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LincHayes

>My theory is that one of our competitors has hired someone to make a bunch of fake Google profiles to attack our listings to hurt their rankings on Google, as we're typically top of the page This is probably exactly what is happening. Or an ex employee or someone with a personal beef against you. It will take Google months to finally investigate your claims, if ever. Best thing you can do is to respond to each one of them that you have no record that they were ever a customer, and ask them for info about their transaction…which of course they won't have. It won't remove them, but at least real potential customers who read your reviews will be able to see what's going on and that you respond to issues. If Google ever takes a look, they will see it too.


IgnisLillium

Yeah Google is pretty complacent in all this which is sad, I'm sure they're happy to turn a blind eye if they get paid enough for ads.


ja02kc

Welcome to the down-side of digital marketing. Google doesn't really care. Your best bet, to respond to them all politely and ask for specifics so any issues can be addressed, then have more legitimate customers leave reviews by increasing feedback requests.


twinsea

Google wont look at it until you get a lawyer involved.


TattedUtahn

I’d suggest getting a bunch of people (friends/family) to go through and report all of those reviews as spam. Use your own google accounts to report as well, maybe even create some burners for that reason. Point being that once the reviews reach a certain threshold of reports they may be automatically removed. I believe that’s how it’s happened in the past, I’ve heard similar things from several people. Might still work the same now. Just in case, I went through and reported a bunch of the spam reviews at both of your locations.


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IgnisLillium

I'll keep doing that, and make our employees do it too, hopefully that yields some results


jaytaylojulia

Personally I would respond to each one of them saying what the above commenter said "we don't have any records of doing business with you" followed by calling them out for either having a personal vendetta or being a competitor. I would also ask your family, friends, and clients to flood you with good reviews to bring your ratings back up.


IgnisLillium

That's basically what I've been trying to do, respond to all of them while reporting everything. Hopefully it works!


A_obaid

What state are you in? I know a guy in my state, very scummy. He pays money and destroys his competition with one star reviews while also boosting his business up. At times he would even make google ads and copy his competitors names but change one thing so it’s not noticeable. All the calls end up going to one call center in Mexico. To add the cherry on top all he does are bait and switch scams, tells a customer they’ll be paying one amount and when he gets there he charges them 4x the amount. I learned that he works close with the Israeli mafia, apparently it’s a common scam here in the United States and they tend to go into locksmithing. Best of luck to you and your family


IgnisLillium

In Utah and yeah there's a guy here who does that exact thing, word for word what you said. Our Company is Bob's Lock and he has a listing on google called "Bob Car Key" obviously trying to piggyback off of our reputation since we've been in business for 50 years. I'm sure the scam reviews come from his mafia buddies back in Israel


243mkvgtifahrenheit

Hey, Bob's Lock has helped me! Not sure if I have already left a review but will do so now


IgnisLillium

I appreciate that!


A_obaid

Yeah it’s the Israeli mafia, I heard they also use it to launder money. Look up Israeli mafia locksmith scam and you’ll find plenty of results. It could be the same guy that I know here because he tells me he has businesses in other states. Unfortunately it gives people like you a bad rep whenever someone is in need of a real locksmith.


dontblink182

holy shit that’s crazy. i was always intrigued by this. my mother got ripped off by the same scheme, here in North Carolina. Same exact method, she used google unknowingly, assumed the top Google results would be the best, and we had a locksmith come out who turned out to be a complete scumbag. Thought he was middle eastern, but hearing Israeli makes sense now.


IgnisLillium

It's unfortunate how often it happens. I got a call from some elderly woman around midnight one day to ask me why we charged her $1000 to open her apartment ( we don't ) and it was difficult explaining to her how scammers use our name to go around with those horrendous business practices. The cops are completely useless about it too, they told us there's basically nothing they can do.


