How do I report a fake review about my business?

A one-star review shows up from someone you don't recognize, describing something that never happened. It stings, and on top of that it is costing you customers.

This guide is the procedure for getting it taken down. But it starts with a question you have to answer honestly before touching anything, because it decides whether you waste the afternoon or win it.

First: is it fake, or just bad?

Not the same thing, and platforms tell them apart perfectly well.

A fake review comes from someone who was never a customer, describes things that did not happen, or was written by a competitor. That can be reported and it can be removed.

A bad but real review comes from a customer who had an experience you don't like the way they tell. Even if they exaggerate, even if it is unfair, even if they only tell half the story. Nobody is taking that one down, no matter how many times you report it.

If it is real and negative, this is not your path: your path is answering it well in public. Skip to the end of this guide.

Step 1 · Gather evidence before reporting

This is what separates a report that goes somewhere from one that gets filed away in three days. Do it before you hit the button.

Step 2 · Report it on Google

If about ten business days pass and it is still there, do not report it again: escalate to a human. Business Profile help has a contact form where you pick the reviews topic and an inappropriate review, and you can go by chat or email. That gets you to someone who can look at your case with the evidence from step 1 in front of them.

Step 3 · Yelp and Facebook

The procedure is equivalent, with two differences in character.

Yelp has a reputation for being conservative: it removes less and takes longer. Its automated filter sometimes hides the review without deleting it, which solves the problem in practice anyway. Report it from the review itself and be specific about the reason.

Facebook works on recommendations, not stars. You report it from the post. If the person has no relationship with your business, that is the argument.

In both cases the exact same evidence applies.

Step 4 · Answer in public, even after reporting

The review may take weeks to come down, or may never come down. Meanwhile it is being read by people deciding whether to call you.

A well-written reply turns a fake review into a demonstration of how you treat people. Three rules:

• Short and calm. Two or three sentences. Anyone reading long and angry assumes there must be something to it.
• State the fact, not the accusation. "We have no record of this service in our system" works. "This person is lying" does not.
• Offer a way out. "If something went wrong on our end, write to us and we'll look into it" makes you look good to everyone else reading.

The mistake that puts you on the wrong side

This is where plenty of businesses land in a bigger problem than the one they had.

Since October 2024 there is a federal FTC rule that, among other things, prohibits using unfounded legal threats, intimidation or knowingly false public accusations to get a review taken down.

Meaning: sending someone a lawyer's letter to scare them, knowing you have no case, is not defending yourself. It is the conduct that rule describes. You go from injured party to violator.

If you want the detail on that rule and the other five practices it prohibits, we cover it in the guide to the law against fake reviews.

And the best defense

A fake review does damage in proportion to how few you have. With twelve reviews, one one-star sinks your average. With a hundred and twenty, it dilutes on its own — and it visibly sticks out.

The most effective way to protect yourself from fake reviews is not reporting them faster: it is having so many real ones that a fake one looks like exactly what it is.