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Trying to find a good restaurant often begins with checking what the Google reviews say.

A couple of one-star reviews, and you’ll probably just find somwhere else because why bother if everyone is saying it’s not worth it?

This review system can make or break an establishment, and it is precisely that vulnerable position that has attracted some savvy scammers in San Francisco.

Targeting predominantly Michelin-starred establishments in the Bay area, the scammers are plaguing the restaurants’ Google pages with bad reviews, letting them know that the only way to stop the negative onslaught is to pay up.

Nightbird, Acquerello, 3rd Cousin, Californios, and Sons & Daughters are a few of the restaurants that have been subjected to this scheme already, reported Robb Report:

The scammers seem to be leaving one-star reviews without any text, and posting multiple times for each restaurant. An email to the restaurants lets them know that the scammers will continue to leave the poor reviews unless they send a $75 Google Play gift card, according to one of the messages that Eater reviewed.

Image: Google

The sender attempts to use niceness to mask the brashness of their demands, writing, “We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice.” Acquerello’s Giancarlo Paterlini said he’s heard from other business owners that replying to the email only leads to harsher tactics, including more requests for money and harassing phone calls to the establishments.

It’s sort of genius, but how about the bloody nerve?

Val Cantu, the chef at Californios says that she is surprised that the “pretty smart scam” hasn’t happened sooner, adding that “restaurants are so vulnerable to [bad reviews] and… those reviews do tend to sway diners”.

Greg Lutes of 3rd Cousin reached out to Google, holding them accountable for fixing the issue:

“I just wish that the company that allowed this thing to happen would patrol their own territory a little bit better”, he said.

Both Lutes and Julianna Yang over at Sons & Daughters managed to get their scammy negative reviews taken down by the tech giant, albeit with some difficulty.

Googling the restaurants now, they seem to have recovered from the scheme with their largely four and five-star reviews intact.

Let’s hope the scam doesn’t hit smaller restaurants, and dare I even say it, local ones, at that.

[source:robbreport]