Review Bombing Attacks and Extortion

Recommendation on what to do

• Do not panic: Gather every possible evidence and save them. Evidence such as Screenshots of the one-star reviews (including reviewer profile names), screenshots of the extortion demand (messages, emails, etc.), including timestamps, details of the third-party messaging app used by the scammers.
• Do not engage or pay them: Paying incentivizes the criminals to continue their scheme, may mark you as a target for future attacks, and does not guarantee the reviews will be removed. Do not negotiate or threaten the scammer.
• Report the incident: When you report, you will need to provide the evidence you collected.

Proactive Measures and Best Practices

The review-bombing extortion is a security incident, not a reflection of your customer service. Your primary goal is to report it officially, not to manage the reviews publicly at first.

• Public Response (After Reporting): If you feel you must respond publicly to the fake reviews, do so only after you have submitted your report and secured all evidence. Keep the response brief, professional, and factual.
• Encourage Authentic Reviews as a Long-Term Strategy: Satisfied customers often need a nudge. As part of your normal, long-term reputation management, ethically encourage happy customers to share their experiences. This helps build a foundation of genuine feedback that can make your profile more resilient.
• Submit a Formal Extortion Report: Google announced a new capability inside Google Maps. The tool allows business owners to report extortion attempts that use fabricated negative reviews.
• Flag Each Fraudulent Review: Use the “Flag as inappropriate” link on the review page. Select the reason “Spam or fake content.”
• Involve Law Enforcement: A crucial step for a business, particularly a large one, is often to report the incident to local law enforcement or a national cybercrime unit.

Keywords

• Primary: review bombing, online review extortion, fake reviews
• Secondary: Google Maps attacks, reputation management, fraudulent reviews, business profile protection, reporting extortion, cybercrime prevention