TL;DR: Review Bombing, a scam where fake account leave 1-star reviews on businesses to intentionally damage their reputation, is becoming more prevalent in recent years.
Where Do Fake Reviews Come From?
Why a Fake Account Left One-Star Reviews on Your Google Business Profile
It happens more than most people think. A 2021 study by CHEQ and the University of Baltimore estimated fake reviews cost businesses over $152 billion a year.1 About 4% of all online reviews are fake,2 and Google only removes a small fraction of the ones that get flagged.3
The people behind fake reviews are usually one of these:
- A competitor who wants to hurt your ranking
- A disgruntled ex-employee or someone with a personal grudge
- A paid service hired to attack your profile
- A scam which uses fake reviews as leverage to extort business owners
For the purpose of this Article, we will focus on the last two forms of fake reviews, which both involve a third party that attack small business owners using reputation manipulation, acting either on their own or as a result of someone (typically a competitor) hiring them to do so.
In our case it was a lone scammer that stumbled across our business and decided we fit their target profile. The person or organization behind the fake reviews was based in Russia and happened to target several other digital marketing agencies in addition to our own.
We know that this scammer is based in Russia because they left a calling card in the bio of both fake accounts, a phone number that they later used to contact us with threats of more fake reviews. We will get into the detail about how this scam played out for us in a moment, but first lets break down how these scam work in more detail.
How do Fake Negative Review Attacks Work?
The First Wave of Negative Reviews
Fake Review Attacks, sometimes referred to as Review Bombing, can take many forms but they all follow the same general pattern: a wave of 1-star reviews are left on your Google Business Profile all around the same time from newly created account that have little to no history of activity prior to leaving the negative review.
The first wave of these reviews can vary in size, sometimes it is just one or two, other times it can be dozens of reviews within a day or two of starting. In either case, there is often a first wave, then a break period, and then a second and even third wave come days, weeks, or even months later.
When you view the reviewers profile you will typically see that each one targets a handful of businesses, typically leaving the exact same review across several business profiles. The reviews are normally over 240 characters which an important detail that is very intentional.
How Scammers Google’s Local Guide Program Makes it More Difficult to Remove Fake Reviews
You may be familiar with Google’s Local Guide program, where users earn points by leaving feedback for businesses and making contributions to Google Maps. As you collect points, you can level up your profile which unlocks special benefits and earns trust in the eyes of Google. The higher your level, the more weight your feedback carries on Google and, in the case of negative review attacks, the more difficult it is to remove your reviews and contributions.
This leads us back to our fake accounts.
These scammers know Google’s policy very well, and they know that if their new account is only a Level One Local Guide, Google will be quick to take down their reviews, often without any reporting from the owner.
So with this in mind, once they activate a bot account, they make sure to earn enough points to get that profile to at least a Level Two guide. This makes it more difficult for the owner to have it taken down quickly and also causes that review to impact rankings even more. Google prioritizes feedback from higher level local guides, often pushing reviews left by the highest leveled guides to the top of your profile.
What Happens After the Scammers Leave Negative Reviews?
After the first wave of negative reviews are left, the scammers often will let you stir for a day or two before reaching out. They want the panic to set in and some time to pass for you to feel the pain of a falsely damaged reputation.
Eventually, you will hear from them. Whether it be via email, phone call, text message, or even Whatsapp; they will reach out to you and threaten to continue leaving negative reviews on your business unless you do xyz. Most often, they want money. In fact they always want money, they will tell you that if you don’t pay them they will never stop, they will use their endless supply of fake accounts to bombard your business with 1-star reviews until you go bust.
Or, you can pay them and they will take down the reviews and go on their merry way. Lies. They are criminals, and the last thing you want to do is show them that you are willing to send them money. If you are willing to pay this time, why would they stop after all? You are the perfect victim, an easy pay day. A few swipes of the thumb, a couple bad reviews, and bam they get a paycheck. Easy money.
