NYC Businesses Targeted by Fake Review Extortion Schemes

The Rise of Review Extortion

• 🎯 New York City businesses are facing a new form of extortion involving fake online reviews, primarily on Google.
• 💰 Scammers post a barrage of negative, often nonsensical, reviews and then demand thousands of dollars to remove them.
• 📈 This tactic can drastically lower a business's rating, with one pharmacy owner seeing their score plummet from 4.9 to 4.1 in a single day.

Tactics and Challenges

• 📞 Review extortionists often include a phone number with foreign country codes, making police investigations more difficult.
• 💬 Business owners report a lack of direct support from platforms like Google, describing the reporting process as a "black hole" with no way to reach a real person.
• ⚠️ Fake Review Watch founder K Dean notes that 16 other New York businesses have been targeted by similar schemes recently.

Google's Response and Business Owner Actions

• 🛠️ Google has launched a specific merchant extortion report form to help businesses flag these malicious reviews.
• 🚫 Google urges business owners to avoid paying or engaging with extortionists and to report the incidents immediately.
• 📄 Victims are advised to keep records, such as screenshots and chat logs, as evidence for law enforcement.
• ✅ In one case, Google removed the fake reviews after the business owner reported them, restoring the legitimate rating.