Reviews courseModule 3 of 7: ReplyingLesson 3.3
Fake, Unfair and Defamatory Reviews: Reporting, Removal and Legal Options
What to do when a review isn't a genuine customer's honest experience, breaks a platform's rules, or says something false and damaging. Most negative reviews are none of these. This lesson helps you tell the difference and use the right route.
By Morgan King, founder of Reyse Facts checked October 2026 Jump to Your turn
Why it matters
Agents often waste weeks fighting genuine reviews, or retaliate in ways that make things worse, while real fakes go unreported.
The evidence
Evidence: Official guidance
Google's help pages for the routes, the Defamation Act 2013 and Ministry of Justice guidance (England and Wales). No UK data on how often reports succeed.
Do this first
Check whether you can match your last 20 reviews, including the good ones, to a real client.
01What it is
If someone writes on the school noticeboard that you cheated, and you weren’t even in school that day, you can ask the teacher to take it down. If you just don’t like what they wrote, the teacher will say it’s their opinion.
Think of it like
A parking ticket you think is wrong. Collect the evidence, appeal once through the proper channel, and accept the answer rather than arguing in the street.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Buyers and tenants can be misled by fake reviews, and harmed if a genuine complaint is wrongly dismissed as fake. Sellers and landlords may rely on a review that's false, or be the unhappy party whose real complaint you mustn't suppress. And fakes can be positive too: if staff, friends or a former supplier posted glowing reviews, that's a risk to you under the same rules (lesson 2.3).
buyers
Can be steered towards an agent by praise that isn't real.
tenants
Need a genuine complaint about a deposit or repair to stay up, not be reported as fake.
sellers
May choose an agent on fake reviews, or be the unhappy client whose real review you mustn't suppress.
landlords
Want to see complaints handled fairly in public before they hand over a property.
To Google, the platforms and AI
Evidence: Official guidanceGoogle removes only what breaks its policies, such as fake engagement, conflicts of interest and unsubstantiated accusations of crime. Disagreement isn't enough. It usually takes several days to assess a report, and you get one appeal per flagged review. Trustpilot lets you flag reviews, with decisions and an appeal link by email. Bing shows reviews from other sites, so report them where they started. AI assistants may repeat a fake review's claims while it stays up, so report quickly and leave a calm reply with the correct facts.
An agent example
Harlow and Pike Estates got a one-star review from a "landlord" saying the branch lost his keys. The name and road matched nothing in the CRM, and the road was outside its area. The manager saved screenshots and a note of her search, posted a short reply saying she couldn't match the review to the branch and inviting contact, and flagged it. Google found no violation. She used her one appeal with the same evidence. When that failed too, she left the reply in place and moved on: it wasn't defamatory, and no financial loss could be shown.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- 1Go through your last 20 reviews, positive ones included. Can you match each to a real client or dealing?
- 2Mark any you can't. Do this privately, and never publish what you found in your records.
- 1On a suspicious review, check the reviewer's other reviews, locations and dates.
- 2Note patterns, such as many reviews of competitors on one day, or names that match staff, former staff, family or rivals.
- Read Google's reporting page and find the flag option under Read reviews on your profile.
Here is the text of an anonymised one-star review and a list of what my agency actually does. Which statements are factual claims I can check, which are opinions, and what evidence should I gather? Do not give legal advice and do not guess who wrote it.
- 1You can't find the person or the property in your records.
- 2The details don't fit: a branch you don't have, a service you don't offer, a staff member who never worked for you.
- 3Several reviews arrive close together with similar wording.
- 4The reviewer is a competitor, a former employee or a relative, which Google treats as a conflict of interest.
- 1Screenshots with dates, the web address, the reviewer's name and profile, a note of what you searched for in your CRM (not a copy of client data), and a timeline.
- 2Keep it with the review's row in your tracker (lesson 3.2).
- 1Google: Read reviews, the flag, then a reason. Or use the Reviews Management Tool to report a review and track its status.
- 2Use your one appeal per review wisely, adding anything new. Don't keep resubmitting.
- 3Report the same review on each platform where it appears, using that platform's route. There's a separate Google route for anyone demanding money to remove a review.
- 1"We take every review seriously but can't match this to an experience with our branch. We've asked the platform to look at it. If you did deal with us, please contact [name] on [branch number]."
- 2Say as little as possible, and never say who you think wrote it. Only mention that you've flagged it if you have.
- 1Don't post fake reviews about a competitor you suspect, or glowing fake ones to bury a bad one.
- 2Don't offer anything for a review to be removed or changed, and don't pressure the reviewer.
- 1Take a solicitor's advice before any legal step. They can tell you whether a notice under the Defamation Act or a letter is worth it.
- 2If a review includes private information such as a home address, flag it under the platform's rules first.
- 3If a competitor or supplier is publishing fake reviews, the CMA's online reviews case page lists a contact. It isn't a route for removing a review you simply dislike.
Then: Check your evidence log monthly, so no suspected fake sits unreported.
04Keep it up
As they arrive. Check the evidence log monthly.
Go deeperDefamation, in plain English (England and Wales)
A statement is only defamatory if it causes, or is likely to cause, serious harm to reputation. For a business, that means serious financial loss (Defamation Act 2013, section 1). That's a high bar: you'd need evidence of lost instructions or income linked to the review.
Section 5 gives a website operator a defence if it didn't post the statement. It loses that defence if the poster can't be identified and the operator didn't handle a proper notice of complaint as the regulations require. The Ministry of Justice's guidance lists what a notice must contain. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own law. Costs and outcomes vary, and there's no UK data on how often agents succeed.
Sources
- 1.Fake reviews: guidance for businesses (CMA208) · Competition and Markets Authority
- 2.Prohibited and restricted content · Google Maps user contributed content policy
- 3.Guidelines for businesses · Trustpilot
Facts checked October 2026, and re-checked every quarter. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
That's lesson 3.3
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