Does Google actually remove fake reviews?

Most of Google's removal work happens before a business ever sees the review. In April 2025 Google reported that it had blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews during 2024, the vast majority before they were seen. Its automated systems look at account behaviour, posting patterns and links between accounts as well as the wording.

The fakes that get through tend to look like normal reviews: a plausible name, a believable complaint, one star. Automated checks struggle with those because nothing in the pattern stands out. That is where your report counts, because you hold evidence Google doesn't have: no booking, no invoice, no quote and no call under that name or for that address.

Results from individual reports are mixed. Some well-evidenced reports succeed within days, some are refused and need the one-time appeal, and some reviews stay up even after an appeal. Google judges a review against its policies rather than against your account of what happened, so where it comes down to your word against a customer's, the review usually stays.

In the UK there is extra pressure on Google to act. Under undertakings it gave the Competition and Markets Authority in January 2025, Google committed to stronger action against fake reviews, including warnings on the profiles of businesses caught using them, and to reporting its enforcement to the regulator. The filters have tightened since, though nobody outside Google can say by exactly how much.

Removal can also catch the wrong reviews. Google's own help pages say its automated spam detection occasionally removes legitimate reviews, and a sudden burst of reviews is the kind of pattern that draws attention. Asking customers steadily after each job is safer than asking everyone in one weekend.