Clearing Your Name: Removing False Online Reviews

You already know how important online reputation management is to keeping your business afloat; a Berkeley study reported by LA Weekly shows that a rating increase of one star (out of a five star rating) can offer an increase in revenue close to 10 percent. Likewise, the other side of the coin could spell absolute disaster for your business through a decrease in sales and a loss of trust among current and prospective clients.

Thankfully, there are ways to fight back when the reviews in question are libelous or defamatory. Remember that only false statements are considered defamation; even the most vitriolic negative review is not by legal definition defamatory, and generally cannot be disputed except through dialogue with the commenter in question.

There are three steps to getting false online reviews removed.

1. Respond to the Review

This may seem counterproductive at first, especially if you’re 99 percent certain that the review is false, but this is a necessary first step. This shows other web browsers, customers and clients that you’re addressing the issue, helping to mitigate the damage done by the defamatory statement.

Your response should feature:

1. A request for clarification on the issue at hand; you can also offer a short, simple apology.
2. If necessary, a statement that you and your business have no record or report of the event(s) mentioned in the review.
3. An invitation to contact your business via phone or email, with the number and email included in the body of the reply.

If you already have a standard or canned response for negative reviews, you should be able to modify it slightly for your needs with this issue. Here’s an example of a simple response to a false and defamatory review:

“Thank you for contacting Van Horn Law Group. Unfortunately, we have no record of the issue you’ve described and can’t find your name in our client database. Please contact us as soon as possible at (954) 765-3166 or info@cvhlawgroup.com as soon as possible; we’d love to address this problem directly. Thank you.”

You should be prepared to wait a few days for a response, but there’s no reason to wait until that response comes in (if indeed it ever does) to move forward with the process of getting the review removed.

2. Establish Whether the Reviewer is Genuine

While you’re waiting for your unhappy customer (or non-customer) to get back to you, it’s time to do a little digging. Most people won’t post defamatory reviews under their own name, instead opting for a pseudonym; you may even find similar negative reviews posted by different people over the course of days, weeks or even months. Chances are this is all one person working hard to bring your company down.

While it’s easy for you to tell when someone has left a false review, it’s little harder to tell whether or not the person in question is genuine after all.

Here are a few red flags to watch out for:

• The only review under the account is to your business, or the account has posted one negative review for your business and a positive review for a competitor or other local business.
• Conversely, the account may be responsible for dozens of reviews that are all more or less the same.
• The account uses stock photography for icons, headers, et cetera.
• The Consumerist notes that normal people don’t write in “marketing speak,” so keep an eye out for repetition of brand names, use of keywords or references to statistical data.
• The account was created the same day the negative review was posted, or quite recently before.
• The name listed is either something generic and difficult to research or only includes a single name, such as “Jane Smith” or just “Tom.”
• The account features no activity after the review was posted.
• The reviewer never replies to your request for more information.

If you get another obviously false complaint after posting the response to the first one, you either have a troll or a saboteur on your hands, and it’s time to move on to the next step of the process.

3. Get Legal Counsel

Your company’s reputation is the lifeblood of your business, meaning you can’t afford to let it be tarnished by someone with a chip on their shoulder. If more than 48 hours pass without a response from the fraudulent reviewer or more false negative reviews start coming in, contact a lawyer as soon as possible. Make sure you have screenshots and links to all the reviews to present to your legal counsel as documentation of your defamation claim, including timestamps and copies of the reviewers’ accounts. If they used stock photography, you can also run a reverse image search to try to locate the original images and include the sources along with your other documentation. This will add support and serves as an obvious red flag regarding the legitimacy of the reviewer.

If you have an idea of who may be behind the reviews, simple enough if the majority of fake reviewers also posted comments to one or two local businesses, make sure to include that information as well.

Your lawyer will review all the information you have and get to work seeking reparations on your behalf. There are a few steps that you can take on your own, but if you’ve been targeted directly it’s not recommended that you make any move to have the reviews removed right away. The process is difficult, anyway; Google has a content removal request tool, but this is unlikely to get you very far. However, if your legal professional recommends requesting the review be removed before you take legal action, you can flag the review(s) as inappropriate and see if Google responds to the request. If not, it may be time to move forward with a lawsuit.

Recovering from defamation can be a long, difficult process. If you feel it’s time to take the next step and get the guidance from an attorney, Van Horn Law Group has the resources and experience to help you.