FTC and Minnesota AG sue Yosef Bernath, the operator of a lead-generation network.

[keyserholiday]

Yosef ran a large-scale lead-generation network across the United States.

Here is the press release announcing the lawsuit. Hopefully, we will see more lawsuits in the future.

Sadly, the GBPs are still live on Google, and people are answering the phones.

 

[Conor Treacy]

We need more of this! I seem to recall a few years ago that there was a massive campaign against reviewers, and the FTC was going after people posting fake reviews. I can't remember the details on that, but there was something from just the reviewer end of things.

 

[keyserholiday]

We need more of this! I seem to recall a few years ago that there was a massive campaign against reviewers, and the FTC was going after people posting fake reviews. I can't remember the details on that, but there was something from just the reviewer end of things.

It was good in theory, but not in application. First, they sent letters to 700 businesses warning them to ensure that their platforms police fake reviews. Then they passed the new rules to redress businesses up to $51,744 per fake review. They don't have enough staff to investigate everyone, so they will focus on cases like this. In March 2025, Google sued the operator of a lead generation network and removed 10,000 GBPs. I suspect that these networks popped up around the same time.