There is a Google Review restaurant review scam happening that you need to know about. It’s unfortunate, and the scammers have not left out Houston restaurants. Google restaurant reviews have become the gold standard for customers wanting to find great new restaurants to try. Every restaurant owner puts a ton of sweat equity into their business to create rave reviews about their fare.

It is vital for businesses to have good reviews on Google, as this is one of the first places potential customers will look when deciding where to eat. This blog post will discuss the Google restaurant review scam and how you can remove fake reviews from your listing.

Why Reviews Are Important for a Business

Good reviews are essential for businesses because they help to improve visibility and attract new customers. Positive reviews can also lead to higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, good reviews can help a business grow and succeed.

Negative reviews, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect. They can damage a business’s reputation and make it harder for potential customers to find the company. This is why the Google restaurant review scam is so harmful.

How the Google Review Restaurant Scam Is Impacting Houston Businesses

The scam works like this: someone posts a negative or 1-star review of a restaurant on Google, even if they’ve never been there. The fake review hurts the restaurant’s rating, leading to a loss of business.

The unfortunate truth is that fake reviews are commonplace, and business owners always struggle to deal with them. Sometimes these fake reviews can come from competitors and could be a part of a more extensive fake review network. While the concept of fake 1-star reviews happens often, a cause for concern is that extortion and blackmail are also a part of the scheme now. (Hawkins, 2022)

In a recent case, a local restaurant ownership group was blackmailed by someone overseas who threatened to bombard them with negative reviews. The partners received an email requesting they send pre-paid gift cards to the scammers. If the restaurant didn’t comply with the ransom, the restaurant would be disparaged online. (Dougherty, 2022)

While online reviews are critical to all businesses, restaurants can be susceptible. In this case, the restaurant decided not to file a police report. Instead, they took to social media to tell the public what happened and why they got a 1-star review.

How to Remove Fake Google Reviews

Google is a valuable resource for potential customers, and you want to ensure that your listing is accurate and reflects the quality of your business. The best way to protect your business from this scam is to remove fake reviews as soon as you see them.

Google has a process for flagging and removing fake reviews. If you suspect a review is fake, you must go through the formal review process, which can be time-consuming. Also, there is no guarantee that the review will be removed. You may also reach out to the reviewer to resolve the issue directly.

You can flag a review as inappropriate by logging into your Google My Business account, navigating to the Reviews tab, and locating the review you’d like to flag. You’ll also need to complete Google’s follow-up survey to let them know the reason for reporting the review.

Another way to protect your business is to encourage customers to leave honest and positive reviews. Don’t forget to thank your real customers when they leave you a genuine review. (Fontanella, 2022)

If you have been the victim of the Google restaurant review scam, don’t despair. There are steps you can take to recover and protect your business. You can ensure that fake reviews do not harm your business with a little effort.

About Business Sound and Communications

The customer experience is everything when it comes to restaurants. Our company is built around delighting your customers. Business Sound and Communications (BSC) is your technology resource for a heightened customer experience providing personalization and convenience.

We are family owned and operated and have served Houston and surrounding areas for over 25 years. This gives us a competitive edge in sales and service of drive-thru communications, digital menu boards, POS systems, timers, scent marketing, surveillance equipment, and more. 

We are a long-term solution for drive-thru operations, quick serve restaurants, fine dining, and hospitality industry businesses. We are here to help your operations run efficiently, accurately, and timely, resulting in delighted customers. The brands that we represent are Panasonic, HME, PAR, MoodMedia, and ICRealtime. You can find us at www.bsctx.com.

Works Cited

Hawkins, Joy. “1-Star Review Attacks Plague Restaurants on Google.” Search Engine Land, 18 July 2022, 

searchengineland.com/google-1-star-restaurant-reviews-scam-386561. 

Dougherty, Matt. “Blackmailer Threatens Houston Restaurant with Negative Online Reviews Unless They Pay Ransom.” Khou.com, KHOU 11, 9 July 2022, 

www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-restaurant-blackmailed-reviews/285-4b29959b-a3c3-4a10-bd12-406866204402. 

Fontanella, Clint. “How to Spot (& Remove) Fake Google Reviews.” HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 2 June 2022, 

blog.hubspot.com/service/remove-fake-google-reviews.