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Scammers targeting New York restaurants, many with a Michelin star, are demanding payment to remove negative reviews from Google.
The New York Times reports that multiple restaurants in the country had been targeted by criminals as part of the scam. Those hit with the scam claimed that a raft of negative one-star reviews appeared on Google, with neither description nor photos, by people who hadn’t eaten at the restaurant. The restaurant then received an email that demanded a $75 Google Play gift card in return for removing the negative reviews, and that if the demands were not met, then more negative reviews would follow.
The text of the email was the same in each case: “We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business but we have no other choice.”
The email then went on to explain that the sender lives in India and the value of the Google Play gift card would provide for a family for weeks.
Google removed the one-star reviews from some restaurants' pages after they complained on social media. Other reviews were removed after restaurants’ customers complained online. Others have claimed that reaching Google to get the issue resolved has proven to be a major challenge.
Lawmakers have urged restaurants to contact Google directly if they are victims of this crime. This kind of extortion is considered a cybercrime.
“You’re just kind of defenceless,” Julianna Yang, the general manager of Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, told the NYT. “It seems like we’re just sitting ducks, and it’s out of luck that these reviews might stop.”
Some restaurants have tried posting the text of the original email under the negative review, however, that just led to an even stronger-worded email from the scammers: “We can keep doing this indefinitely. Is $75 worth more to you than a loss to the business?”
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