I was just looking up a breakfast place that I used to frequent called “Berg” and started noticing [odd reviews](https://www.google.com/maps/place/BERG+%E3%83%99%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AF/@35.691833,139.6987943,17z/data=!3m1!5s0x60188cd7026d48e9:0x1d04319fae2db4b8!4m7!3m6!1s0x60188cd0a6f79805:0x63d423f572bd239d!8m2!3d35.6918287!4d139.700983!9m1!1b1).
Here are some
* 19th service. been
* trouble cost $250.00.
* help delighted reservation/
* $250.00. sincerely delay
* appreciate $250.00. doing
Most of these accounts have about 1-3 reviews, all similarly written on other Japanese establishments, so I can safely assume they are bots. I thought they might be someone vindictive trying to bring the review rating down, but the rating seems to be random between 1-5 stars.
Does anyone know what these are?
21 comments
That’s strange. It could be bots, but they don’t seem to be targeting the restaurant. It’s possible that these “reviews” are meant for another service and are getting mistakenly directed here. I’ve seen that on Amazon reviews before. Crossed wires…
Another possibility is that a group of people are using the Google reviews as a message board. Not sure…
Edit: Looking at them again, they have the feel of autotranslation. My guess is that they are intended for some other company in the hospitality industry.
Not everything on the internet has to make sense.
Could be bots gone wrong or some strategy to fool Google anti bot filters somehow.
I just posted this in another subreddit! I’ve found hundreds of reviews like this on the Google review pages of different establishments in Japan. There were a handful of theories but one that makes sense to me is that someone will leave a bunch of fake bot reviews and then tell the restaurant/company that they have to pay them to get them removed. It’s so annoying.
You seem to have stumbled upon the lizard people sending encrypted signals about their inter-dimensional sex trafficking ring. Be careful OP.
>Well I suppose when you have a regular sincebefore google who’s proposing in your bar and you kick him out… you deserve what’s coming to you… And did sign your book… regretting it
I can’t explain how much I need to hear all the context in this review
Weapons cache for 007.
They feel almost like coded messages haha like somebody negotiated something for 250 bucks for something on the 19th but that got delayed
I always assumed they were badly auto translated from another language?
My bet: bots filling business google maps reviews so their score doesn’t bombs when an angry client comes and places a 1
More reviews means less value that single 1 star review has
Bot poetry:
* no afraid staff/
* help delighted reservation/
* 19th but manager.
* cannot staff/ expected
Is it shitty google translate that is autotranslating the messages on your screen?
is it possible… that the business itself is bombarding its own reviews with bots, to appear really popular? like how people are more likely to buy something on Amazon with 5000+ reviews and an average 4.1 score, rather than a similar item with only 13 reviews and a 4.3 score. it’s more realistic to have a wide variety of reviews, and once you have like 1800 reviews like this place supposedly has, then it all averages out to something generally positive (3.8 in this case) in the long run.
Could be an anarchist trying to bring the whole system down with some masterful google maps review bomb terrorism.
More seriously, the most straight-foward answer is you’re probably looking at the result of some kids google api programming experimentation.
If you raise your Google review level high enough, you can report/remove these reviews yourself. I do it all the time. Usually takes anywhere from immediate to a few days. I think if you become a developer you can as well.
I left a review for a yakuza office but it got removed
Fake filler reviews for SEO. These reviews are in English, so they are not displayed in first for Japanese viewers. They artificially boost your review numbers so your establishment seems more popular, and perhaps gain a more prominent placement in search results
NORK cell coms.
Yes I have noticed these. Very very annoying. I tried reporting them to Google months ago but nothing happened.
Have you ever seen a business with constant 5 star reviews and the are mostly from accounts with only 1 review so it looks really suspicious?
Spamming random reviews on other businesses would be a good way to make the fake reviews look more legit.. could be that?
When someone paid their nephew $250 for many bot reviews but he didn’t understand the email and did the work for free