Fake Google reviews: how to spot them and report them

Most business owners notice a fake review the same way: it describes a visit that never happened, from a name nobody on the team remembers, and it drags the average down. But fake reviews also come in the other direction. A friend’s 5-star review, a discount for a good rating, a competitor’s staff praising their own shop: under Google’s rules, those are fake too.

This guide covers both sides: how Google defines a fake review, the signs that give one away, the exact steps to report it, and what the law in the US and the UK now says.

What Google counts as a fake review

Google’s Maps user-generated content policy files it under “fake engagement” and lists practices that are not allowed, including:

• “Reviews or ratings that have been paid for, directly or in kind”;
• “Content that has been posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person”;
• merchants offering incentives, “such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services”, in exchange for any review;
• posting content on a competitor’s listing to undermine that business’s reputation.

The incentive rule surprises many owners. A discount for a review breaks the policy even when the customer is real and the review is honest: the policy is about the incentive, not only about the truth of the text. The test Google applies to the text itself is short:

“...not based on a real experience or does not accurately represent the location or product in question.”

Google, Maps user-generated content policy, “Fake engagement”

Signs a review may not be genuine

None of these signs proves anything alone. Two or three together are worth a closer look.

Before you report, check your own records. A short, angry review from a real customer you have forgotten is not fake, and reporting it as fake will not end well.

How to report a fake review to Google

Google gives two routes. Both are on its help page “Report inappropriate reviews on your Business Profile”.

From your Business Profile

1. Go to your Business Profile on Google Search or Maps while signed in as the owner or a manager.
2. Select Read reviews.
3. Select Report next to the review you want to flag.
4. Choose the reason that fits; Google’s examples include spam and profanity.
5. Select Send report.

From the Reviews Management Tool

The Reviews Management Tool does the same and adds tracking. Select your business, choose to report a new review for removal, pick the review and the reason, and submit. The tool then shows a status for each report: decision pending, reviewed with no policy violation, or escalated, in which case Google emails you the final decision. Google says evaluation “typically takes several days”. If a report is rejected, the same tool lets you appeal eligible reviews once.

How much Google catches by itself

Google publishes summaries of its work on Maps content. In April 2026 it said that in 2025 it “blocked or removed over 292 million policy-violating reviews”, removed over 13 million fake Business Profiles and placed restrictions on more than 782,000 accounts. It also described what it does when fake reviews spike on a profile: remove the fake content, pause new reviews on the profile, alert the owner, and show a banner telling customers why contributions are paused.

So a report is not the only defence, but it is the one you control. Automatic systems can miss reviews that look ordinary, and they cannot know that “Mike from the Tuesday shift” does not exist.

What the law says in the US and the UK

United States. The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule went into effect on 21 October 2024. According to the FTC’s own questions and answers, it covers fake reviews and testimonials, reviews bought on condition of a particular sentiment, undisclosed reviews by company insiders, review suppression through “unfounded or groundless legal threat[s]” or intimidation, company-controlled sites that pretend to be independent, and fake social media indicators. Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations.

United Kingdom. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, fake reviews are a banned practice from April 2025. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s Business Companion guide describes a fake review as “one that claims to be, but is not based on, a person’s real experience”, and the rules also cover reviews that hide the fact they were incentivised. Businesses that publish reviews must take “reasonable and proportionate steps” to prevent and remove them. The CMA’s own guidance, CMA208, was published on 4 April 2025.

Two practical consequences. First, buying or swapping reviews is now a legal risk, not just a policy risk. Second, the FTC rule also protects reviewers: threatening a customer with a groundless lawsuit to make them delete an honest bad review is itself a problem.

What not to do

• Do not answer fake with fake. Asking friends to post 5-star reviews to balance things out breaks the same policy and, in the US and UK, the same law.
• Do not accuse the reviewer by name in public. If you are wrong, you have insulted a customer in front of every future one.
• Do not pay anyone who offers to remove reviews. Removal is Google’s decision. Some of these offers come from the same people who posted the reviews; see review extortion and review bombing.
• Do not ignore it either. If a review stays up, a short, factual reply (“We have no record of this visit; please contact us at...”) tells readers what they need to know.

Keep watching after the report

Fake reviews rarely come alone. One wave is often followed by another, and they can appear on Yelp or Trustpilot as well as Google. It helps to watch your ratings across sites, not only your own profile. WhatsMyRep checks the ratings and review counts Google shows for your name every day, alerts you when far more reviews than usual arrive while the rating falls, and flags a drop of 0.2 or more from one day to the next; our review monitoring page explains what it does and does not see.