Handling a Fake Negative Review on Google Business Profile: A Case Study

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I would like to share a challenging experience I had with a fake negative review on our company's Google Business Profile (GBP) listing for our Victoria location.


An unknown person, going by the name of Jim D, left a 1-star review and rating on our GBP listing. I investigated the review with our HR team and managers, and they confirmed that Jim D did not appear to be one of our employees in our records.

I flagged the review as spam, but after waiting for three business days as per GBP's rule, there was no change. I then decided to reply to the negative review on our GBP in an attempt to resolve the issue. However, Jim D did not respond to our reply.

Our reply was as follows: "Hi Jim, According to our records, it does not appear that you have ever worked for Southern Cross Group. Please note that this is a platform for constructive feedback, and so, if you have any, we would be more than happy to hear it and take it on board. Please send us an email to info@scgroup.global."

Upon further analysis of the negative review and Jim D's profile, I identified the following information in violation of GBP's guidelines and policies:

  • The Jim D account was a fake account (spam)
  • The review personally attacked our company CEO, Sam Johnson (bullying or harassment)
  • The review content was from a competitor business (conflict of interest)

I escalated the issue to the GBP support team, providing them with all the details I had gathered, including:

  • The reviewer's account was new
  • There was no genuine profile photo
  • Jim D had not made any legitimate reviews before
  • He was personally attacking our company CEO

Google's support team replied, and they removed the review since it violated their policies. I would like to remind everyone to always be aware of fake reviews and to take necessary actions to address them. If you come across a fake review and want to report it, you can follow the steps on this link https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

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