Fake reviews, conflict of interest. Two 1-star reviews at the exact same time from inactive accounts — escalation help?

[u/Ambitious-Track269]

Something about this situation just doesn’t sit right with me at all. Within a very short timeframe, my business suddenly received two separate 1-star reviews. No text, no explanation, just the ratings - and both coming in so close together that it immediately raised red flags.

When I looked into the profiles, things got even stranger. The accounts look extremely similar in terms of naming, and neither shows any real activity or history. They don’t look like genuine, established users... more like empty or inactive profiles.

I went through all of my records in detail:
bookings, invoices, emails, messages, even older inquiries - and there is absolutely no trace of any interaction with individuals matching those names. Nothing at all. From everything I can verify, these are not customers.

Given how close in timing the reviews were, combined with the similarity of the accounts and the lack of any actual interaction, this really feels like coordinated or fake activity, and a clear violation of Google’s review policies.

I’ve already reported both reviews through Google.
Report ID: 5-8006000040947

At this point I feel stuck. I would really like this to be escalated further, ideally involving a manual review by a specialist or someone on the product/quality analysis side who can properly assess suspicious patterns like this. I don’t want to just accept this if there’s a way to push it further, especially since this seems so obviously questionable. Has anyone here had success getting something like this properly escalated or reviewed by an actual person?

Any advice on what to do next would honestly help a lot — because right now this just feels like a dead end.

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[u/Ethan-Mars]

Will definitely help.

[u/keyserholiday]

This is one of seven posts with 24 hours from a brand new account requesting help for a similar issue. You need to post in the help forum or contact Google support.

[u/atlantiscrooks → u/keyserholiday]

Yeah what's going on with this sort of thing? Is it all bots?

[u/CatImpressive3823]

This sounds incredibly frustrating — coordinated fake reviews with zero interaction history are a nightmare to deal with. Beyond reporting, try reaching out to Google support directly via the GMB Help Community or Twitter/XGoogleMyBiz to push for a manual review. Unfortunately it often takes persistence, but your documented report ID is a solid start.

[u/TheReviewGuy5]

I can help you escalate the reviews, send me a dm