{"id":19616,"date":"2022-07-18T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T13:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/18\/news-13349\/"},"modified":"2022-07-18T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T13:10:11","slug":"news-13349","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/18\/news-13349\/","title":{"rendered":"Extortionists target restaurants, demand money to take down bad reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Christopher Boyd| Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 12:51:46 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Restaurants and other eating establishments are being targeted by extortionists who post fake reviews online and then offer to remove them in exchange for a gift card. <\/p>\n

The possibility has always existed to leave poor reviews on Google Maps and elsewhere. However, seeing fraudsters get organised and issue extortion threats alongside the review is a new development. <\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/a>, businesses are being “deluged” with the poor reviews. Extortion threats are then mailed to the business owners, apologising for the actions but insisting that $75 Google Play gift cards be purchased in order to have the poor reviews erased.<\/p>\n

Card codes are mailed to a ProtonMail account, where the scammers pick up their bounty. The codes are likely sold on at this point to turn a tidy profit. We don’t know if anyone actually sent a card code to the relevant mail address, nor if any reviews were removed by the fraudsters in cases where a payment was made.<\/p>\n

The group claims to be based in India, and is currently targeting businesses in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.<\/p>\n

The bad review bombing technique<\/h2>\n

Review bombing is something you’ve probably heard about in relation to gaming. When fans of certain titles become annoyed with changes in a game, or something is released which they object to, some turn to leaving bad reviews.<\/p>\n

These reviews tend to be organised by groups, and plaster a product’s page with poor ratings. This has a negative impact on the title, and comes with a variety of side effects. It might even make the product less visible to other shoppers due to the product review score tanking.<\/p>\n

Platforms selling games have had to take significant action<\/a> against these tactics in recent years, developing new ways to spot inauthentic reviews and hiding them away from the public.<\/p>\n

Defending your business from bad review practices<\/h2>\n

Google offers several guides for both reviewers and business owners where reviews are concerned.<\/p>\n

Firstly, there’s detailed information about adding a review<\/a> on Maps. While this is useful to know as a business owner, the really important information is on the How to remove reviews<\/a> guide. Review removal requests are initiated via the Manage Reviews<\/a> page. Before you submit, you need to check through the Prohibited and Restricted content section<\/a> and see which category extortion attempts would fall under.<\/p>\n

We suspect Civil Discourse > Harassment<\/strong>, or Deceptive Content > Misrepresentation<\/strong> would be good places to start.<\/p>\n