“Pay us or the reviews stay”: The extortion scam targeting Australian small businesses
Australian small businesses are being extorted by scammers who flood their Google profiles with fake one-star reviews before demanding payment to remove them.
Australian small businesses say scammers are flooding their Google profiles with one-star reviews before demanding payment to remove them, putting ratings, reputations and sales at risk.
A strong Google rating took removalist Gina Tsigaris years to build.
Her Sydney business, Move It with Gina, had accumulated hundreds of reviews, helping prospective customers decide whether to trust the company with their belongings.
Then earlier this year, the one-star reviews started appearing.
“It wasn’t just one, it was about six in a row, one after the other,” Tsigaris told SmartCompany.
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