Remove Fake Google Reviews

Fake Google reviews are written by people who were never your customers, or by people with a reason to harm you. We help Australian businesses identify them, gather the evidence, and challenge them through Google's official channels, and you pay only if a review is removed.

Updated 2026-10-11

What counts as a fake Google review

Google's user-contributed content policy prohibits reviews that do not reflect a genuine experience, and reviews posted where there is a conflict of interest. In practice, the false and malicious reviews we see from Australian businesses fall into a handful of patterns:

• Non-customer reviews. Someone who never bought from, visited or dealt with the business leaves a detailed complaint about an experience that did not happen.
• Competitor reviews. A rival business, or someone acting for it, posts negative reviews to pull your rating down. Our guide to identifying fake competitor reviews lists the warning signs.
• Conflict-of-interest reviews. Former employees, ex-partners, landlords, disgruntled business associates or family members using a review to pursue a personal grievance.
• Review bombing. A burst of one-star reviews driven by a news story, a viral post or an online campaign rather than by customer experiences. Our guide to Google review bombing explains how these campaigns usually unfold.
• Spam and bot activity. Generic or repeated text, clusters of reviews from newly created accounts, or accounts reviewing dozens of unrelated businesses in a short time.
• Extortion reviews. One-star reviews posted to pressure you into paying, with an offer to remove them in exchange. Google has a specific reporting process for this, covered in our guide to Google review extortion.

Fake positive reviews also exist, and the ACCC has taken a firm line against businesses that post or buy them. Our service is about challenging fake negative reviews on your own profile; we do not create, buy or post reviews of any kind.

Why fake reviews are hard to remove on your own

A fake review rarely announces itself. Most are written to look plausible: a believable first name, a short complaint about rude staff or a long wait, a one-star rating. When you flag it from your Business Profile, Google sees the review text and a category you selected. It does not see your booking system, your client list or the fact that the reviewer's name matches the owner of the competing business down the road.

That gap is where most self-reported complaints fall down. The review may well be fake, but nothing in the report demonstrates it. Our free guide on how to report a fake Google review covers the do-it-yourself route; this service is for when that has not worked, or when you would rather the case was built properly the first time.

How we build the case against a fake review

Each review is assessed on its own facts. Depending on what is available, the evidence we put together can include:

1. Customer record checks. Confirmation from your booking system, POS, CRM or invoicing that no matching customer, appointment or transaction exists.
2. Reviewer profile analysis. The account's public history: age, review frequency, locations reviewed, and whether it has reviewed competitors favourably.
3. Timing and clustering. Whether the review arrived alongside others in a short window, or immediately after a trigger event such as a staff dismissal or public dispute.
4. Content analysis. Factual impossibilities (a complaint about a service you do not offer, or a visit on a day you were closed), repeated phrasing across reviews, or details that point to inside knowledge.
5. Connection evidence. Links between the reviewer and a competitor, former employee or other party with a motive, where these can be shown from public information or your own records.

Our guide to evidence for review complaints explains what you can gather yourself before you contact us. You do not need everything; we will tell you what matters for your particular reviews.

Fake reviews and Australian law

Fake reviews can engage Australian law as well as Google's policies. Posting false reviews in trade or commerce may amount to misleading or deceptive conduct under section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, and section 29 prohibits false or misleading representations, including representations purporting to be testimonials. A fake review that makes false factual claims about a business or a person may also be defamatory under state and territory defamation law. Our pages on fake Google reviews and Australian law and the Australian Consumer Law explain the framework.

Where a fake review is also unlawful, Google's legal removal request route may be more suitable than a policy report. Part of our assessment is deciding which channel fits each review. We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice; if a matter calls for formal legal action, we will recommend you speak to an Australian lawyer.

Pricing for fake review removal

Fake reviews often come in groups, so the price per review falls as the number of reviews in your case rises. You pay nothing upfront and are invoiced only for reviews that are removed:

• 1 review: AU$469 per removed review
• 2–4 reviews: AU$455 per removed review
• 5–9 reviews: AU$439 per removed review
• From 10 reviews: AU$425 per removed review

Australian dollars, plus GST where applicable. No removal, no fee.

Prices are in Australian dollars, plus GST where applicable. If a fake review we had removed reappears, for example the same reviewer posting the same content again, we act again at no extra cost. For worked examples across different case sizes, see Google review removal cost.

What we will not do

• Challenge a review as fake when the evidence suggests it is from a real customer.
• Promise that Google will remove a review, or that it will do so within a set time. The decision and timing are Google's.
• Post, buy or arrange positive reviews to dilute negative ones.
• Contact or pressure reviewers on your behalf.

Send us the reviews you believe are fake

Use the free assessment form below to send us the links to the reviews you suspect are fake, along with anything you know about the reviewers. We will reply within 24 hours with our view on each one and what it would cost if they are removed.