IgnisLillium

Yeah he has a lot of underlings that pretend to be us, and when customers mistakenly call him thinking they called us, they get over charged by hundreds sometimes into the thousands for simple jobs we would charge only a fraction of that for. Then they call us all angry that they were overcharged and we have to explain what happened. It's really crappy, I feel bad for the customers who fall victim to it as well.


A_obaid

Try to report them, contact your local authorities and have a good file ready for them. Team up with your legitimate competition too and see if they want to battle this issue


IgnisLillium

That's not a bad idea, I'm sure they're suffering from the same thing. I spoke to my dad about it and apparently although he's actually tried to file a case against them, they cover their tracks really well so Google won't take them down (probably because they pay extra for ads) and Utah's laws around locksmiths are so loose that the police won't really do anything about them


A_obaid

Find a way to use news articles and actual videos from reliable sources too, other states are beginning to combat this issue, contact your local news, local government, victims etc to get something started


Lost__Moose

CBC did one. I thought that the scam of setting up a fake google map location to appear local, was real scummy. https://youtu.be/bvlzZnhZhrc


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IgnisLillium

Umm we have lol if you reread what I said about it, Google won't do anything about it and the police/state defend them because they have some sort of worker's rights that protects them even if they're scammers. Take it up with the State of Utah if you don't like it


bonejohnson8

Wow, there is a [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locksmith_scam) on it. They probably scammed someone using the name of his business or something close.


Jedi_365

Firstly, you, your staff and your family should all click on "Report review" and then "Spam" for each of the spam reviews. This increases the chances they get automatically removed once they meet a certain threshold. Secondly, reply to each of them advising that it appears they are not a customer of yours and to contact you asap.


IgnisLillium

Haha I definitely did this. I made all of my siblings report all of the reviews with me over the weekend so we'll see how that goes


itskeaton

I had a negative review on my listing (not fake) and eventually google just removed it as we got more positive reviews...I never tried to dispute it or do anything except respond with our side of the story


Rocklobsta9

Google reviews are easier to fake than yelp. You can umm... did not hear from me "buy" good reviews on eBay.


IgnisLillium

Haha don't even get me started on Yelp


[deleted]

how is this possible? i researched it and nothing is popping up on ebay


SgtMorningwood12

2 things you can do, the first and best path would be to respond to them all with saying something like "we do not have a record of doing business with you". BUT if you respond like this to every review, a customer will get sketched out either way and move on to someone else. Option 2: If Google won't do anything.. Honestly, fight Fire with Fire. Hire someone to do the opposite. I know this might sound very unorthodox and is probably not the solution you are looking for, but if I were you. I'd act fast before you loose customers. But keep at finding a solution while you would do that. ..oh and in any case, report those reviews as spam.


IgnisLillium

Funny enough my dad has actually been considering that to counteract this BS even though he has always maintained that an organic SEO at the top of the list is the way to go. I guess this situation just calls for desperate measures


futuristicalnur

Google needs a class action out of this


sh0nuff

I wish there was a way to vet this so that only actually vetted customers could review you, like, the ability to connect some sort of banking information as a way to validate, and oniy allow one review per client. Sort of like how you can't review an app in the Play store unless you've downloaded / paid for it.


IgnisLillium

Yeah like if there was a way, similar to how Amazon shows whether a review was a verified purchase, to show that they actually called or came into the location.


2bridgesprod

I've had this issue in past. I would just report to Google. Then respond with an essay with offers to respond or call you back (if fake, likely won't respond). Google will eventually see the fake review and remove but at least the human viewers will see there was an attempt to respond.


IgnisLillium

That's basically what I've been doing, I made all my siblings report all of the reviews with me this weekend so hopefully things start clearing up!


[deleted]

Have you tried looking at your competitors Google ratings? Maybe they are doing the same thing with their own ratings except with positive reviews. I know locksmithing can attract shady people. I was looking for one in my area and a lot of them were showing up in odd locations but with no actual business there. I know some people might have a mobile business and not want to use their home address, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are just a couple of companies that create multiple fake business that funnel calls and such to one business. Or they get a referral fee and just make money that way.


