In a new scam targeting restaurants, criminals leave negative reviews on restaurants’ Google pages as a bargaining chip to extort digital gift cards.
Restaurateurs from San Francisco to New York, many from Michelin-starred establishments, have said in recent days they’ve received a ton of one-star ratings on Google, with no description or photos, from people they said they’ve never seen at their restaurants. have eaten . Shortly after the reviews, many owners said they received emails from a person claiming responsibility asking for a $75 Google Play gift card to remove the reviews. If payment is not received, the message says, more bad reviews will follow.
The text message threat was the same in every email: “We sincerely apologize for our actions and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice.” The email went on to say that the sender lives in India and the resale value of the gift card could bring several weeks of income to the sender’s family. The emails, from various Gmail accounts, requested payment to a Proton email account.
Kim Alter, the chef and owner of Nightbird in San Francisco, said Google removed her one-star ratings after she tweeted the company to file a complaint. Chinh Pham, an owner of Sochi Saigonese Kitchen in Chicago, said her one-star ratings were removed after customers responded on social media.
“We don’t have a lot of money to fund this kind of crazy stuff happening to us,” Ms Pham said.
At Google, teams of operators and analysts, as well as automated systems, monitor the ratings for such abuses. A Google Maps spokeswoman said Monday that the platform was investigating the situation and had begun removing reviews that violated its policy.
“Our policy clearly states that reviews should be based on real experiences, and when we find policy violations, we take prompt action ranging from content removal to account suspension and even lawsuits,” she said.
But some restaurateurs said it was challenging to reach someone at Google to help them. As of Monday, some restaurants were still receiving the negative reviews. Some said they continued to flag them, but Google hadn’t stepped in yet.
“You’re just a little defenseless,” said Julianna Yang, the general manager of Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, who has echoed many of her restaurant’s responses to the posts. “It seems like we’re just duck, and it’s just bad luck that these reviews might stop.”
For EL Ideas in Chicago, Google ruled Monday that one of the recent one-star reviews that reported the restaurant as fake did not violate the platform’s policy and would not be removed, said William Talbott, a manager of the restaurant.
“This is another nightmare for us to deal with,” he said. “I’m going crazy. I don’t know how to get us out of here.”
Law enforcement officers have urged restaurant owners to contact Google if they are targeted and report these crimes to their local law enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. The committee advises companies not to pay the scammers.
This type of extortion is considered a cybercrime, says Alan B. Watkins, a cybersecurity consultant and the author of “Creating a Small Business Cybersecurity Program.” He said it cannot be prevented and that the only thing companies can do is minimize the damage by reporting it to authorities and informing customers about the false reviews. Using Google Play gift cards is likely a conscious choice, he added, as such transactions are difficult to track.
A deluge of bad reviews could spell disaster for businesses that are still financially recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. A lower average rating on Google, restaurateurs say, can make all the difference to a customer deciding where to dine.
“These are part of the decision-making process, where people first decide where to go,” said Jason Littrell, director of marketing at Overthrow Hospitality in New York City, which has several plant-based restaurants, including Avant Garden in the East Village. “People are willing to go further and pay more for the higher star rating.”
Mr Littrell said the scammers are “arming the ratings” and that he doesn’t think the restaurant staff can do much to stop this. The fake reviews proved that “our reputation isn’t really ours anymore, which is really scary.”
At Roux in Chicago, the staff has responded to any review it believes is fake with a note stating the email threat. This has prompted the scammers to send a more strongly worded follow-up email: “We can keep doing this indefinitely. Is $75 worth more to you than a loss to the company?”
“These are business terrorists,” said Steve Soble, a Roux owner, “and I hope it stops before it starts to harm our business.”
