Report Fake Google Review Profiles

7th March 2013

I’m writing this because Google needs your help to weed out fake reviewers, and this is how I reported one.

I just reported this user, Heather C-H, where I suspect that it’s a fake profile for a number of reasons…

• No “About” information
• No personal information
• No full name
• No profile photo
• No images, albums or videos
• All reviews are for businesses in different parts of the country  / world. 
• All of their “reviews”  were created within a one month time frame.
• Several of the reviews are written about the same industry, (medical).
• All reviews are negative except for one. (Might that be who hired them?)

Any of these reasons alone are not enough to add up to a fake profile, but combined, I do believe that it does indicate that this is a fraudulent account. These fake reviews are hurting businesses, and I think Google has a responsibility to take action against these fakes, giving the business owners the benefit of the doubt.

These are the steps I took to report the fake profile to Google…

1. I logged into my Google account, then visited their reviews page. 

2. I went to the top right, the “gear” icon, and chose “Report / Block Heather”.

3. On the next screen, I chose the third option, “This profile violates other User Content and Conduct Policies”, because the policy they are violating is #12, “Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior“ 

4. Then I hit “DONE although I was not actually done, because on the next screen I selected the top option, “Unwanted Commercial Content or Spam”, and hit “Okay”.

5. On the next and final screen I saw this thank you message - 

So, with a little luck, Google will review the profile, and remove it, along with the fake reviews,  from their listings. 

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