Scammers blackmailing Dutch businesses with fake Google reviews
Scammers have found another way to blackmail businesses. They flood them with fake, bad reviews on Google and then demand money to prevent more negative reviews, NOS reports after speaking to 18 businesses from various sectors that fell victim to this.
The scammers post dozens of bad reviews on the businesses’ Google profiles. These reviews show up when someone Googles a business or tries to find their location on Google Maps. In many cases, the business owner then receives a WhatsApp message from a foreign phone number, demanding hundreds of euros to prevent more negative reviews.
“It states that they’ve received an order to post bad reviews,” Mike Kock, a locksmith in Zuid-Holland, told NOS. “It’s up to you whether that order goes through or not. In other words: whether you pay.” Kock said he wouldn’t pay and was told to wait. “Half an hour later, I had another 50 reviews. I’m blocking these numbers immediately. Then they know there’s nothing to be gained from me.”
The scammers particularly target smaller companies, which are dependent on online reviews for attracting new customers. The companies can’t remove these reviews themselves. They have to ask Google to do so, which often takes a long time.
“In just a few minutes, we received about 30 fake reviews,” Esra Ersoy of a Schiedam company that rents out a moving lift told NOS. “Our rating went from 5 stars to 3.9 stars. I definitely lost new customers because of that. Even a regular customer told me he was hesitant. Luckily, he saw that I had commented under the fake reviews that it was a smear campaign. But many people don’t look beyond the star rating.”
“It definitely impacted sales,” Almere roofer Kevin Güner from Almere said. “Out of nowhere, I got 50 one-star reviews. After that, I got fewer clicks on Google and fewer requests. Some customers also asked about those reviews. They get suspicious, and rightly so. If I want to hire someone and see all the one-star reviews, I start having doubts too.”
The business owners told NOS that it takes days to months for Google to remove all fake removes. Many complain that a human could tell within minutes that the reviews are fake, but that it is extremely difficult or impossible to actually talk to someone at Google.
Google told the broadcaster that it “usually takes a few days” for a report to be reviewed, and given that, the company takes “quick action.” Google did not answer the question of how affected companies can contact a Google employee directly.
