Reciprocal review network between small business owners

[keyserholiday]

Hey @Shelly thank you!!! That made my job much easier!!! I have turned it over to Google to investigate it further.

 

[Contractor]

I really like that way of listing the review rings on a spreadsheet. It really shows the scam in a glance.

 

[Shelly]

@keyserholiday Thank YOU for working through this and helping me learn how to best document these situations. I think I speak for many when I say we appreciate your willingness to help us all learn!

 

[Contractor]

Now that I see that we can illustrate fake review rings so nicely on a spreadsheet like this, I would like to make one for another group of listings that I have seen in the past but didn't think I would be able to explain it.

Just to confirm, the only way to report these is to post it on the GMB forums and ask for it to be escalated? We shouldn't be submitting it via the redressal form or anywhere else, correct?

 

[Contractor]

try and build the file like this. If you can show the patterns it will be easier for Google to take action.

@keyserholiday you know what would be awesome? If you guys developed some type of scraping program that allowed people to enter multiple business listing URLs into the program and it indexed each of the listings and found when the same reviewer account reviewed more than one of those companies and then it spits out a spreadsheet like you posted. You can make it an online thing and sell it’s usage. Subscription-based or per usage. It would save spam fighters a lot of time.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would suggest adding a column on the sheet that includes what action you want Google to take on it and why. If you're saying keywords aren't actually a part of the real business name, clarify where you confirmed the real business name.

 

[Contractor]

Wow! It seems like all of them except for one have been taken down. Thanks again!

 

[Contractor]

I have noticed something a little bit odd. When I clicked on each of the original seven maps URLs, only one of them was still existing, the other six URLs lead to blank listings (taken down).

When searching for the base company name (VM Power) I actually found three listings still up. What happened was that two of them changed their address on their listing, which apparently changed the Maps URL. Both listings retained all of their reviews and still have the same spammy listing name.

I’ve updated the address and put the new Maps URL on my spreadsheet for those three remaining listings. But I’m not sure if Google is going to revisit the spreadsheet.

 

[keyserholiday]

Hey @Shelly I updated the thread. Google took action and removed any reviews found to be violating the TOS. Can please mark my answer as recommend as it will help me out.

 

[Shelly]

@keyserholiday Done! I know I have said it before but I really appreciate your help with this. It's nice having people out there helping to fight the good fight with Google.

 

[Contractor]

@keyserholiday

It's been one month and most of those listings with the horrible spam names and the fake reviews are still up.

What can I do now? I was thinking of putting together a spreadsheet like you posted showing the reviewers left a 5 start review for each of this listings. Is it worth it?