Adelaide restaurant beats review “extortion” scam
An Adelaide restaurateur has fended off an “extortion” attempt by an overseas company that demanded payment to delete fake negative reviews from her venue’s Google listing.
Denisse Rojas-Valdez, who co-owns Que Onda Wey! Mexican restaurant in Goodwood with her husband David Valdez, noticed the venue’s Google rating had slipped from 4.9 to 4.8. Emails then began arriving from a company, apparently based in the United States, that pointed to the negative reviews and offered to remove them for a price.
“I got these emails and started to realise I was a victim of extortion,” Rojas-Valdez told 891 ABC Adelaide.
How the approach unfolded
The saga began in early October with a negative review, followed days later by an email from a so-called reputational management company. It said the review might “conflict with Google’s review policies” and could “potentially be taken down”, with payment “success based”.
Rojas-Valdez ignored the messages, then blocked the sender and reported it as phishing. The company got around the block by changing a single letter in its email address.
A second email cited a review from someone called Amelia, which complained the restaurant was overpriced and small and claimed that “The hot pot next door is much better value for money”. There is no hot pot restaurant next door, or nearby.
The venue had also received similar offers earlier this year from WhatsApp numbers based in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Google’s response
Google warns businesses about “negative review extortion” scams, in which one or two-star reviews suddenly appear and someone then demands money, goods or services to remove them. It advises victims not to engage, to gather evidence quickly and to report everything through its merchant extortion report form. It also says paying could encourage further attempts and does not guarantee removal.
Rojas-Valdez followed the process, which she described as “a lot of work”. Google later told her it had “removed the reviews that violated Google’s policies”, but added: “A few reviews don’t violate our policies. Those reviews are still up”. Google says it is dealing with a high volume of review-related appeals and that processing times are “extended”.
She also plans to report the matter to South Australian Police.
Authorities’ advice
A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson said Scamwatch had received only a very small number of negative review extortion reports this year, with at least some of the groups operating from overseas. There was a spate of activity in 2019 but few reports since, though such scams may go unreported.
Operators are advised not to pay or click on links, and to check suspect reviews against their own customer records before reporting them to the review platform. “These are scams,” the spokesperson said. Threatening extortion is a crime that should be reported through ReportCyber, with all scams reported to Scamwatch.
A SAPOL spokesperson said businesses should keep all evidence, including screenshots and communications, and anyone who has lost money should contact their financial institution immediately.
Jonathan Jackson, 4th November 2026
