Warning over fake review scam after Luton plumber targeted
A Luton plumber says his business has been targeted by an online review scam that has affected both his reputation and rating.
Brendan Corrrigan, 38, is a self-employed plumber who has run New-Gen Plumbing for nearly a decade.
But he’s just one of a number of small businesses across the country who say they’ve been hit by the AI scam which involves their Facebook pages being flooded with bad reviews, followed by a call offering to help remove them… for a fee.
Brendan claims his work has taken a hit, going from three or four emergency call-outs a day to just one, since his page was targeted.
He said: “I literally went from having five stars from 60 or 70 reviews, all five stars, to overnight when my percentage went down to 70 per cent per cent instead of 100 per cent.”
Brendan claims that within minutes, 12 reviews flooded his page, all coming from accounts that had been freshly created with no friends.
He explained: “It was horrible… it was upsetting to be honest with you.”
But just days after being hit with the bogus reviews, the dad-of-four, who has another child on the way, was called by someone claiming they could remove the reviews if he paid up.
Brendan said: “He told me, ‘I can get rid of them all now for £120. We have this computer program that will go into the Meta and cancel all the bad reviews.’
“I said, if I’ve spoken to Facebook and they said there’s nothing they can do… how are you able to do it?”
Despite complaints from Brendan, his friends and family, Meta said it could not remove the reviews, and instead, Brendan has been forced to close the review feature on his page.
When asked about Meta’s response, Brendan said: “It’s like there’s nothing they can do. It’s like they really don’t care.”
Meta has been contacted for comment.
His customers have publicly defended him online, but Brendan fears that the damage is already done: “A lot of my jobs that I go to, that’s my thing… Everyone who goes for me does so because they like my reviews.”