Dozens of Michelin-starred American restaurants are currently being blackmailed by scammers who bombard the businesses with negative reviews via Google Maps. Google is investigating the incident.
The scammers say they are from India and threaten to leave a 1-star review on Google Maps every day unless the owners of the affected restaurants pay $75 in Google Play gift cards, the report said. The New York Times. The chief of one of the affected companies, Kim Alter, shared on Twitter the threatening e-mail she received. In it, the perpetrators apologize several times for their actions and claim to need the money to support their family.
Alter’s tweet caused Google to remove the affected user reviews. Other affected restaurants also managed to force the tech company to take action through tweets and other actions on social media.
Google is investigating the scams and emphasizes to The New York Times that leaving reviews is only allowed if it is based on actual experiences. “We take prompt action in the event of a violation of our terms of use. This could result in the removal of the affected reviews, an account ban or even legal action.”
In contrast, some restaurateurs have criticized Google’s policies; it would be very difficult for victims to get in direct contact with the company and flagging rogue user reviews would not always have the desired effect. Google Maps uses both human workers and algorithms to determine whether a user review is legit or not, so Google said earlier this year. The scammers have so far apparently been able to bypass Google’s security system.
Google Maps says it filters both automatically and manually for any fake reviews