Google review extortion: how to report the scam

Google describes the pattern on its own help page: a sudden increase in 1-star and 2-star reviews on a Business Profile, followed by someone demanding money, goods or services to remove them.

The demand can arrive by WhatsApp, text, email or a social media message. It may read like a threat, or like a friendly offer from a "reputation team" that can clean up your rating for a fee. The reviews in the wave are often short, star only or copied from one account to the next. Either way, the person asking for money is the one behind the reviews.

• Do not engage with or pay the people involved. Google says paying can encourage more attempts and does not ensure the reviews come down.
• Do not try to settle it yourself by offering money or services.
• Gather evidence right away. The sooner you collect it, the better.
• Report every relevant message through the merchant extortion report form, promptly and with as much detail as you can.

Worth knowing: Never pay the person who sent the demand, and never pay a stranger who offers to remove the reviews. Keep the messages and report them.

• Screenshots of each demand showing the date, the time and the sender's contact details.
• A direct link to each suspicious review.
• Names, usernames, emails, phone numbers or social media profiles of the people involved.
• The date you first noticed the spike in reviews, and the date of the first demand.
• A screenshot of your rating and review count before and after the wave, if you have one.

Keep the originals. Do not delete the chat or block the number until every message is saved.

1. 1

   Open the form

   Go to Google's help page titled Report negative review extortion scams on your Business Profile and open the merchant extortion report form.

2. 2

   Say who you are

   Enter your contact details and your relationship to the business.

3. 3

   Name the business

   Give the full business name, address and Business Profile link.

4. 4

   Describe the attack

   List the suspicious reviews, how the person contacted you and what they demanded.

5. 5

   Attach the proof

   Add the screenshots and files that show the messages and the demand, then submit.

Google investigates and tells you the result, without sharing the details of its investigation. The form is for owners who received a demand directly.

Google says reviews that break its policies for other reasons, such as spam or off topic content, go through a different process. So file the extortion form for the demand, and report each review that breaks a rule from your Business Profile or the Reviews Management Tool.

Our free check reads every low review on your listing and labels it. Copied lines are labelled Spam, complaints about anything but a visit are labelled Off topic, and threats are labelled Abusive language. You tick the ones to file, each is filed once, and you are billed per review only after Google removes it, at a lower rate per review when several are filed in one order.

• Paying any "removal" offer that arrives by message.
• Posting or buying 5-star reviews to bury the wave. That is fake engagement under Google's policy too.
• Replying to each review with accusations. One calm reply is enough.
• Sharing the scammer's number in a public reply. Put it in the form instead.