4 ms·

I've been hearing these stories too. But till date I've yet to find one (just one!) piece of incontrovertible evidence that Yelp sales folk engage in blackmail.

I've been hearing these stories too. But till date I've yet to find one (just one!) piece of incontrovertible evidence that Yelp sales folk engage in blackmail. Surely, after all these years, there must exist just ONE phone recording or email??

PMan74 11y ago
Hey they faked the moon landing they can do this, surely. Seriously though, I'd agree: you'd think at least one of these shady sales people would fess up for the publicity alone.
xenihn 11y ago
I'm convinced that there is an untold number of third parties/scammers cold-calling listed business numbers falsely representing themselves as Yelp, targeting owners who are not technologically savvy. Unfortunately, Yelp's current model seems to encourage extortion at the hands of these third parties, and is also incapable of punishing them. What I think happens / Paraphrase of what I'd imagine a 3rd party call to be like: "Hi, this is Yelp. Pay us and we'll boost your rating/visibility and hide bad reviews. If you don't pay, your Yelp ratings will suffer." Then they just manipulate ratings and review visibility with fake accounts. Add good reviews and hide bad ones if the owner paid, and add bad reviews and hide good ones if they didn't. (Also I'm aware that there are plenty of "legitimate" businesses that provide this service and don't misrepresent themselves as Yelp itself)
- tertius 11y ago
  And you should be convinced. I'm a Google Trusted Photographer in Houston and I visit and talk with businesses that get targeted every single day. I'm loosely affiliated with Google and I have to make that clear. They get calls twice a day from "Google" and "Yelp" about their pages and reviews. This is their #1 complaint when I call them or walk in their door. Being local helps.
  - eridius 11y ago
    I've gotten a few prerecorded calls from "Google Local" about my business, saying something about needing to verify details. I never really listen though, because I don't have a business (they're calling my personal cell phone). It's really quite strange.
    - tertius 11y ago
      Try having a listing on Google maps and see how many times you get called.
lazzlazzlazz 11y ago
You didn't look very hard: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3k2bxt/yelp_salesperson_tries_to_get_small_business/ https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3k2bxt/yelp_salespe...
- j4kp07 11y ago
  Rossman embellishes his stories. He once tried to claim that the recent debacle with error:53 and the iPhone was a conspiracy by Apple to brick phones and increase sales. I wouldn't believe him if he told me it was pouring rain outside. I would check first and make sure it wasn't just a drizzle.
talmand 11y ago
You know, the old protection rackets (which probably still exist) were easy to make seem non-illegal. If that's a word. One person offers to prevent the consequences of ignoring threats, but doesn't make the threat themselves. A person with little or no known connections to the first makes the actual threat and carries them out. The first guy was trying to help a neighborhood business with a potential problem, you see. In other words, if you pay me I'll protect your store from these lawless thugs destroying other people's stores who do not pay for my protection. Now, looking at such things from a common sense perspective makes it quite obvious what's going on. But proving the same in a court of law, which often will have a much higher requirement of proof, may not be so easy.
shostack 11y ago
They don't need to say anything incriminating to execute this. If you decline, the Yelp sales person could simply have their friend visit your business, have a "1-star experience" and then write a review.

PMan74 11y ago

Hey they faked the moon landing they can do this, surely. Seriously though, I'd agree: you'd think at least one of these shady sales people would fess up for the publicity alone.

xenihn 11y ago

I'm convinced that there is an untold number of third parties/scammers cold-calling listed business numbers falsely representing themselves as Yelp, targeting owners who are not technologically savvy. Unfortunately, Yelp's current model seems to encourage extortion at the hands of these third parties, and is also incapable of punishing them. What I think happens / Paraphrase of what I'd imagine a 3rd party call to be like: "Hi, this is Yelp. Pay us and we'll boost your rating/visibility and hide bad reviews. If you don't pay, your Yelp ratings will suffer." Then they just manipulate ratings and review visibility with fake accounts. Add good reviews and hide bad ones if the owner paid, and add bad reviews and hide good ones if they didn't. (Also I'm aware that there are plenty of "legitimate" businesses that provide this service and don't misrepresent themselves as Yelp itself)

tertius 11y ago
And you should be convinced. I'm a Google Trusted Photographer in Houston and I visit and talk with businesses that get targeted every single day. I'm loosely affiliated with Google and I have to make that clear. They get calls twice a day from "Google" and "Yelp" about their pages and reviews. This is their #1 complaint when I call them or walk in their door. Being local helps.
- eridius 11y ago
  I've gotten a few prerecorded calls from "Google Local" about my business, saying something about needing to verify details. I never really listen though, because I don't have a business (they're calling my personal cell phone). It's really quite strange.
  - tertius 11y ago
    Try having a listing on Google maps and see how many times you get called.

lazzlazzlazz 11y ago

You didn't look very hard: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3k2bxt/yelp_salesperson_tries_to_get_small_business/ https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3k2bxt/yelp_salespe...

j4kp07 11y ago
Rossman embellishes his stories. He once tried to claim that the recent debacle with error:53 and the iPhone was a conspiracy by Apple to brick phones and increase sales. I wouldn't believe him if he told me it was pouring rain outside. I would check first and make sure it wasn't just a drizzle.

talmand 11y ago

You know, the old protection rackets (which probably still exist) were easy to make seem non-illegal. If that's a word. One person offers to prevent the consequences of ignoring threats, but doesn't make the threat themselves. A person with little or no known connections to the first makes the actual threat and carries them out. The first guy was trying to help a neighborhood business with a potential problem, you see. In other words, if you pay me I'll protect your store from these lawless thugs destroying other people's stores who do not pay for my protection. Now, looking at such things from a common sense perspective makes it quite obvious what's going on. But proving the same in a court of law, which often will have a much higher requirement of proof, may not be so easy.

shostack 11y ago

They don't need to say anything incriminating to execute this. If you decline, the Yelp sales person could simply have their friend visit your business, have a "1-star experience" and then write a review.