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I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 11 years 21 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.

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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