Fake Google reviews: what Google removes, and what it leaves up

Start by checking your own records. Look up the reviewer's name in your invoices, your calendar and your call log. If nobody by that name booked anything, write that down. That note is the whole basis of your report.

Then read the review itself. A real unhappy customer names something: a date, a room, a quote, a person they dealt with. A fake one usually stays vague, or describes a service you don't offer.

The reviewer's profile tells you more than the review does. An account with one review, posted in a state you have never worked in, is a different problem from a regular reviewer who had a bad morning.

One thing worth accepting early: a harsh review from a real customer is allowed, even when it is unfair, and even when it is wrong about the facts. Those you answer. You don't report them.

Google takes down reviews that break its content rules, and leaves the rest. Its help page puts it plainly: flagged reviews that break the policies are removed from Maps and Search, and you should not report a review just because you disagree with it.

These are the reasons that count, from the policy Google applies to reviews.

Read your review against that list before you touch the report button. If you can point at one line in the table, you have a case. If you can't, reporting it wastes the one appeal you get.

Do this before you report, because a review can be edited or deleted and your screenshot is the only copy you will have.

• A screenshot of the review, showing the name, the stars and the date.
• The reviewer's profile, if their other reviews are public.
• Your own record: the search you ran in your invoices or calendar, and what it returned.
• The policy you think it breaks, in one sentence.
• Anything that repeats: same wording, same day, several accounts.

If several reviews arrived together, keep them as one file rather than five. A pattern is easier to argue than a single review, and it is the kind of thing a person reviewing your report can see at a glance.

Open your Google Business Profile, find the review, and use the report option on it. Pick the reason that actually matches. Picking a stronger-sounding reason that doesn't fit is the most common way a report fails.

Google says a review it is checking typically takes several days. If the review stays up, you get one appeal per flagged review, so it is worth spending a few minutes on the reason rather than firing off a report the same minute you see it.

Don't ask your staff, friends or customers to report it too. It does not add weight, and organised activity around reviews is the kind of thing both Google and the regulator look for.

Your reply is not for the reviewer. It is for the next person comparing three companies at ten at night, and that person has no way of knowing which of you is telling the truth.

So the reply that works is short, calm, and checkable:

"Thanks for the feedback. We can't find a booking or an invoice under this name, so we may have this mixed up with another company. Please call the office and we'll look into it properly."

What that does: it shows you answer complaints, it says the record doesn't exist without calling anyone a liar, and it leaves the door open.

Lines to leave out: "this is fake", "you are a competitor", "we know who you are". Even when you are right, a reader who lands mid-argument tends to back away from both sides.

The Federal Trade Commission finalized a rule on this in August 2024. It bans, among other things:

• Reviews and testimonials that were written by someone with no real experience of the business, including ones generated by AI.
• Buying or selling reviews, or paying for a review that takes a particular positive or negative line.
• Reviews by insiders, such as employees or managers, that do not say who wrote them.
• Using threats or false accusations to get a negative review taken down.
• Buying followers, views or other engagement that is not real.

The FTC says the rule lets it seek civil penalties against businesses that break it knowingly. You can read the Commission's own announcement for the full list.

Notice the fourth one. Threatening a customer to get a review taken down is on the banned list as well, which is worth knowing before anyone in the office sends an angry message.

On a profile with twelve reviews, one fake star rating moves your average and everybody sees it. On a profile with a hundred and fifty, it barely registers. That difference is the whole game, and it is built before the attack, not after.

Ask every customer, at the end of the job, while they are still standing in front of you. Send one link, not a form. Reply to the ones you get. Google says in its own ranking guidance that replying to reviews shows you value the feedback, and that reviews count towards how well known your business looks.

What not to do: offer a discount for a review, ask only the customers you know are happy, or write any of them yourself. All three are now the regulator's business as well as Google's.

If this keeps happening and you would rather hand it over, that is what our review and reputation service does.

Screenshot the review. Search your records for the name. Match it to one policy line. Report it with that reason. Post one short reply. Then go and ask three real customers for a review.

That sequence is boring, and it is the one that works. Arguing in public never has.