Fake Google reviews: an extortion network is targeting SMEs too

An international network is flooding Google Business Profiles with fake negative reviews, then contacting the targeted business on WhatsApp to demand payment for their removal. The scheme has already hit SMEs in Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands: nothing suggests Belgium is spared. Here is how it works, what Belgian law says, and what to do if your listing is targeted.

1. The mechanism: a wave of reviews, then a ransom demand

The pattern has been documented by several Swiss and French outlets: one or more fake accounts post a series of negative reviews on a business's Google Business Profile. Shortly after, a WhatsApp message arrives, often from a number registered in Pakistan, offering to remove the reviews for roughly 50 to 100 euros each. The network targets dozens of businesses at once across France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. Some of these networks now use generative AI to create fake profiles and write convincing reviews automatically, which makes detection harder than it was two years ago.

2. Why an SME feels it harder than a large chain

A chain with 300 positive reviews easily dilutes one negative comment. A small or mid-sized business with 15 or 20 active reviews cannot: a single fake review can account for 20% of its total visibility on Google Maps, enough to tip the decision of a prospect who doesn't know the business yet. In B2B, the exposure is even more direct: a prospect comparing two suppliers before a tender often has only the Google rating to decide.

3. What Belgian law says

In Belgium, publishing a review you know to be false is calumny (article 443 of the Criminal Code); publishing a review whose truth you don't know but which harms someone's honour is defamation (article 444). Both carry a prison sentence of eight days to one year and a fine, doubled if the motive is discriminatory. An emergency court procedure (référé), for manifestly unlawful harm, can in theory secure a fast takedown of a defamatory review. In practice, the difficulty is the same everywhere: proving a threat exchanged over an ephemeral messaging app, and getting a platform with no fixed legal deadline for this kind of commercial dispute to actually act.

4. What to do if your listing is targeted

Never pay, and don't negotiate over WhatsApp: nothing guarantees the reviews disappear, and it signals your business is a target that pays. Take dated screenshots of every suspicious review. Report each one through Google's dedicated extortion scam form, separate from the standard "inappropriate content" report. Check the author's profile: a recently created account with a single review is a strong signal. If several businesses in your sector or region are targeted the same day, a coordinated report often speeds up the review.

The AI lens, people first

AI can continuously monitor your Google Business Profile and flag an abnormal spike in reviews, often hours before a human would notice. It can also spot the markers of a fake profile: a recent account, a single review, generic wording. But deciding whether to respond publicly, report, negotiate or take legal action stays a human call, specific to each situation and each business. Our stance: AI executes, expertise decides and watches.