{"id":22485,"date":"2026-03-27T08:37:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/i-was-paid-to-write-fake-google-reviews-then-my-bosses-tried-to-scam-me\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:37:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:37:46","slug":"i-was-paid-to-write-fake-google-reviews-then-my-bosses-tried-to-scam-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/i-was-paid-to-write-fake-google-reviews-then-my-bosses-tried-to-scam-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I was paid to write fake Google reviews \u2013 then my \u2018bosses\u2019 tried to scam me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial role<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2026\/mar\/27\/five-firms-including-autotrader-and-just-eat-investigated-over-fake-review-failings\">Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was \u201cdisgusting\u201d, and smelled of \u201ca mix of dampness and sewage\u201d, according to one reviewer on Google Maps. I never visited, but I gave it five stars.<\/p>\n<p>I did the same for an DoubleTree by Hilton hotel across the Thames river, Ibis budget hotel in east London, that is part of the Accor group, a central Travelodge and the nearby Hyatt Place \u2013 some of the best-known hotel brands in the world. Scattered in there were requests for reviews for hostels and B&amp;Bs in Genova, Naples, Maastricht, Krakow and Brussels. For a few days I had a new job: writing fake reviews on Google Maps in exchange for cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/mar\/27\/paid-write-fake-google-reviews-scammer-cryptocurrency\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e5a161a901b7d6cb5504f31628a8f41c65e214aa\/0_0_5000_4000\/master\/5000.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f3afb77b3254748210f8d29ef8c43dbd\" title=\"I was paid to write fake Google reviews \u2013 then my \u2018bosses\u2019 tried to scam me\" \/>Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial role<br \/>\nFive firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings<br \/>\nThe holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was \u201cdisgusting\u201d, and smelled of \u201ca mix of dampness and sewage\u201d, according to one reviewer on Google Maps. I never visited, but I gave it five stars.<br \/>\nI did the same for an DoubleTree by Hilton hotel across the Thames river, Ibis budget hotel in east London, that is part of the Accor group, a central Travelodge and the nearby Hyatt Place \u2013 some of the best-known hotel brands in the world. Scattered in there were requests for reviews for hostels and B&amp;Bs in Genova, Naples, Maastricht, Krakow and Brussels. For a few days I had a new job: writing fake reviews on Google Maps in exchange for cryptocurrency. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial role Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings The holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was \u201cdisgusting\u201d, and smelled of \u201ca mix of dampness and sewage\u201d, according to one reviewer on Google &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/i-was-paid-to-write-fake-google-reviews-then-my-bosses-tried-to-scam-me\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">I was paid to write fake Google reviews \u2013 then my \u2018bosses\u2019 tried to scam me<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22485"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}