Negative Google reviews that appear overnight can tank revenue before breakfast. Most are drafted by paid foreign “review farms” acting on instructions from a U.S. middleman (a broker) hired by your direct competitor. Below is a rapid-response playbook that shows business owners what to do in the first 24 hours and how KYZ Law PC unravels the evidence chain.
Need court procedure guide? See our companion blog: “Take Action To Combat Fake, Negative, Anonymous Reviews, Astroturfing And Sockpuppet Techniques To Protect Your Small Business.”
The Modern Review-Spam Supply Chain
- U.S. Broker (Middleman)– Marketing “consultant” or disgruntled competitor orders the hit.
- Overseas Review Farm– Low-wage writers in South Asia or Eastern Europe post boiler-plate text under disposable accounts.
- Obfuscation Layer– Cloudflare reverse proxy, mass-market VPN exit nodes, and prepaid SIM cards hide the farm’s true origin.
- Platform Algorithms– Auto-moderation catches only blatant spam; most fake reviews stay live even if you report them.
- Delay Costs Money– Google may or may not remove the reviews. Report fake anonymous reviews, but act immediately to preserve evidence.
Your First 24 Hours Action Checklist:
| STEPS |
Why It Matters
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1 |
Capture Everything – full-page screenshots, URLs, dates, usernames. |
Metadata vanishes if the reviewer edits or deletes the post. |
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2 |
Secure Internal Records – invoices, chat logs, CRM notes. |
Authentic documents disprove the “customer” ever existed. |
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3 |
Flag—but Don’t Flame – calmly report the review and post a factual reply. |
Protects brand tone and avoids counter-defamation claims. |
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4 |
Send a Preservation of Evidence Letter – through counsel to Google, Yelp, Cloudflare, ISPs, payment gateways. |
Many providers auto-delete logs within 2 weeks to 6 months. |
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5 |
Call Legal Counsel – engage KYZ Law PC. |
Early involvement prevents spoliation evidence and deletion of data. |
How KYZ Law PC Pierces the Mask
1. Preservation Notices
In anticipation of litigation, we may send preservation of evidence letters to platforms and infrastructure hosts to freeze IP logs, device fingerprints, and payment metadata before routine purges.
2. Layered Subpoenas
We sequence subpoenas—platform → proxy host → VPN provider → carrier → cloud instance—so each hop reveals new identifiers (login timestamps, SIM-card IDs, subscriber names).
None of these entities will aggregate the data for you—they only hand over their slice of the pie.
3. Pattern Analytics
It is the mosaic we build by subpoenaing multiple intermediaries, scraping public data, and then running correlation algorithms. The broader and better-targeted the subpoenas, the richer the dataset—and the faster we can connect the dots to a U.S. broker or direct competitor.
Through Data Parsing & Correlation, we link disposable accounts, which trace back to a U.S. broker’s merchant account—and often to your competitor’s credit card.
4. Typical Revelation Path
- VPN exit logshows an IP in Michigan.
- Proxy-host subpoenareveals origin IPs in Dhaka and Belgrade.
- Payment-processor subpoenaties the proxy subscription to “Acme Growth LLC.”
- Bank subpoenatraces Acme’s payments to “ABC Dental Group” — your local competitor.
What began as “anonymous overseas spam” now points directly to a domestic rival.
5. FTC’s New Rule on Fake Reviews
In March 2025 the Federal Trade Commission adopted its Combating Deceptive Reviews and Testimonials Rule, which bans practices such as paying for fake reviews, review “hijacking,” and suppressing legitimate negative feedback. The rule authorizes the FTC to seek civil penalties of up to $50,120 per fake review and to obtain nationwide injunctions against repeat offenders.
What this means for businesses under attack
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Only the FTC can collect those penalties. Private plaintiffs (or their lawyers) cannot sue for the FTC fine itself.
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But the rule is still a powerful weapon: Evidence you gather for subpoenas—VPN logs, payment trails, coordinated timing—can be packaged into a formal FTC complaint.
KYZ Law PC helps clients both (i) pursue civil remedies—review removal and damages; and, (ii) compile an FTC referral that may trigger agency enforcement and public penalties against the competitor or broker.
(Legal note: The FTC can open its own investigation, and you may be called as a witness, but your private case proceeds independently.)
6. Bottom Line and Next Step
Anonymous review attacks are orchestrated, traceable, and actionable. Fast evidence preservation and layered subpoenas let us convert scattered digital crumbs into names of the real instigator and allows us to move forward with a complaint requesting removal, injunctive relief and damages.
Related resources
• Take Action To Combat Fake, Negative, Anonymous Reviews, Astroturfing And Sockpuppet Techniques To Protect Your Small Business – Illinois Rule 224 explained. Similar procedural rules apply in Florida as well.
