Hey there,
I always keep receiving whatsapp communication and phone calls where some shady companies keep offering money in return of 5 start ratings on businesses and restaurants.
Many of the users keep doing this for some money and which is defating the whole purpose of the reviews.
Today only, I received a call from an international number, person told that he is based in Mumbai, working in some “fake name” company and was offering money in return of 5 star ratings of restaurants. There are tons of such shady startups doing these fraudulents activities by charging businesses money. Even top restaurants are choosing this way to get mass 5 star reviews.
Wondering, if Google is doing anything to address this situation?
4 Likes
This is not the right place.
Check this out : Remove reviews from your Business Profile on Google - Computer - Google Business Profile Help
read the guidelines to understand what is and what is not possible
Hi @kartikeyporwal
Your question is partly related to owning a business on Maps while Connect is where the volunteers hang our and learn.
I’m sure many Local Guides find that Google is overly active fighting fake content. So much so that also many authentic contributions get taken down by the AI systems put in place to automatically remove spam and fake engaggements.
So the answer is: OMG, Google is doing a huge lot to try to fight fake reviews.
I remember 3 blog posts from Google on this on The Keyword:
How machine learning keeps contributed content helpful from this year.
How Google Maps protects against fake content from last year
How reviews on Google Maps work from early 2022.
All the best
Morten
Sometime they are straight up deleting real reviews