Some New York City business owners say they’re being extorted by fake reviewers who leave a slew of negative Google reviews and demand money for it to stop.
It’s become so prevalent that CBS News New York has learned Google just launched a new online form for businesses to report it.
Reviewer threatened to keep posting 1-star reviews unless paid
Like the right medicine, the team at Danny’s Pharmacy in Lincoln Square knows how online reviews can invigorate you.
“We get people coming into the pharmacy and telling me that, ‘I see the reviews, I wanna switch over,'” owner Danny Khanimov said.
That’s why Khanimov was shocked to suddenly get about 20 one-star Google reviews with puzzling claims like “overpriced vehicles in poor condition.”
One review included a phone number, so Khanimov messaged it and got a response demanding thousands of dollars in exchange for the deletion of the reviews — $100 per review.
“I went from 4.9 all the way down to like 4.1 within one day. And he said if I don’t take care of the payments, he will post another 15 every single day until he buries me,” Khanimov said.
Business owners turn to review platforms for help
An online watchdog called Fake Review Watch recently posted a video exposing fake negative reviews after discovering 16 other New York businesses hit by similar extortion schemes over the last few months.
Fake Review Watch founder Kay Dean says all the numbers that contacted those businesses, just like the one Khanimov messaged, had foreign country codes. That makes it harder for police to investigate, so business owners often depend on review platforms for help.
“I tried to report it with Google, and everything is a scroll down. There’s no messages. You can’t really talk to anybody,” Khanimov said.
“That’s a common complaint I hear from business owners when this occurs — it’s a black hole. They can’t reach a real person at Google,” Dean said.
Google launching merchant extortion report form
When CBS News New York reached out to Google about the problems, the company revealed that they are launching a specific form called a “merchant extortion report form” to flag the fake reviews.
Google is urging business owners to immediately report malicious reviews with that tool, and to avoid paying or engaging with extortionists.
The company also says victims should keep records of the extortion as records for police, like screenshots or chat logs.
Khanimov followed that advice, and he says Google removed the fake reviews a couple days after he reported them.
“Thank God Google took it all down and I’m back to my rating, the real ratings,” he said.
He also filed a report with the NYPD, and now he’s hoping investigators can catch the extortionists and deliver a dose of justice.
Google also says they actively monitor for and remove fake reviews, harassment and extortion attempts.