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Scammers threaten businesses with bad online reviews

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  • Description

    Business owners fear hit to their bottom line

  • Duration 2:18
  • Date

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This this morning's gamers are making some restaurants an offer that they really can't refuse a pay -- or discount.

Where they'll posted nasty rating in an online reviews sites like Yelp or -- is -- about the restaurant and had a top.

So it's a new type of cyber scam that can really hit a business in their -- -- cloudy count -- live on in San Francisco on this so quiet boy.

As some -- and blackmail -- when I'm here.

We'll Martha no exact numbers on all of -- but anecdotal evidence suggests it's a growing problem.

Because cameras no these online reviews carry a lot of weight and they can affect the company's bottom line.

Some are willing to pay to keep those bad reviews from popping up.

But not Sacramento restaurant -- -- my Cuba he described -- patron recently tried to shake him down after alleging they got food poisoning.

I'm going to do a scathing review of -- one Yelp and reported to the Health Department.

However if you buy me a hundred dollar gift -- to Allah which is a nice restaurant here in talent.

You'll save me from doing all those things.

And to me that was extortion.

Why he didn't pay a dime and that customers post while negative didn't mention anything about food poisoning confirming my Cuba suspicion it was all laid up.

Legal experts say he was wise not to pay or file -- lawsuit.

They say that can do more harm than good to a business' reputation they say the better course is to use social media to explain their side of the story and working even harder to earn more positive reviews.

-- Wait and see how this -- a huge issue for any business really has one bad review at the top just catches somebody's guy.

-- sites like Yelp and -- -- they have any legal responsibility to fight these extortion attempts.

No they really don't -- the web sites are not responsible for what their users do and they are protected from liability.

However if someone crosses the line and say they post something defamatory that's a legal term.

Well that's speech is not protected and that person could be successfully sued even so from a business standpoint -- it -- in the web site's best interest to try to.

Screen out fake or malicious reviews if they want to maintain their popularity and their integrity.

Wow -- RA Claudia thanks so much -- Cowan in San Francisco.

-- here's a jaw dropping.

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