How often do you second-guess a business such as a restaurant if you see a bad review on Google? These reviews are written by everyday people detailing their experiences with businesses of all descriptions across the world. Relying on these reviews is effectively putting your trust in strangers — and now it seems scammers are exploiting that blind trust for a quick payday.
And their main targets appear to be small businesses, which are often hit the hardest by poor reviews.
Bondi-based removalist Move It With Gina was hit with four one-star reviews over two days recently — all credited to generic-sounding names which were not on the business’ client list.
“Bad experience. Charge $1000 (sic),” one review said. Another said staff were “reckless and broke our expensive items” and urged others to “avoid this company”.
“Google reviews for us are so important,” owner Gina Petrovski told 7NEWS.com.au, noting even a single poor review can really hurt the business.
Then came the sucker punch. Petrovski received a WhatsApp message from a Pakistani number with a demand to pay $60 to delete the reviews, and admitting they were fake.
The scammer claimed they had been hired to leave 30 bad reviews but then were not paid, so they were passing the cost on to her. “$60 otherwise I’m going to More One Star review (sic),” the message said alongside screenshots of the reviews that had already been left.
Petrovski did not reply, and the scammer messaged again a day later to say: “Today work start ... Please pay my loss.”
Petrovski reported all of the reviews a total of four times before Google removed them. “It’s not right the way Google controls it and doesn’t really care but yet everybody relies on the Google reviews,” she said.
Petrovski blamed Google’s reporting features and very basic options for business owners to reply to reviews as having created an environment which allowed scammers to thrive. “I’m not surprised, I mean, it’s very easy to do,” she said.
Petrovski said it would help to allow businesses to attach an image — such as a screenshot of a scammer claiming a fake review — to their replies to reviews while waiting for Google to decide if reviews would be deleted.
In the time it takes Google to make that decision, the poor reviews can weigh down a business’ rating and potentially drive away customers. But, while it “can be frustrating” when being spammed by fake reviews, Petrovski said: “I think it’s good feedback, I think consumers should be communicating with the business. (But) sometimes there might be someone who didn’t like where we park and just go in there to give a bad review.”
Google told 7NEWS.com.au it has “investigated and fixed this matter” with Petrovski. “Our policies clearly state that reviews must be based on real experiences and information,” it said. “If we find fake reviews that violate our policies, we take appropriate action including removing them.”
