Fraudulent reviews by Local Guide

Google Maps tips & tricks
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I discovered a Local Guide who is posting blank and one-word reviews about businesses in my area. Not only are these useless, I know at least one review is fraudulent because one of the businesses is mine. The low rating has no associated comment, and none of the employees knows the person. He has never been a customer, which is easily tracked based on the type of my business, and nobody has ever communicated with him in any way. There’s no possibility that he knows anything about our business.

@AngieYC,@InaS, @VasT, @AlexaAC – I’m tagging a few moderators for follow up.

I first investigated his other reviews, and found most to be single words “Ok”, “great”, “so-so” – completely unhelpful to anyone researching businesses. He just started posting a few weeks ago, and now that I signed up to report this issue I can see how and why he operates, since Google puts up a list of businesses to review. An unethical guide will just randomly pick anything and post a rating.

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@KLJ

Thanks for reaching us

I think you already know this post to know how to report a Local Guide: How to identify and report fraud on Google Maps

I will tag a moderator for you @DeniGu , because your tag will not work.

To tag someone in Connect, you have to type the @ symbol, followed by the username of the LG you want to mention. A pop-up will appear, with the corresponding usernames. One moderator is enough, you don’t need to tag more than one

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I haven’t heard from anyone yet. How long does it usually take for a moderator to address this?

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I am sorry about that, @KLJ

Unfortunately this is the period of winter holiday in many countries, so I think you should be patient. Everything will be back to normal on January 7.

If you don’t receive a feedback before that date, please tag me

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Thanks! I was wondering because the reviewer added one word to the review. I thought someone might have said something to him. It’s still useless and we still don’t have any record of ever dealing with him in any way.

Our investigation revealed that it’s highly unlikely that he would ever have dealt with us anyway, based on what we learned about him. I also noted in the Local Guide T&C that rating businesses with which you have no knowledge is not explicitly prohibited! That seems like it should be an obvious requirement.

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Hi @KLJ ,

Thanks for reaching out and thank you for your patience! I’m going to send you a private message with instructions on how to report this Local Guide.

Also, as @ErmesT mentioned, make sure to add the @ mark before the name of a Connect member, so that they can receive a notification and be able to reply to you.

Thank you for jumping in and tagging me, @ErmesT . I was indeed on a holiday, but I’m back now. :slight_smile:

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