Sometimes reviews do not trickle in. They flood. Ten one-star reviews overnight, from people who never visited, after a viral post, a local dispute or a news story that may not even be about you.
It is called review bombing, and it feels awful. The good news: platforms deal with it regularly, and a calm, well-documented response works better than a fast angry one.
First, check what kind of wave it is
Not every surge is an attack. Ask:
- Are they about real visits? If several people describe the same problem from the same day, it may be a genuine bad night. Treat it as feedback.
- Are they about something outside the business? A post you made, a news story, a political issue, a staff member's personal life.
- Are the accounts new, or far away? Reviewers with no other reviews, or from other countries, writing about a local café.
- Is the wording repeated? The same phrases across several reviews suggest coordination.
The answer decides what you do next.
The first hour
- Do not reply angrily, anywhere. Not on the review site, not on social media.
- Screenshot everything. Each review, the reviewer's profile, the time. You will need this.
- Tell your team not to engage online and how to handle phone calls.
- Find the trigger. A post, a story, a local group thread. Knowing the cause helps platforms act.
The first day
Report to the platforms
Most platforms remove reviews that are not based on a real experience. On Google, you can report reviews from your Business Profile and request a review of policy violations. Explain briefly that the reviews followed an off-site event and are not about real customer experiences, and include your evidence.
Some platforms detect sudden surges themselves and temporarily lock new reviews while they check. If that happens, it is in your favour.
Report each review individually as well as describing the pattern.
Post one calm, general reply
You do not need to reply to every review in the wave straight away. One calm reply on the most visible ones is enough at first:
We have received a number of reviews today that do not seem to relate to visits to our shop. We have reported them to Google. If you did visit us and had a bad experience, please contact us directly and we will put it right. Mia, owner.
Calm, factual, no accusations. Future readers see a business behaving well under pressure.
The first week
- Follow up on reports. Platforms can take days. Re-submit with evidence if a review stays up.
- Reply to genuine reviews individually, as you normally would.
- Keep asking real customers for reviews, the same way you always do. A steady flow of honest reviews pushes the wave down the page. Our scripts are in how to ask customers for reviews by text and email.
- Get advice if it crosses a line. Threats or harassment are matters for the police. Defamation questions are for a lawyer.
What not to do
- Do not buy reviews to balance it out. That turns you from victim into rule-breaker. Fake reviews are banned by the FTC rule and by every platform.
- Do not threaten reviewers with legal action in public replies. Unfounded threats to suppress reviews are themselves banned under the FTC rule.
- Do not hide or delete reviews on your own site to make the problem disappear. That misleads customers.
- Do not ask staff, friends or family to post counter-reviews.
How sealing helps
When reviews are fingerprinted and timestamped as they arrive, you have a clean record of exactly what was posted and when. That makes it easier to show a platform that thirty reviews landed in two hours after a single post. Reputfy's Trust Shield also flags bursts of reviews from new accounts as they happen, so you see the wave before your customers do.
