He said that after sharing a screenshot of the email on his Instagram, other local businesses messaged him with their own personal accounts. He finds the entire ordeal bizarre, but said he also feels helpless learning that other San Francisco restaurants are dealing with this too. "It’s unfortunate."Ĭamacho said Prubechu has never had a situation like this before. "I think these are doing this because someone, somewhere would rather pay them then have one-star reviews," Alter said. on Tuesday, July 5, Alter finally heard back from Google and she said that the posts were eventually removed by 12 a.m. "Hey you think you could help small businesses in SF being blackmailed and giving 1* reviews to #marlena #birdsong the post read.īy 9 p.m. She made sure to flag the negative reviews, but also took it a step further and tagged Google as well as the affected local restaurants on Twitter. “Some people said this happened to them weeks ago." "Friends from all over the country were reaching out to me including bar and dealership " Alter said. Not only did she learn that it wasn't an isolated incident, but she also realized that restaurants weren't the only targets. She said her first thought was to share a screenshot of the email on Instagram to see if other restaurants could relate.
Kim Alter, chef-owner at Nightbird, said that her business received 10 negative reviews on Tuesday morning.
The reviews are part of a scam to get money from the restaurants. Nightbird is among a bevy of San Francisco restaurants that have been bombarded with negative reviews on Google. When SFGATE asked Google about blank reviews, the tech giant did not comment. “Our policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences, and when we find policy violations, we take swift action ranging from content removal to account suspension and even litigation,” the Google spokesperson said.īut unlike a review on Yelp, any person can leave a review to a business on Google without providing a lick of context about their actual dining experience. A Google Maps spokesperson told SFGATE that they are aware of the situation and “have already begun removing cases of policy-violating content.” but this stands to be a long-term and ongoing problem.”Ĭamacho said that he has flagged every single post and reached out to Google but hasn’t received a response yet. If it were just six reviews, I can deal with that. We have a million things going on already. “It just puts all the inconvenience upon small business owners like us. “The reviews are costing us time and energy,” Camacho said. Camacho believes that the long-term effects of this scam can potentially harm Prubechu. That count has since added at least two new posts as of Friday morning. Googleīecause he didn’t take the email seriously at first, Camacho didn’t check to see whether Prubechu had received low reviews, but he soon discovered that the restaurant had gained about six new one-star ratings following the suspicious email. The reviews are part of a scam demanding money from the restaurant. Prubechu is among a bevy of San Francisco restaurants that have been bombarded with negative reviews on Google. SFGATE separately found that Quince, Nari, Octavia and SPQR have likewise received low reviews without any context. Among them are Nightbird, Californios, Son & Daughters and Acquerello, as first reported by Eater SF. In San Francisco, Prubechu is among a bevy of top restaurants that have been attacked by scammers that have likewise left one-star reviews on Google. He carried on about his day without giving it another thought - until Prubechu received a call from a New York restaurateur who shared that he had traced the email and discovered that a slew of other businesses around the country had similarly received an identical threat. “They were so apologetic, so matter of fact about it.”Ĭamacho was baffled, to say the least, but he decided to ignore it: reasoning that it was junk mail. “It was so out of this world the way they phrased it,” Camacho said.
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