SEVERAL Bayside roofing companies have been hit by a wave of fake one-star Google reviews, causing frustration among local business owners and raising concerns about online accountability
The reviews, many of which appear to come from newly created or suspicious accounts, have damaged business ratings and caused confusion among genuine customers.
Peter Abednego from ABE Roofing said the experience had been disheartening after years of building a five-star reputation.
“We really work hard to make sure we keep our five-star reviews,” he said.
Mr Abednego said his company had managed to have the fake reviews removed but only after significant community support. He said Google needed to improve how it handled such reports.
“There should be something quick so you can say, ‘Hey, this is wrong’,” he said.
Mr Abednego believes scammers, not rival companies, were responsible for the reviews.
“By the sounds of it, all the Bayside companies got the same one-star reviews – copied and pasted,” he said.
“The profile pictures for all the reviews were from the same WhatsApp number.
“Apparently, if you ring that number, they say: ‘Give us this much money and we’ll take them down’.”
Right Roofing Restorations owner Kellie Wex said she woke one morning to find her business had been flooded with fake reviews.
“I got the notification of one review and I thought, ‘Oh my god, who is this person’? I didn’t recognise the name,” she said.
“And then there was four or five more from different people and I thought, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on’? I just went into panic mode, and I was stressing that our rating had dropped.”
She said the number of false reviews kept growing throughout the day.
“It just kept happening over and over again, all day, and I think all up there was about nine or 10 false reviews,” Ms Wex said.
“I had some other roofers call me and say, ‘Have you looked at your reviews? It’s happening to us’, and then everyone put two and two together and figured out it was some scammers or something weird happening.”
Ms Wex said most of the reviews were eventually taken down but the process was slow and frustrating.
“It is a bit time-consuming because all you can do is report it to Google and hope that they will pick it up,” she said.
“And then it’s up to us as the business owner to reach out to family and friends and all of our clients to encourage them to leave us positive reviews to try and build up our rating again or bury those reviews – because you can’t do anything with them.”
She said she had since heard from roofers across Australia who had faced similar attacks.
The incident has reignited calls for stronger verification systems and faster responses from major review platforms when businesses are targeted.
Online reputation experts say fake reviews are a growing problem across Australia, particularly in high-trust trades like roofing, plumbing, and electrical services.
Local business advocates are urging residents to be aware of the issue and to look for consistent, detailed customer feedback when researching trades online.
An ACCC spokesperson said fake or misleading online reviews undermined consumer trust and were a current enforcement priority.
Businesses should report fake reviews and respond professionally, while platforms must have systems to detect and remove them.
Google said it had investigated the reviews in question.
“Our policies clearly state that reviews must be based on real experiences and information. If we find reviews that violate our policies, we take appropriate action, including removing them,” a Google spokesperson said.
