The Google One-Star Review scam targeting restaurants

Emails sent to dozens of restaurants, including Michelin-starred ones, threaten to receive a deluge of one-star reviews unless the owners don't pay.

In a new scam targeting restaurants, criminals are leaving negative ratings on restaurants' Google pages as a bargaining chip to extort gift cards digital.

Restaurant owners from San Francisco to New York, many from Michelin-star establishments, said in recent days they had received a series of ratings from one star on Google, with no description or photos, from people they said had never eaten at their restaurants. . Shortly after the reviews, many owners said they received emails from someone claiming responsibility and asking for a $75 Google Play gift card to remove the reviews. If payment is not received, the message indicates that more bad ratings will follow.

The text threat was the same in each email: "We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice." The email went on to say that the sender lives in India and the resale value of the gift card could provide several weeks of income for the sender's family.The emails, from multiple Gmail accounts, requested payment to a Proton email account.

Kim Alter, chef and owner of Nightbird in San Francisco, said Google removed its one-star after tweeting the company to complain. Chinh Pham, owner of Sochi Saigonese Kitchen in Chicago, said its one-star reviews had been removed after customers raised an outcry on social media.

"We don't have a lot of money to prevent this kind of crazy thing from happening to us," Ms. Pham said.

At Google, teams of operators and analysts, as well as automated systems, monitor reviews for such abuse. A Google Maps spokeswoman said Monday that the platform is investigating the situation and has begun removing reviews that violate its policies.

"Our policies make it clear that reviews should be based on real experiences. , and when we find policy violations, we take prompt action ranging from content removal to account suspension and even litigation,” she said.

But some restaurateurs said it was a challenge to contact someone at Google to help. On Monday, some restaurants were still receiving negative reviews. Some said they've continued to report them, but Google hasn't acted yet.

"You're just a little helpless," Julianna said Yang, the general manager of Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, who took charge of much of her restaurant's response to messages. "It seems like we're just sitting ducks, and it's not a chance that this criticism will stop."

For EL Ideas in Chicago, Google decided on Monday that any of the restaurant's recent one-star ratings that the restaurant reported as false did not violate platform policies and would not be removed, restaurant manager William Talbott said. p>

“This is another nightmare to deal with,” he said. “I'm losing my mind. I don't know how to get us out of this."

Law enforcement officials have urged restaurant owners to contact Google if they have been targeted and to report crimes to their local law enforcement agencies, as well as to the F.B.I. and the Federal Trade Commission. The commission advises companies not to pay scammers.

This type of extortion is considered a cybercrime, said Alan B. Watkins, cybersecurity consultant and t...