By admin 
NEW RIVER, AZ (AZFamily) — Bo Curry has been in the roofing business for decades.
Read more Campwood Fire holds at 1,018 acres as crews make progress near Bagdad
“I’ve been doing this my whole life, and I really try to take care of people,” he said.
Curry knows how important good reviews are to get new customers and was proud of his five-star rating on Google. But recently, something strange happened. He got a message on Facebook from someone offering to post fake five-star reviews about Curry’s company, Mayer Roofing.
“It was like 10 reviews for $250, and I refused. I said I’m not going to buy fake reviews,” he said.
All of a sudden, Curry was hit with a one-star review on Google from someone he had never worked for.
“The guy actually contacted me on Facebook and said, ‘Hey, if you want to give me $150, I’ll remove the review,” Curry said.
Curry ignored the message, but ended up with another fake 1-star review.
Kay Dean, who runs the site Fake Review Watch, says it is a common extortion scheme.
“There is a whole cottage industry of review sellers in countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Dean said. “It’s very distressing for small businesses because small businesses in today’s environment live and die by their reviews.”
If it happens to you, document everything, flag the reviews, and report them.
“Sometimes I see reviews, fake negative reviews removed within a couple of days, but also I’ve seen fake negative reviews remain on a Google business listing for months and months,” Dean said. “They’re clearly fake. Google should absolutely see it.”
According to a Google report, the company removed 221 million fake and misleading reviews in 2025.
Read more Former airman accused of offering to pay to rape child reaches plea deal
“I’ve contacted Google. They haven’t responded in any way,” Curry said. “If they hear from you guys, they might take it serious.”
Google didn’t respond to On Your Side’s questions about fake reviews, but the fake 1-star reviews about Curry’s business are gone now.
Still, he worries about the business he may have lost while those reviews were up. He knows at least one person saw them and hesitated.
“He goes, ‘I saw your reviews, and I saw that you said that this was not one of my customers,’” Curry told On Your Side. “So he was understanding, giving me an opportunity to bid it. It’s sad, but you’ve got to just deal with it.”
To spot fake reviews, check to see whether the profile is set to private. According to Dean, fake reviews are often posted by private profiles that are able to conceal locations. You can also do a reverse image search to see if the account that posted a review has a real photo or something taken from another site.
Because there are so many fake reviews, both good and bad, Dean says it is important to get recommendations about businesses the old-fashioned way, from family and friends who you know and trust in real life.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Read more 71-year-old says officer threw her to the ground during Walmart arrest