a review is fake.

We reported the reviews through Google's official Review Management Tool and subsequently submitted appeals.

The results have been extremely frustrating:

• Most appealed reviews have continued to show "Escalated – Check email for updates."
• At least one appeal received a final rejection stating that no policy violation had been found.
• One previously appealed review disappeared from both the public profile and the Review Management Tool, without clear confirmation of what happened.
• Multiple Google Business Profile Support requests resulted in generic automated responses.
• Two separate Google Business Profile Community threads were automatically closed as duplicates of a generic troubleshooting FAQ, without receiving any substantive assistance.

The situation has continued for nearly a month despite the reports, appeals and supporting evidence.

What concerns us most​

I understand that Google cannot simply remove reviews because a business disputes them.

But this seems to be exactly the kind of pattern Google's Fake Engagement and Rating Manipulation policies are intended to address: an unrelated external conflict, a sudden cluster of negative ratings, comments referencing that conflict rather than the business's services, and further ratings appearing over subsequent weeks.

We have preserved the original screenshots, the review timeline, the relevant WhatsApp messages and our correspondence with Google.

My questions​

1. Have you encountered cases where Google fails to detect an apparent coordinated review attack because the ratings arrive over several weeks rather than all at once?

2. What evidence would you consider most useful for establishing coordination between the reviews, beyond their timing and the external dispute?

3. When both the standard reporting and appeal processes have been exhausted without addressing the overall pattern, are there any legitimate additional steps you would recommend?

I'm not asking anyone here to escalate our case. I'd genuinely appreciate your professional assessment of what might be happening and how to approach it.

Thank you for your time and for sharing your experience with these issues.

 

[ElizabethRule]

1. Have you encountered cases where Google fails to detect an apparent coordinated review attack because the ratings arrive over several weeks rather than all at once?

Yep, Google's system isn't perfect. Google might not have detected a suspicious pattern, which is why the reviews stayed live.

2. What evidence would you consider most useful for establishing coordination between the reviews, beyond their timing and the external dispute?

Look at the reviewer's user profiles to see if you spot patterns, like leaving reviews for the same types of businesses or having all their other reviews from another country. Also check for patterns of identical/similiar phrases or words across the spam reviews.

3. When both the standard reporting and appeal processes have been exhausted without addressing the overall pattern, are there any legitimate additional steps you would recommend?

Yes, you can go to the GBP community forum and ask a PE to look into it and possibly escalate it to Google.