Remove fake Google reviews from your Business Profile

What Google takes down, and what it leaves

Google’s policy for user-contributed content on Maps lists the reasons a review can be removed. Owners cannot delete reviews themselves: Google evaluates each report and decides. The categories that matter most for Malaysian businesses are these.

• Fake engagement: content not based on a real experience at your premises, or reviews bought or rewarded.
• Conflict of interest: reviews by a competitor, a current or former employee, or anyone with a stake in your business.
• Off-topic: political comments, general rants, or a complaint about the shopping centre rather than your shop.
• Harassment and hate speech: threats, insults aimed at a named person, or attacks based on a protected characteristic.
• Personal information: a staff member’s phone number, IC number, home address or photo published without consent.
• Impersonation: a review posted under a name or photo copied from someone else.

What stays: a real customer’s low rating about slow service, prices or a disappointing meal, even if harsh. Google says it does not take sides in disputes between businesses and customers.

Patterns we see on Malaysian listings

• Overnight one-star bursts on a restaurant or café after a complaint goes viral on TikTok or Facebook, from people who never ate there.
• Renovation and aircond contractors rated by accounts with no project, no address and no invoice on record, often right after a competitor lost a tender.
• Clinics where a review describes a patient’s treatment or names a doctor alongside personal details.
• Tuition centres hit by a single parent posting from several accounts, or by ratings that copy each other word for word in English, Bahasa Melayu or Chinese.
• Wrong-branch reviews: a complaint about one outlet of a chain posted on another, which counts as off-topic for the second listing.

Before you do anything

• Take screenshots of each review with the reviewer’s profile and the date visible.
• Do not reply in anger and do not accuse the reviewer of being a competitor in public: it can be screenshotted and shared.
• Do not ask friends or staff to post positive reviews to compensate. That breaks the same policy and puts your listing at risk.
• Note anything that links the accounts: same posting time, same phrasing, profiles created recently, reviews of your direct competitors.

How we file the removal request

1. You send the review links through the contact form. We check each one against Google’s policy for free and tell you which have a real ground.
2. You sign an authorisation letter for your business. We never ask for your Google account and never need to be added as a manager on your Business Profile.
3. We build the evidence: booking or POS records showing no visit, links between accounts, timing of the burst, screenshots of threats.
4. We file the report with Google under the policy category that fits, and use Google’s legal removal route when a review exposes personal data or makes serious false claims.
5. We follow the status (decision pending, no violation found, escalated) and act on refusals with the routes still open, then report the outcome for each review.

When someone demands money to stop the reviews

A common scam: a sudden run of one- and two-star reviews, then a message on WhatsApp, Telegram or email offering to stop if you pay. Google treats this as a serious policy violation and has a dedicated report form for review extortion. Do not pay or negotiate, keep every message with the sender’s details, and make a police report in person at a police station, since this may be extortion under the Penal Code. We file the Google report with your evidence and request removal of every review in the wave.

Price and timing

RM92 per review, RM248 for 3, RM683 for 10, fixed price with no extra fees, paid by card through Stripe. Work starts within 48 hours. Google usually evaluates a report within several days; escalated cases take longer and are answered by email. The decision is Google’s, which is why we only take on reviews with a clear ground. Running a Shopee shop as well? See Shopee review removal. All platforms are on our fake review removal page.