It should go without saying that you should NEVER, NEVER pay the ransom. It doesn’t matter how many reviews they leave or how bad it gets, do not give in.
Though it is painful, your best path forward is to ignore them. Do not engage with the scammer, don’t respond to any emails, calls, or texts. Say nothing, and do nothing with them.
Eventually, they will give up and move onto the next unsuspecting business. This is afterall a job for them, if they see no signs of a payoff, there is no reason for them to continue to waste their time.
Unfortunately, that does not mean they will stop after the first wave. It is not uncommon that they pop up a few more times to leave more reviews after their first attempt, just to see if they can break you and to show you they aren’t playing around. But they will stop eventually, because they are doing it for money.
It should be said, the above scenario is assuming that this is a scammer that chose your business at random. If you have a competitor or someone with a grudge that is paying for these reviews to be left, then that’s a bit different as in that case, money is coming in and they will continue until their “customer” (your competitor or otherwise) stop paying for their “service”.
How to Remove Fake Google Reviews
So if you don’t do anything with the scammer, then what do you do? Afterall, this is your livelihood and I don’t expect you to sit back and do nothing at all.
There are two things to do: Respond & Report.
How to Write a Response to a Fake Negative Review
I personally recommend responding to the review first as it is important to call out the fake account and let other potential customers know this is not an accurate reflection of your business. Though you probably want to cuss and swear and yell, don’t. It won’t help.
Stay calm, cool, and collected when you respond. Keep it short and simple. My recommendation is to simple state that this is a fake review and that you have no record of this customer. Though there is no formal documentation to back it up, I like to think that formally stating this will help when you do report the review and is coroborate the claim you are making to Google.
If you want, you can add a little extra snippet speaking to viewers. Think about what you may say to a potential customer who saw this and write that. This is not necessary and should be done with some grace. If you it doesn’t come across in the right way, it can worsen your situation so if you are not confident, just leave it at “this is a fake review, we have no records of ever working with this person and the profile appears to be a fake account leaving fake reviews on small businesses”
If you want some inspiration, here is how we responded to ours:
This is a fake review left by a fake account. Unfortunately, it seems we have has caught the eye of someone using fraudulent review attacks. We have no record of this individual or any such transaction, and we have reported this to Google as false and misleading.
To other business owners reading this: if you are ever targeted by fake negative reviews and need assistance navigating these attacks, we are here to help.
Some Do’s and Don’ts of responding to fake reviews
DO
- State that the review is fake
- Clearly state that you have never worked with this person
- Stay calm and keep it short
- Use this as an example of how your business handles difficult situations
DONT
- Get Defensive in your response
- Show anger in your response
- Attack the reviewer or act unprofessionally
- Swear, curse, or call the fake reviewer names
How to Report a Fake Google Review on Your Google Business Profile
I should have said this before but before you do anything, Document, Document, Document.
Take screenshots of the reviews, of the profiles, of the other reviews the profile has left. The more the better, this all may be useful later if you have to continue to prove your case.
After that, follow these steps to report the review to Google.
- Find the fake review
- Click the three-dot menu next to it
- Select “Report review”
- Choose “Spam or fake” as the violation type
- Submit and take a screenshot with the date
Google will take up to 3 business days to respond. You likely won’t receive any notification once they reach a decision, either the review will disappear, or not.
How to Check the Status of a Reported Review
Though Google won’t notify you once they take action, they do have a tool you can use to check in on your report after it’s been filed. Simply search for “Google Review Dispute” or find it linked here → Review Report Status Tool.
Once here, you will click on blue “Report inappropriate reviews” button which will take you to a page where you will:
- Confirm your email
- Select your Google Business Profile
- Select the option: “Check the status of a review I’ve already reported and my appeal options”
- click continue
Here you will see the a list of the reviews you reported and the current status of Google’s investigation. At the time of writing it is Wednesday, April 29th 2026, which is the 3rd business day since the fake reviews were left (they came in around in later in the evening on Saturday).
