Disgruntled renter left 1-star reviews at multiple apartment buildings

[Wary Goose]

Hi everyone - we've asked for help from Google Support re: removing multiple fake 1-star reviews for our client who owns multiple apartment buildings/complexes and Support has stopped answering our requests. Hoping someone here in the forum can help!

On June 13, 2022 this profile (Contributions by Robert Cathlina), after a dispute with apartment management, posted 22 1-star reviews for apartment properties this person has never visited. We reported all reviews on June 16th and received Case # 6-9491000033309.

Support quickly/automatically denied all of our request stating that the reviews didn't violate TOS. We responded to Support's initial CID on June 21st and asked them to take another look at these reviews as they do violate TOS by using Fake Engagement; Support then gave us a form to fill out: Manage your reviews - Google Business Profile Help (Use this tool to report reviews for removal and check the status of reviews you've already escalated. Reviews that violate the Google review policies can be removed from Business Profiles on Google). We filled out the form for each review and made sure to note for each review reported that they violated the Content Policy within the "Fake Engagement" section.

Waited a week (with no Support response) and we again filled out the form on June 27th, making sure to note for each review reported that they violated the Content Policy within the "Fake Engagement" section. Waited a few more days, and with no response from Support, reported all reviews again on 7/1 using the form, making sure to note for each review reported that they violated the Content Policy within the "Fake Engagement" section.

As of this post, have yet to hear back from Support. Any help with getting these reviews removed will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Try flagging the reviewer profile. See - Google Now Allows Anyone to Flag User Profiles - Local University

 

[Wary Goose]

Thank you Colan! We'll report through the Maps app.

 

[JamesGreenaway]

Did you get anywhere with this @Wary Goose ? We are having the same issue with one of our clients. Been in "pending review" for over 7 days now.

 

[Wary Goose]

@JamesGreenaway Sorry for the late reply! Yes, we did actually get somewhere with this. What we ended up doing was following the trail of the "fake" review poster, looking at all reviews this person posted, regardless of the business vertical, and discovered that the "fake" review poster had two review accounts and was posting multiple-vertical reviews from both. Once we found both accounts, we flagged (company-wide, as many people as possible, in a "Community Edit") all reviews in both accounts as "fake engagement". We figured this tactic might get Google's attention and indeed it did; both accounts were taken down and all reviews were removed, even those that weren't apartment-related.