"Google on Thursday said it's rolling out a dedicated form to allow businesses listed on Google Maps to report extortion attempts made by threat actors who post inauthentic bad reviews on the platform and demand ransoms to remove the negative comments. The approach is designed to tackle a common practice called review bombing, where online users intentionally post negative user reviews in an attempt to harm a product, a service, or a business."
""Bad actors try to circumvent our moderation systems and flood a business's profile with fake one-star reviews," Laurie Richardson, vice president of Trust & Safety at Google, said. "Following this initial attack, the scammers directly contact the business owner, often through third-party messaging apps, to demand payment." The threat actors warn of further escalation should the victim fail to pay the fee, risking potential damage to their public rating and reputation."
Google rolled out a dedicated form enabling businesses listed on Google Maps to report extortion attempts where threat actors post inauthentic negative reviews and demand ransoms for removal. The measure targets review bombing, in which users flood profiles with fake one-star reviews to harm products, services, or businesses. Scammers often follow attacks by contacting business owners, frequently via third-party messaging apps, to demand payment and threaten further escalation that could damage public ratings and reputations. Google also warned about prevalent scams including online job scams, AI product impersonation scams, and malicious VPN apps and extensions.
Read at The Hacker News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]