The Google review WhatsApp scam

The chat comes from a number you do not know, often with a screenshot of your own listing. The wording changes, but the shape is close to one of these.

• We posted these reviews. Pay and they stop.
• Pay and we delete the bad reviews from your page.
• Your business is under attack. We are a removal team and can clear it for a fee.
• More reviews will come every day until you pay.

Some versions arrive before any reviews, as a warning. Others arrive a day or two after a sudden run of one star ratings with little or no text.

Your phone number is on your Business Profile for customers, and that is where most of these senders get it. Many check whether the number is on WhatsApp, because a chat message feels more personal and more urgent than an email. Some name the owner or quote one of your reviews to sound informed. None of that means they have any access to your listing or to Google. It means they read the same public page your customers read.

Keep the number on your profile. Customers need it, and taking it down does not stop the reviews. If the messages keep coming, route them to one person on your team who saves and logs them without replying.

Google's help page on review extortion says plainly not to engage with or pay the person, because paying can encourage more attempts and does not get the reviews removed. The sender has no control over Google's decisions, and a payment tells them your business is one that pays.

Do not reply at all, not even to argue. A reply confirms the number is live and gives them more to screenshot.

Owners often assume the sender posted the reviews and can delete them. Sometimes that is true, and they post again after the payment anyway. Sometimes the sender had nothing to do with the reviews and simply saw your rating drop. Either way, a review leaves your listing only if the reviewer deletes it or Google removes it under its policies.

• A screenshot of every message, with the date and time visible.
• The sender's phone number and profile name, on the contact info screen.
• Any payment details they sent: a wallet address, a bank name, a payment link.
• Any voice notes, saved as files.
• The date you first noticed the drop in your rating.

Keep the originals. Do not crop out the timestamps. The guide on documenting a review attack shows how to log the reviews themselves next to the chat.

1. 1

   Google's merchant extortion report form

   This is Google's channel for exactly this case: someone demanding money, goods or services in exchange for removing reviews. It asks for the chat, the reviews and how the person contacted you.

2. 2

   The Reviews Management Tool

   Report each review in the wave under the policy its wording breaks. The extortion form and the review reports are separate, so do both.

3. 3

   WhatsApp itself

   Use the Report and Block options in the chat after you have saved your screenshots. Blocking first can make the chat harder to capture.

Stop there. Do not send a second payment, even if they say the first was a deposit or that a new problem has come up. Save the receipt, the wallet address or account details, and every message around the payment.

• Tell your bank or payment provider what happened and ask what they can do about the transfer.
• Add the payment details to Google's merchant extortion report form, next to the chat.
• Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which takes reports of fraud and scams.
• Keep reporting each review in the Reviews Management Tool. The payment changes nothing about which reviews break a policy.

The FTC warns about a related scam that starts with an unexpected WhatsApp or text message offering easy online work, such as rating products or apps. Some versions ask people to leave ratings on Google Maps listings. The victim is later told to deposit their own money to unlock earnings.

For an owner, this can show up as a cluster of short ratings from strangers in other cities who have clearly never visited. Those reviews are not based on a real experience, which Google's policy does not allow, and they can be reported the same way. If one of these job offers reaches you, the FTC advice is simple: do not reply, and never pay to get paid.

Paste your Google Maps link into the free review check. It reads every low review on the listing and labels each one: Spam, Off topic, Advertising, Conflict of interest, Abusive language, or No rule broken. You tick the ones to file. Each is filed once under the policy it breaks, and you are billed only for a review Google removes, at a lower rate per review when several go in one order.

The labelled list also helps your extortion report. It shows which reviews in the wave share copied text or carry a phone number, next to the ones that only pulled your rating down.