For us, Google is still reviewing the case and we see a Decision Pending status.
What to Do After Your Report a Fake Review
There are several things you can do after you report the reviews, but before you get to that point, we recommend waiting the 3 business days to let Google have the opportunity to remove them. If they decide to leave the reviews, here are the next steps.
Encourage Real Customers to Leave Reviews
This goes without saying and is something you should do at all times regardless of whether you recently received negative reviews or not, but you should reach out to current or past customers that have not already left a review for your business and encourage them to leave a rating.
This will help balance out the 1 star reviews and get your overall rating back up a bit. It will also help to push down the negative reviews so they are not the first thing people see when sorting by recency.
A word of caution though, this is important.
We DO NOT recommend getting family, friends, and anyone you meet on the street to flood your profile with 5 star ratings. This not only is illegal in many places but is against Google’s policy and can end up getting you in much deeper trouble than you were before.
Google has become increasingly sensitive to sudden changes on Google Business Profiles recently, and if you go from getting 1-2 reviews a month to getting a dozen in a few days, you best believe that Google will notice. Doing this likely will result in Google removing the new reviews or worse could end up getting your profile suspended all together.
A few important rules to follow here:
- Do not manufacture fake reviews for yourself in response to fake reviews
- You can ask real customers, whether past or current, to leave a rating. Not friends and family
- Do not ask for 5 stars, you shouldnt pressure customers to leave a good rating, just ask for a rating and let them decide
- This being said, we would only reach out to customers who you think would leave good feedback. I think it’s fair to say that no one would want to reach out to a pissed off customer and invite them to rate you publicly
- Keep things consistent. If oyu were getting reviews a couple times a week before, do not massively increase the quantity of reviews all of a sudden, this looks unnatural and will get flagged.
- Google has a lot of data on businesses, in some industries (like restaurants) it’s normal to get several reviews a day where others its more like a few a month. Be patient and rebuild your reputation naturally
How to Escalate a Report After the First Attempt
If Google does not weigh in your favor after the first report, you can escalate the matter to their support forum. You will want to gather all the evidence you collected at the beginning and prepare to show this to a support representative.
To do this, start by posting on Google’s Business Community Forum. In your first post, don;t upload all your screenshots yet, simply explain what happened from start to finish including what steps you have taken so far. The support reps here will want you to have already gone through the appropriate channels already so do this only after you reported the review and waited 3 days otherwise they will just tell you to do that then come back if you still need help.
After you post your situation, a volunteer help rep will respond and begin directing you to next steps. This may involve other support tools or they will ask you to share evidence. You will receive an email anytime you receive a response on this forum, so don’t worry about missing something.
Assuming these were fake reviews it should be pretty obvious to support that this is fraudulent and they should be able to help remove them.
More Help if you Need it
We went through this ourselves. We know how it feels to see a fake one-star review sitting on your profile while you wait for Google to act. It is frustrating, and it should not be something you have to figure out on your own.
IF you have gone through all the steps above, and are still battling fake reviews, we are here to help.
feel free to reach out via email, phone, or by filling out a contact form on our site and we will do our best to help you through this problem.
We will continue to update this article as our situation progress. Update will be posted at the very top of the page with timestamps and details of what has happened so you can follow along.
While we hate that this scam exists, we are at least partially happy that it happened to us instead of another small business who is less prepared to handle it. At least through this ordeal, we will make content that hopefully helps other small business owners in the future.
Follow along on our social media profile to stay up to date with this process.
Best of luck to you, hang in there and you will make it through.
As my Great Grandfather once said: “Just keep slogging away and you will come through O.K.”
Common Questions About Fake Reviews:
Can You Delete Fake Google Reviews?
No. Business owners cannot delete Google reviews.
Only Google can remove a review, or the person who wrote it can take it down themselves. There is no delete button on your end.
What you can do: flag it, respond to it, and escalate if Google doesn’t act.
