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The owners of a group of independent restaurants said they were targeted by criminals who threatened to post fake one-star reviews if they did not hand over thousands of pounds.
Sam Morgan and chef Andy Sheridan faced a demand for £2,000 to stop reviews being posted on Google and Tripadvisor on their five restaurants by a person using a mobile phone with a Bangladeshi international code.
After refusing to pay the money, several reviews were posted, said Mr Morgan, who claimed criminals were using the online review platforms as weapons to obtain cash.
By sharing his story, Mr Morgan hopes to expose the work of the criminal gangs while ramping up pressure on the online giants to clamp down on fake reviews.
Google and Tripadvisor said they have since removed the fake reviews on Mr Morgan’s Open Restaurant Group outlets while defending mechanisms to ensure reviews on their sites are genuine.
Mr Morgan said the blackmail started earlier this month with a message, seen by The Independent, to a customer service number used for Restaurant 8 in Liverpool, The Bracebridge in Birmingham, Black and Green in Worcestershire, and Restaurant OXA in the Wirral.
It threatened to post negative reviews on Google and Tripadvisor if £2,000 was not paid to a bank account – and when Mr Morgan declined, he was told he would receive 1,000 one-star reviews.
Days later, two such supposed customer appraisals appeared on Google about The Bracebridge. “This restaurant is just a scam. Be aware,” one post read.
When Mr Morgan asked the person who messaged to remove the reviews, the amount demanded increased to £2,500.
“If you don’t do this now [pay the money] I’ll increase the amount, day by day,” the person wrote to Mr Morgan.
Mr Morgan decided to turn off the phone before more one-star reviews appeared for his restaurants. He contacted Google and Tripadvisor, which he said were too slow to act on the issue.
Mr Morgan said: “Google and Tripadvisor are allowing the criminals to use their platforms as a weapon for the extortion of money from hard-working businesses like our own.
“There needs to be more stringent policies in place to stop this happening, and to act quickly when it’s raised.”
He added: “The reason I’ve raised this is to protect others but hopefully encourage those targeted not to pay criminals for fake reviews.
“Reviews are hugely important for businesses, so any threat to the online review platforms is obviously a big concern to not only the owners but the employees.”
Mr Morgan said he flagged the issue to Google, but a chatbot initially responded with self-help guides that did not help him.
He said he raised the blackmail with Tripadvisor before the fake review was posted on the platform – but it took six days for the post to be removed.
Google said fake reviews posted on its site were a violation of its policy and encouraged users and business owners to flag suspicious activity.
A spokesperson said: “Our policies clearly state that reviews must be based on real experiences and information. We’ve looked into this case and are removing the policy-violating content.”
Tripadvisor said it works hard to keep fake reviews off its platform, with each review submitted going through a series of checks, first through an AI tool, then, if necessary, by a team of investigators.
A spokesperson added: “As a final step, if a review does slip through the cracks, our community – including business owners – can report it as suspicious so it can be passed to our team for a closer look.
“The allegation that Tripadvisor is ‘allowing its platform to be weaponised by criminals for fake reviews’ is ridiculous. Tripadvisor has extremely robust processes and policies in place to protect the businesses listed on our platform from blackmail and threatening behaviour.
“This was a single review, which was promptly removed by our trust and safety team upon receiving evidence from the business owner of its provenance.”
The spokesperson said Tripadvisor had a feature to report blackmail, adding if this was used, the review would not have made it on the platform – although Mr Morgan had been in contact with the company’s team.
