Restaurateurs fend off fake online review 'extortion' attempt

An Adelaide restaurateur says she fended off an "extortion" attempt by an overseas company asking for money to remove fake negative reviews online.

Denisse Rojas-Valdez, who co-owns Que Onda Wey! Mexican restaurant in Goodwood with her husband David Valdez, noticed their near-perfect review rating had fallen from 4.9 to 4.8 on Google.

She then started receiving emails from a company, apparently based in the United States, that pointed to negative reviews she had received and offered to have them removed — for a price.

"I got these emails and started to realise I was a victim of extortion," Ms Rojas-Valdez told 891 ABC Adelaide.

Reputational management 

Ms Rojas-Valdez said the saga started in early October with a negative review, followed a few days later with an email from a so-called reputational management company that offered to remove it because it might "conflict with Google's review policies".

She ignored the email, but received more emails over the next few days, telling her the review, by somebody called Eric, could "potentially be taken down" and payment would be "success based".

"I blocked them and I reported it as phishing,"

Ms Rojas-Valdez said.

About five days later she received more emails from the company — which used a slightly varied address to bypass her email block — about another negative review from somebody called Amelia.

"They still were able to reach me, but then I was double-checking and they had put just one extra letter … and it's a different email address," Ms Rojas-Valdez said.

The company cited Amelia's review, which had stated: "I find it to be over price comapre [sic] to other places the size is very small. The hot pot next door is much better value for money".

But there is no "hot pot" next door to their restaurant, nor is there one nearby.

The company told Ms Rojas-Valdez that the review might breach Google's content policies and, if so, it could "handle the entire submission and follow-up process". 

 

Earlier this year, Que Onda Wey! had received similar offers for reputational management from WhatsApp numbers based in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

"I realised this could be coming from anywhere," Ms Rojas-Valdez said.

Google warns businesses to be wary of a "negative review extortion scam", which could occur when one or two-star reviews suddenly appear on a business's online profile, followed by someone "demanding money, goods or services in exchange for removing the negative reviews".

It warns victims not to engage with the "malicious individuals" but to instead gather evidence as quickly as possible and report all the information to Google via its merchant extortion report form.

It also says people should not pay any money as it could encourage further attempts and "doesn't guarantee the removal of reviews".

Policies 'violated'

Ms Rojas-Valdez gathered the evidence and followed Google's instructions, describing the whole process as "a lot of work".

She received an email from Google, which said it had "removed the reviews that violated Google's policies".

"A few reviews don't violate our policies. Those reviews are still up," it wrote. 

Ms Rojas-Valdez said she would also report what occurred to South Australian Police.

"I was really upset," she said.

"It's not about the stars. It's because people can think, 'Oh, they [the restaurant] changed management. They are compromising quality. What is happening?', and that's why I decided to take action."

Overseas groups

A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson said Scamwatch had received a very small number of negative review extortion reports this year, and at least some of the groups behind the emails were operating from overseas.

The spokesperson said there was a spate of such activity in 2019 but only a few cases since then had been reported.

Scamwatch also found that reports about scams of this nature were rare and potentially went unreported.

The spokesperson advised people not to pay money or click on links to remove negative reviews.

"These are scams"

she said.

"If you believe negative reviews about your business are fake, confirm this against your own customer records to ensure this is the case.

"Report fake reviews to the review-hosting platform and request that they are removed."

She said "threatening extortion" was a crime and should be reported to police through ReportCyber, and all scams should be reported to Scamwatch.

A SAPOL spokesperson said it was aware of reports of businesses receiving negative "online reviews and being approached by individuals offering to remove or alter those reviews in exchange for payment".

"The nature and extent of this activity is difficult to quantify, and SAPOL cannot speculate on whether offending is increasing or where offenders may be located," he said.

"Online offending can be facilitated from anywhere in the world and the circumstances of each report vary."

The SAPOL spokesperson advised businesses affected by such activity to retain all relevant evidence, including screenshots and communications, for their report to ReportCyber and the "relevant online platform".

"If a financial loss has occurred, they should contact their financial institution immediately and report the matter to police," he said.

Customers rally

After posting a note about the restaurant's experience on Facebook, Ms Rojas-Valdez said they had received an outpouring of support from customers.

"I started to receive [positive] reviews, like probably 10 that day, from customers," Ms Rojas-Valdez said.

"Some people are enjoying and having a good time in a restaurant and don't really do reviews, but then after this, some regulars, and also new people, started to put up reviews.

"It was so beautiful. You realise that you are doing a good job and people like what you are doing."

Her Google review rating had also been restored to 4.9 out of five stars.

"This is a big deal. We need to fight because we are working hard."

Google says it is dealing with a high volume of "review-related appeals" and warns processing times for businesses reporting their experiences are "extended".