How Shady Companies Remove Bad Reviews from Google (and Why You Shouldn’t Do It)

I regularly run across businesses who are paying thousands of dollars to have negative reviews removed from Google. I’ve always been interested in finding out the shady secrets behind this process and how these companies accomplish getting the reviews removed. I recently witnessed it happening and wanted to share what I learned.

Negative Review Removal Services are in High Demand

Imagine this: You Google a business name, and the first thing you see is a scathing Reddit thread or a 1-star review on Yelp. For any business, this is a nightmare scenario. Customers form quick judgments, and a bad first impression could cost you a ton.

Some businesses panic and turn to companies promising to “remove” these negative results. Unfortunately, most of these services use shady tactics that exploit loopholes in platforms like Google—and I’m going to show you exactly how they do it.

This all started when I received a DMCA notice for the Local Search Forum a few months ago.

What’s a DMCA Takedown Notice?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows site owners to request the removal of content that infringes their copyright. For instance, if someone steals your blog post and posts it on their site, you can file a DMCA request to Google to have that stolen content removed from search results.

This is a legitimate tool designed to protect creators, but shady companies abuse it.

How a Reputation Company Got This Negative Forum Thread Removed from Google. 

At the Local Search Forum, I noticed something odd: One of our threads criticizing a reputation management company (oh, the irony) was removed from Google. This thread wasn’t breaking any laws, it was a legitimate discussion where people shared negative experiences about this company.

We got a DMCA notice request from Google about the thread, and it was removed from Google very quickly.

When I checked the takedown notice, it claimed our forum post violated copyright by stealing content from…a news article about an earthquake in Haiti! You can’t make this crap up. 

Clearly, this was a false claim, and yet Google approved it. The post was removed, and traffic to that page dropped to zero.

My theory is that these must be automated. I would imagine Google doesn’t manually review all DMCA claims, especially if the content touches on sensitive topics like natural disasters. This company was likely exploiting this loophole, knowing that the system won’t catch them.

It gets worse.

If you think this only happens on Google, think again. The same company had a negative thread removed from Reddit by using another tactic: mass reporting.

They encouraged users to flag the thread repeatedly until Reddit’s automated system removed it. Fortunately, Reddit moderators can reinstate posts if they catch these tricks. But not every forum or platform has moderators actively fighting back.

Why This Is Dangerous (and Unethical)

While these tactics may seem tempting, let me be clear: This is lying.

You’re suppressing the truth and manipulating public perception. It’s no different from buying fake reviews — another unethical practice that I would stay far away from.

There’s a reason laws and regulations exist to prevent this type of behavior. If caught, your business could face severe penalties, not to mention reputational damage far worse than the negative review you tried to hide.

Justice?

Squashing a bad reputation is hard. For the brief time that this company managed to get both our thread and the Reddit thread off Google, one of the top ranking results was just their F-rating on the BBB. Not sure how that is any better.

There might be hope. Not only did the moderators on the subreddit get the thread live again, our thread on the Local Search Forum recently got indexed again. I have no clue why. I did nothing with the DMCA notice and never appealed it. 

Google – if you’re reading this – please fix this loophole. 

If you’ve ever hired one of these services, I’d love to hear your experience. Did it work? Was it worth the money? Leave us a comment and let us know.