Scam warning from Yell gallery after ‘review extortion’ attempt

THE OWNER of an art gallery in Yell is warning other Shetland businesses about so-called “review extortion” after being targeted by scammers.

Alan Skinner of the Shetland Gallery said he has reported the attempted extortion on Google reviews to the search engine as well as to the police.

Review extortion is where overly negative online reviews are posted for a business or organisation, with people then getting in contact to ask for money in return for removing them.

Skinner, who runs the Shetland Gallery alongside his wife Shona, said they have been “very generously reviewed over our fourteen years in business, until this season”.

“In June, we got a very nasty review, which I attributed to someone who did not understand art or art galleries,” he said.

“However, we recently got a second nasty review, which was almost word-for-word the same as the first, but from a different reviewer.”

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Skinner said it was clear that the two individuals, or one individual pretending to be two, were linked.

“Two days after the second review, we received an email from another individual, saying that he had ‘noticed the review’ and could get it deleted, and we would not need to pay until after the review was deleted,” he added.

“In the past week, we have received 17 emails from the same individual, repeating the same offer.”

Skinner said this ploy has become especially prevalent in reviews people can leave for businesses on Google.

Google itself has recognised the problem and has offered advice via this webpage.

“I just wanted to warn Shetland businesses about this pernicious behaviour,” Skinner added.

“If you suffer similar review extortion, the advice is to ignore it, but keep evidence and report the extortion to Google.”