« on: September 13, 2025, 12:24:38 pm »
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/technology/fake-reviews-small-businesses.htmlNatalia Piper was busy running her general contracting business in Los Angeles when a random message popped up on WhatsApp in June.
“Someone has ordered me to post a negative review on your business,” read the message, from a phone number based in Pakistan. “Got an order to post 20 reviews.”
Startled, Ms. Piper responded to ask who had placed the order. And just replying was enough to ensnare her in a widespread scam targeting small businesses across the world.
Fraudsters are extorting businesses for hundreds of dollars each by threatening to post fake negative reviews on Google Maps — or posting fake negative reviews and then demanding a payment to remove them, according to reports from multiple businesses and data from an industry watchdog.
The scammers target small businesses that are highly reliant on online reviews to drive their business — including movers, roofing companies and appliance repair services. Negative reviews can drive down a business’s star ratings and damage their online reputations, potentially costing them thousands in lost revenue. They’re also difficult to remove from Google once they’re posted.
Ms. Piper had already paid $150 to someone else, who was using a number based in Bangladesh, to remove negative reviews that they had posted. Then the person in Pakistan reached out, and she paid them $100 to remove the reviews. Weeks after that, 10 more fake reviews popped up on her profile. This time she did not pay, and Google eventually removed the reviews after she had reported them.
Ms. Piper said that before the fake reviews were removed, her Google rating for her business, Build Solutions, had fallen to 3.6 stars from 5.0.
“It took me eight years to get my reputation in the market, and one guy can damage it in one day,” she said in an interview.
EXCERPT
Of course there's nobody live you can talk to at Google or Meta anymore, so you're stuck if you're a small business owner being blackmailed like this. I've decided that there's nothing honest on the internet anywhere anymore, if there ever was, certainly not reviews.
Logged
aka "nasty degenerate SOB," "worst of the worst at Free Republic," "Garbage Troll," "Neocon Warmonger," "Filthy Piece of Trash," "damn $#%$#@!," "Silly f'er," "POS," "war pig," "neocon scumbag," "insignificant little ankle nipper," "@ss-clown," "neocuck," "termite," "Uniparty Deep stater," "Never Trump sack of dog feces," "avid Bidenista," "filthy Ukrainian," "war whore," "fricking chump," "psychopathic POS," "depraved SOB," "Never Trump Moron," "Lazarus," and "sock puppet."
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." ---George Orwell