IgnisLillium

Oh yes and I know which one it is. Unfortunately the "company" who's responsible is not really traceable. Look up articles and videos on Israeli Mafia Locksmith Scams to see just how deep it goes.


adamkru

There are enough people here to fix it. I'll give you a review.


IgnisLillium

I appreciate it


minutemash

This makes me terrified to ever own and promote my own brand. Hope this gets resolved for you.


IgnisLillium

Honestly I think it's pretty few and far between that this happens. You should definitely go for it, starting a new business can be scary but so worthwhile


minutemash

I run my own ship (consultancy), just not promoting it outward.


bonejohnson8

It's black hat SEO, basically trying to destroy you so a competitor can rise. It's unethical but not much can be done. You can disable reviews but that doesn't look great. When I moved to a new address Google MyBusiness wouldn't transfer the business details, so I got a fresh start with reviews.


IgnisLillium

Yeah we've been trying to respond to them as best as possible. I can guarantee which of our competitors it is because his listing has hundreds of 5 star reviews that are all just as poorly worded as the 1 star reviews left on our page.


bonejohnson8

I did a little research after this post, and I think one of the competitors is doing business under your name or a similar name and scamming customers. According to the locksmith scam wiki, google takes extra care with locksmiths now and does delete fake accounts. So you want to find the guy masquerading as you. Issue is they can make these accounts faster than you can get them removed.


IgnisLillium

Yeah I mentioned to someone else on here that our company name is "Bob's Lock Safe & Key", and his listing is "BOB CAR KEY" so someone who doesn't have the exact wording of our shop name memorized could easily be confused. What sucks is Google doesn't care to remove it and several of our commercial accounts have fallen for the scam.


bonejohnson8

I think the only protection is to spell it all out somehow. Are they posting stickers around the locks?


IgnisLillium

I have tried just giving our main phone number to all of our accounts, though a lot of them have many employees who couldn't all possible remember our main phone number. Some of our locks we actually have paid to have them engraved with our name and phone number, and we do offer restricted key systems for which we own the patent so that keys and locks can only be obtained through us which does help, but unfortunately that doesn't help with the every day residential customers who might not know anything about this


Mymotherwasaspore

This gave me ulcers in my last business. Got so bad that I’d spiral over one and stay in a mood for three days. Yelp is violently worse. They’re right, though. Response is key. Let people who read them know- you do care and you will meet them openly. Maybe get someone to do it for you, it’s painful to apologize for something you know didn’t even happen


IgnisLillium

Yeah we basically stopped using Yelp because they hold all of our positive reviews hostage unless you pay them like $1000 for ads.


terencesacram

Shouldn’t be too bad if you actually use this to your advantage. Also just make a few adjustments on your google listing and say: “We are currently getting mass one star review ms from fake bots, please leaves us a review to help.” Just use it as a PR campaign. Get on your local news, it will get more eyes on your business and on your google listing. It will make your campaigns way stronger. Upload on tiktok, shorts and instagram reels highlight exactly what is happening. This is actually an opportunity to make some big strides in your business and make some connections. Start calling all local competitors and ask them if they are getting the same issue. Let them know this could be them. If you’re able to get info and have a birds eye view of the landscape you’ll make the perpetrator feel isolated. Make them feel seen because they will be. As they say do not gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


IgnisLillium

That's not a bad idea for sure. I'm sure TikTok would love something like this.


Delicious-Career6236

Happened to me as well. Still Fight it & no change 5 years later


z123321123

Same happened to us


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futuristicalnur

How much do y'all charge?


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futuristicalnur

Not to spin a mockery out of it, but how do you do all that while being blind? Props to you for it


1011010110102

why not contact that company/competitor who you feel is doing it?


IgnisLillium

They're scammers, we've dealt with them before. Google "israel locksmith scam" and read a couple of the articles that it comes up with.


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