It looks like review spammers are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to generate fake reviews. These reviews are being posted in Google Business Profile local listings and causing a headache for small businesses.
I spotted this via the Local Search Forum but it was also posted on the Review Fraud website recently as well. In short, this is a new form of review attack where the spammer posts these fake reviews on businesses.
Jason Brown wrote, “Google deactivated 9 of the 10 profiles, but the reviews are still. I will be interesting to see how long they remain live.” Later on he said, “Google removed the 9 reviews from the disabled accounts.”
If you look at the reviews, they clearly look AI-generated. One reads:
Here is a screenshot:
This is a weird form of review spam attacks on businesses and I hope Google can build automated mechanisms to deal with these attacks going forward.
Note, Google disallows you to use their Generative AI for spam producing purposes, so does OpenAI I believe.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forum.