How Long Does It Take Google to Remove a Fake Review?
Anywhere from a few days to never. Most business owners wait one to three weeks. Some never get a removal.
If Google denies your request, you can:
- Re-flag with more detail
- Contact GBP support for a second look
- File a Business Redressal Complaint if a competitor is behind it
- Look into legal options if the reviews contain false statements
While you wait, start working on your response.
Can I Sue Someone for Leaving a Fake Google Review?
In some cases, yes. This is not legal advice. Talk to an attorney if you are seriously considering this.
A fake review that describes something that never happened can qualify as defamation. To have a case, the review needs to make a specific false claim about a real event. Vague insults usually don’t qualify. Made-up incidents with specific details might.
In October 2024, the FTC finalized a rule making it illegal to buy or sell fake reviews, with fines up to $51,744 per violation.4 If someone paid for an attack on your profile, that is now a federal violation.
A cease and desist letter sometimes gets a review taken down without going to court. If the damage is serious and you have evidence pointing to a specific person or service, it may be worth a conversation with an attorney.
Why Am I Getting Fake Google Reviews?
There are four common reasons:
A competitor. Your star rating affects how often you show up in Google search. Some competitors pay to knock that number down.
Mistaken identity. Someone was angry at a different business and found yours by mistake.
A personal dispute. A former employee or someone you had a falling out with outside of work.
A paid attack. There are services that sell fake reviews the same way others sell fake followers. Some operate overseas to avoid legal trouble.
In our case, it was a paid overseas attack. We know that because when we clicked into the reviewer profiles, both accounts had the same Russian WhatsApp number listed publicly. One account had also left the exact same copy-pasted review on a roofing company in New Jersey and a marketing agency in Miami on the same day. This wasn’t personal. It was a service targeting multiple businesses at once.
You don’t need to know which one it is before you take action. The steps are the same either way.
What Is a Negative Review Attack?
A negative review attack is when someone makes a deliberate decision to flood your profile with fake one-star reviews.
Sometimes a competitor pays a service to do it. Packages can cost as little as $50 to $200 and can produce dozens of reviews in just a few days.
There is also a scam where overseas groups bomb a business’s profile, then contact the owner and demand money to stop. If someone reaches out asking for payment to remove reviews, do not pay them. Report it.
We have not been contacted with a ransom demand yet, but the setup is consistent with that type of operation. The accounts used a Russian phone number, targeted multiple unrelated businesses in the same window, and used copy-pasted text — all hallmarks of an overseas review service.
Review Bombing: When It’s More Than Just One Bad Review
Review bombing is a fast wave of fake one-star reviews all hitting your profile in a short window, usually 24 to 48 hours, from accounts that have no real history.
The reviews tend to be vague. “Terrible.” “Do not use.” No details, no story, nothing specific.
Look at the two reviews we received:
[IMAGE: Screenshot of Cissy Tendo and Farguson sam reviews on the Digital Marketing Charlotte GBP]
Both posted within the same hour. Both marked “NEW.” Both from accounts with a handful of reviews spread across completely unrelated businesses in different states. That pattern is the fingerprint of a review bombing service, not a real customer.
Google sometimes catches it automatically. Often it doesn’t. Local restaurants, contractors, medical offices, and retail shops are the most common targets because their star rating directly drives phone calls.
Sources
1 CHEQ and University of Baltimore — Fake Online Reviews 2021: The Economic Cost of Bad Actors on the Internet https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/08/fake-online-reviews-are-a-152-billion-problem-heres-how-to-silence-them/
2 CHEQ and University of Baltimore — 4% of online reviews estimated as fake across major platforms https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fake-online-reviews-152-billion/
3 Google — Fake reviews removed via automated spam detection; flagging success rate estimated at 15–25% https://reviewsremoved.com/how-to-get-fake-google-reviews-removed/
4 Federal Trade Commission — Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, effective October 21, 2024 https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials