Review Fraud

The Event Coordinator, Andrea Toliver, for Henderson Castle in Kalamazoo, MI, is being sued for targeting and leaving negative reviews after a guest left a negative Google review. The lawsuit claims that after Mr. Adams left a negative Google review after finding a caterpillar under his broccoli, Andrea looked him up and left negative reviews …

Today, Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025, I came across this thread on Reddit. Apparently, a coffee shop, Coca Smoocha in Vietnam, had 36 Google reviews removed. Google emailed the business advising that the system had identified fake or paid reviews. Google advised the business that if more fake or paid reviews are detected, Google may apply …

I recieved a tip that Plan A Real Estate Services LTD in Vancouver, Canada has suspicious Google reviews. Upon investigation, Plan A has received 18 5-star Google reviews in less than 48 hours. The reviews started getting posted on Thursday, November 27, 2025. 13 of the 18 reviewers have left only one review. Here they …

Spammers have been targeting businesses with fake negative Google reviews for a while. A majority of the review attacks are the same. The scammers post a few negative reviews, then message the business, claiming that one of their competitors has hired them to post 30 1-star reviews unless the business pays the scammer. The messages …

For the past year, scammers have been sending messages to business owners claiming that a competitor hired them to flood the business owner’s Google Business Profile (GBP) with 30 negative reviews. The business can either accept the 30 negative reviews or pay them. The scammers leave a few negative reviews before reaching out. No competitor …

I stumbled upon this Reddit post about Mr. JJ Mediterranean Grill in Louisville, KY. The OP posted a nasty reply to a negative Google review. The original review was removed from Google. There is no way for me to tell if the person who posted it removed it or if Google removed it. I don’t …

During the National League Championship Series, a Brewer Fan said, “Let’s Call Ice,” on a Latino Dodger fan. The video has gone viral. According to news reports, the exchange took place after Enrique “Kiké” Hernández scored to make it 4 to 1 for the Dodgers. Ricardo Fosado stood up and, with his cell phone in …

I first encountered Sandra Turner on Reddit. She recently joined Reddit. The past week, she has posted several “case studies.” The reason I am putting case studies in quotation marks is that she supplied no images to back up her claims. On Friday, October 10th, 2025, she seemed to experience a meltdown. I took exception …

Since the middle of January 2025, I have been mapping out the reviews for 100’s of addiction treatment facilities and sober living homes. What I am seeing is alarming. People are reviewing several of the same locations repeatedly. Before I get into my findings, let me get into how I collected my data. I started …