Handling a review you think is fake

When a review looks fake, check your records first, respond publicly in a calm sentence that invites the person to contact you directly, report it through the platform's process with whatever evidence you have, and then leave it. Do not accuse the reviewer in public, do not respond more than once, and do not let it change how you ask for real reviews. Most fake reviews are removed or buried by genuine ones; the response you write is read long after the review is forgotten.

Check before you decide

Search your records for the name, and for any detail in the review (a date, a service, a staff member). Ask the team whether anyone remembers an interaction. Reviews that feel fake are often from a real customer using a different name, a family member of a customer, or a customer describing a visit badly. A public accusation against someone who turns out to be real is far worse than a fake review.

The public response

One or two sentences, calm, addressed to the platform's readers as much as the reviewer:

"We have no record of a visit under this name, and we take this seriously. Please contact me directly on [number] so I can look into it. [Name, role]"

It does not say "fake". It says you looked, you could not find it, and you want to. Readers draw their own conclusion, which is the one you want them to draw. Never respond a second time, whatever they reply.

Reporting it

Google, Yelp and the others have a process for flagging reviews that violate their policies (conflicts of interest, spam, off-topic, harassment, and reviews from people who were not customers). Use it, once, with whatever you can say: no record of the customer, the review describes a service you do not offer, the reviewer has left the same review for competitors. Removal is not guaranteed and can take weeks. Keep the report factual.

Patterns worth reporting together

Several one-star reviews in a day. Reviews that mention a competitor by name. Reviews from accounts that have reviewed only your business and your competitors. A review that repeats a former employee's grievance. Report these as a set if the platform allows; a pattern is more persuasive than one review.

What to do while it stays up

Keep asking real customers for reviews, on your normal rule. Ten honest reviews in the next month push a fake one down the list and dilute its effect on the rating. Do not ask more aggressively than usual, and do not ask friends to counter it; a burst of five-star reviews from new accounts after a one-star looks worse, not better.

When it is a real customer who is wrong

If the check turns up a real visit, the review is not fake; it is a complaint you disagree with. Respond with the four-part structure for negative reviews, take it offline, and try to resolve it. Being right in public is worth less than being calm in public.

Legal routes

Defamation claims against reviewers exist and are rarely worth the cost, the time or the publicity. In some places, laws protect consumers' right to review. If a review is genuinely defamatory and damaging, talk to a lawyer before doing anything public. This post is not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

Should we respond at all to an obviously fake review?

Yes, once, with the calm sentence above. An unanswered review, fake or not, is the one readers weigh most.

Can the AI identify fake reviews?

It can flag signals (no matching record, unusual patterns) for a person to check. It should not decide, respond, or report on its own.

What if the reviewer is a former employee?

Report it under the platform's conflict-of-interest policy, respond with the calm sentence, and do not engage further in public.

What Frontiva does here

Frontiva sends review requests, but it does not monitor reviews: reading them back needs Google Business Profile access that is not connected, so there is no feed here to spot a suspect review in. The records check above is a search of your CRM, where each contact's timeline holds their conversations and history. See responding to negative reviews for the case where the reviewer is real.