Fake Review Guides

Guides

Can Employees or Family Review Your Business? The Insider-Review Rules

Reviews from owners, staff and relatives count as insider reviews, and regulators in the US and UK are watching them. What is allowed, what to disclose, and what to do instead.

Andrew Keymaster · Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min

Guides

How to Check a Hotel's Reviews Before You Book

A star rating built on a review burst can look identical to one earned night after night. Here's how to read a hotel's review timeline before you book, with a real burst example and what a clean pattern looks like by comparison.

Andrew Keymaster · Sep 25, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

How to Check a Doctor's or Dentist's Reviews Before You Book

A step-by-step checklist for spotting a manipulated review record on a doctor's or dentist's Google listing, grounded in real practice examples and a 2026 study finding roughly a quarter of clinician reviews analyzed were fraudulent.

Andrew Keymaster · Sep 20, 2026 · 7 min

Guides

How to Ask Customers for Reviews Without Breaking FTC or Google's Rules

Asking every customer for a review is legal and effective, but the FTC's Consumer Review Rule and Google's 2026 Rating Manipulation Policy narrow exactly how you can do it. This guide lays out what a compliant request process looks like, with a do/don't table and a template you can use as-is.

Andrew Keymaster · Sep 11, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

How to Check a Contractor's Reviews Before You Hire Them

A star average tells you nothing about whether a contractor's reviews are real. Here is a practical checklist for spotting a manufactured review history before you pay a deposit, grounded in real roofing and plumbing listings and the FTC's first fake-listings case against a home-repair operation.

Andrew Keymaster · Sep 7, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

Can a Business Sue You for a Negative Google Review?

An Ohio manufacturer's August 2026 defamation suit over a one-star Google review raises a real question for anyone who leaves honest feedback: what actually counts as defamation, and does your state's anti-SLAPP law protect you?

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 29, 2026 · 7 min

Guides

What to Do If Someone Threatens Fake Negative Reviews Unless You Pay

A scam is hitting small businesses nationwide: a stranger threatens to flood your Google listing with fake negative reviews unless you pay, then often keeps demanding money even after you do. Here's exactly what to document and where to report it, to Google and separately to federal law enforcement.

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 24, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

Is Review Gating Illegal? What the FTC and Google's 2026 Rules Actually Ban

Review gating — asking only your happiest customers for a review — sits closer to illegal than most businesses realize. The FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans the sentiment-based incentives and suppression that most gating setups rely on, and Google's April 2026 policy update closed the rest of the gap. Here's exactly what's banned and what's still allowed.

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 13, 2026 · 7 min

Guides

My Business Got Hit by Fake 1-Star Reviews: An Owner's Playbook

A sudden wave of fake 1-star reviews is a review-burst attack, not normal customer feedback drift. Here's the step-by-step response: document the pattern, report through the right channel, and know when to escalate to the FTC.

Andrew Keymaster · Aug 2, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

How to Report a Fake Google Review (and What Actually Happens)

Reporting a fake Google review takes under a minute, but removal isn't automatic and nobody tells you the outcome. Here are the exact taps on every surface — Maps app, Maps web, Search, Business Profile — what happens inside Google's review queue afterwards, and what to do when one report clearly isn't enough.

Andrew Keymaster · Jul 25, 2026 · 6 min

Guides

How to Spot Fake Google Reviews: 7 Signals With Real Examples

Fake Google reviews leave patterns a normal reader can catch: review bursts, thin reviewer histories, duplicate phrasing, and rating-text mismatches. Here are seven signals to check before you trust a listing, with real analyzed examples.

Andrew Keymaster · Jul 19, 2026 · 6 min