The short answer
For each fake review, save a screenshot showing the reviewer name, stars, text and date, the direct link to the review, and the reviewer's profile link. Keep a log with one row per review. Save any demand for money with the sender's number or email and the timestamps. Google's extortion form asks for exactly these: review links, contact details of the sender, and screenshots of the demands.
What Google asks for
Google's help page on review extortion lists the evidence to gather. It is a useful standard for any attack report, with or without a demand.
- Screenshots of every demand, showing dates, times and sender details such as email addresses, phone numbers or social media profiles.
- Direct links to the suspicious reviews.
- Names, usernames, emails, phone numbers or profiles linked to the person or group.
- When you first noticed the spike, when the demand arrived, and any earlier attempts.
The same evidence serves a single report in the Reviews Management Tool, an appeal later on, and a report to the FTC. Collect it once and reuse it.
Capture each review
- 1
Use a computer
Open your listing on Google Maps in a desktop browser. The wider screen fits the name, stars, date and full text in one shot.
- 2
Sort by newest
Sort your reviews by newest so the wave sits together at the top in the order it arrived.
- 3
Expand the text
Select More on any long review so the full wording is in the screenshot. Keep the browser address bar in view.
- 4
Copy the review link
Copy the direct link to each review with its Share option, and paste it into your log next to the screenshot file name.
- 5
Record the real date
Google shows dates such as a week ago rather than a calendar date. Write the date you took the screenshot next to it in your log, so the posting date can be worked out later.
- 6
Include the empty ratings
If a review has stars but no text, capture it anyway. A run of empty one star ratings is part of the pattern even though there is nothing to read.
See which of your reviews break a rule.
The check reads every low review on your listing and labels it. Free, and nothing is filed until you pick.
Capture each reviewer
Select the reviewer's name to open their profile, screenshot it, and copy the profile link. The profile shows what makes a pattern visible: how many reviews the account has, where its other reviews are, and whether the same text appears on other businesses. Do this now, because accounts used in an attack are often deleted or renamed.
Note four things per account: how many reviews it has, which cities its other reviews are in, whether it reviewed any of your competitors, and whether the same wording appears elsewhere. These are the facts that turn one odd review into a pattern Google's policy names.
Keep a log
A spreadsheet with one row per review turns a pile of screenshots into a report. Use these columns.
- Date and time the review was posted.
- Reviewer name and profile link.
- Stars, and the first line of the text.
- Direct link to the review.
- Screenshot file name.
- The rule it breaks: Spam, Off topic, Advertising, Conflict of interest, Abusive language, or none.
- Date reported, and the status shown in the Reviews Management Tool.
Fill the log in as you go, not at the end. A review captured on the day it appeared, with the time you saw it, carries more weight than one rebuilt from memory a week later. Update the status column each time you check the Reviews Management Tool, so the log always matches what Google shows.
Save the messages
If anyone contacted you about the reviews, capture the full thread before you block or delete anything. In WhatsApp and text apps, screenshot the contact info screen with the number. For email, save the message with the full header showing the sender address and time. Write down the date and number of any phone calls. Never edit or crop a screenshot. Keep the original file and make copies if you need to mark something.
If the person called rather than wrote, make a short note straight after the call: date, time, number, what they said and what they asked for. Keep any voicemail as an audio file. A note written the same day is far more useful than a memory.
Put it in one place
Make one folder named for the attack with the start date. Inside it, keep the log, a reviews folder, a reviewers folder and a messages folder. Name files by date and reviewer, so a file sorts next to its row in the log. Add your overall rating and review count from before and during the attack. Share the folder with one other person you trust, such as a manager or co-owner, so the evidence is not tied to a single phone or login.
Worth knowing: Keep a copy outside your phone. If the scam involves your phone number, you may change it, and the chats go with it.
Leave these out of the folder and the report:
- Guesses about who is behind it, unless a message or document shows it.
- Personal details of real customers.
- Screenshots from private groups you joined under a false name.
- Marked up images as the only copy of anything.
A report that sticks to what can be seen and checked is easier for Google to act on.
Turn it into a report
The attack report builder on this site turns your log into the text and evidence list for a Google report, in your browser. For the rule column, the free review check reads every low review on your listing and labels each one against Google's policies, so you can copy the labels straight into your log and tick the ones to file.