Google Reviews: How to blackmail a company and get away with it

[ColinMcDermott]

Hi Guys,

Have been a Google guide for quite a while now, love the program, especially sharing my photos 🙂

However I am also a business owner, and recently was contacted by a spammer. I asked them to stop contacting me, and they left a negative review.

I documented the process, supplied the evidence to Google and waited.

It took 9 days to hear back, and apparently blackmail is not against the Google guidelines for reviews.

So I thought I would put together a handy guide for everyone!

How to blackmail people in Google reviews and get away with it - a simple guide, with pictures!

First, email your victim offering services, don't worry if you are selling guest posts which is against the Google guidelines.

Be sure to let the customer know you are in a completely different country than you actually are, and feel free to use a fake name, a Gmail address, and claim to be from a random company that doesn't exist.

When they reply asking you not to contact them again, this is when you go to Google reviews and leave a real stinker on their profile. Don't worry, it will take weeks for Google to respond to them, and they won't remove it. Which means your masterpiece will remain on their profile for ever.

The message you can expect to get back from Google when you contact them via Twitter:

So guys, do you have any other tips on blackmailing companies I may have missed?

[Julien44]

Hello @ColinMcDermott,

For this kind of case, you have to tagg a moderator. Like this @ErmesT or @KlaudiyaG

They will get in touch with you by private message and will take the right action.

It should normally sort out your issue.

I wish you all the best.

See you

Jul

[ColinMcDermott]

Thanks Julien! I really appreciate you taking the time to help and answer my post.

To be totally honest I have seen how broken the system is, at this point I am trying to effect some kind of instituitional change.

To see how broken the system is you can go here:

https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Spam-Policy/bd-p/Spam_and_Policy

Every day hundreds of companies report spam, blackmail, fake reviews etc - yet none of the posts get an answer.

I bumped my post nearly 6-7 times, no answer.

Contact GMB via Twitter and was told that blackmail is not against the terms and conditions.

So I thought perhaps I would help everyone in the community with a guide to blackmail!

In the meantime I am reaching out to all the Google employees and SEO journalists I know to try and get this sorted.

When I say "Get this sorted" - I am no longer just talking about my case. The system is broken.

Google need to take a fresh look, and either build up a bigger moderation team, or replace the existing one.

[Julien44]

Dear @ColinMcDermott,

Don't forget to tagg with @ in order to follow the communication.

I understand your point but you shouldn't forget that there are also people reporting bad reviews because they accept it. But the review can be true. So it is not that easy to identify who is right.

In your case, you have proofs that they are cheating.

[ColinMcDermott]

Hi @Julien44, thanks for the tip.

I have spent time going through some of the reports people have made and they are absolutely shocking.

Google taking weeks to remove or ignoring extremely clear cases of blackmail, fake reviews, discounts for people who give 5 star reviews and similar.

I think this is something that Google needs to address before they become the next Facebook.

I am honestly considering deleting all my reviews and photos - I do not want to be part of a broken system that fails business owners and leads to people getting depressed/killing themselves over these fake reviews.

[BruceDM]

Hi @ColinMcDermott

Whenever you see content on Google Maps that violates our policies, you are welcome to tag one of us, and we can reach out to you via a private message. We would then ask for any specific examples of abuses that would help bolster your case. You can read more about it in this post here.

If we are able to determine that someone is contributing fake content on Google Maps, based on anything you share, we will take action upon the accounts. Content does need to be a clear violation Google Maps Contributed Content policy to be subject to removal.

We understand that you are unhappy with the timeliness of the reporting experience but we do review and action upon all reports raised on Connect.  Moreover, part of being a Local Guide and participating on Connect means being helpful and watchful, both here and on Google Maps. We do not recommend promoting methods that would mislead other Google Maps users as this is one of the items we ask people to abide by in our Local Guides Terms and Conditions. Thanks for your letter and please tag me if you'd like me to dig into your issue.

[forevertruth1206]

Hm! My experience is with businesses bullying Google to take down negative reviews written by customers who were wronged by the business, but the business never cared to make it right.

[TheSavyRabbit]

Hi, you will always find individuals that have not grown out of their childhood bully stage.  If your business is different from how they say, then just ignore it. You'll always have positive reviews from people that enjoy your service. So don't worry and carry on.

[ColinMcDermott]

@BruceDM Hi Bruce, thank you for your reply.

I would very much appreciate if you could look into the issue yes.

Time is not really a massive factor for me to be honest.

9 days would not be a long time to wait if the right decision was made, but the interaction with the Google moderation team was so shockingly poor that it literally got "Wow"s from other experience people in the industry.

https://twitter.com/dawnieando/status/979654310278651904

Sometimes in life you need to look after yourself - but sometimes the problem is actually bigger than just one example. 

I believe that this is one of those cases. The Google moderation process is broken.

The fact that I had to go so far above and beyond the normal reporting process:

1) Reported 6-7 times using the actual report button, waited 3 days, no action

2) Reddit: 3 posts

3) Twitter official GMB account: 5-6 tweets, DMs

4) Google My Business Forum spam & policy forum: 1 post, 6-7 bumps

5) Message on Local Guides Connect forum that normal businesses would not have access to

And after all that... we are only starting to get the point where this any prospect of a fair outcome.

So it is not time that is the problem - it is that every day 1000s of businesses are being failed by Google's inadequate moderation system.

I could say nothing, but that is not what you should do when you see a problem.

I am going to speak out, kick up a fuss, and maybe get something done about this - so as to help other businesses facing the same issues with fake reviews and blackmail.

[ColinMcDermott]

> Hi, you will always find individuals that have not grown out of their childhood bully stage.

I would argue blackmails and fake reviews are a step above bullying. Also really, just ignore it? If your child was being bullied at school, and the school failed him, would you just ignore it?

That is not how I roll, and it is not how I advise anyone to. If you find a problem that affects your business: fix it. Find a problem with how a large company operates that affects small businesses negatively? Fix it.

The question is, are we happy to keep operating with a broken system - or do we want to fix it?

If you can visit https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Spam-Policy/bd-p/Spam_and_Policy - and honestly come back and tell me you think there is no issue - I will be extremely shocked.

You could browse for over an hour and not find a single thread that has actually had an interaction with a Google employee or a meaningful reply.