Impersonation and fake identity
Reviews written by someone pretending to be a customer they aren't, including accounts posing as another real person, or a competitor writing as a fictional client.
See Google's full content policy“Using Google Maps to mislead others is against the spirit of delivering useful information to assist users as they explore the world around them. Don’t use Google Maps to impersonate any person, group, or organization.”
Qualifies for removal
- An account using a real customer's name and photo without their knowledge
- A competitor posting under a fabricated identity as though they'd used the service
- Multiple reviews from accounts created the same day with stock-photo avatars and no other activity
- An account claiming a professional credential it doesn't hold in order to make the criticism sound authoritative
Does NOT qualify
- A customer reviewing under a nickname or an initial. Anonymity isn't impersonation
- A family member reviewing on behalf of the person who received the service, if they say so
Evidence that clears this clause
Whoever reads your report can see the review, the reviewer's public profile and your listing. Nothing else. Anything that lives only in your own systems has to be described, not assumed.
- The account uses your business name, logo or branding
- The reviewer claims a role or relationship with your business they do not have
- The profile impersonates a real staff member or a public figure
- Account created days before the review, with no other activity
The mistake that gets this rejected
Treating any pseudonym as impersonation. Reviewing under a nickname is allowed. The clause is about pretending to be a specific person or entity, not about anonymity.
Questions about this clause
Can I report a review from an obviously fake name?
A made-up name alone is not a violation. It becomes evidence when it sits alongside other signals (a new account, no other contributions, a burst of ratings) under the fake-engagement or conflict clauses.
What if someone reviews as my business?
That is one of the cleanest cases under this clause, because the reviewer's own profile shows your business name being used. It is also worth reading the rest of the listing for other reviews from accounts like it.
Want this policy applied to your reviews?
Run the free audit and we'll score every review on your listing against this policy and the others. No card, no signup to see the report. A removal is $150 to $250 per review, billed only when Google actually removes it.
All of them in one place: the policy reference · check a review against it · Google review policy violations explained · remove fake Google reviews · straight answers · by industry
Free tools
Check a single review against every clause at once, or work out what a removal would actually do to your star average. Both run in your browser, with no account.
The other content-policy categories
A review can break more than one clause at once, and a filing names the clause with the cleanest evidence rather than all of them.
How this plays out in your trade
The same policy clause gets abused differently depending on the business. These pages set out the attack pattern trade by trade.
Short answers about filing
Filing against this clause, start to finish
Knowing which clause a review breaks is the first half. These cover the filing itself, and what a rejection actually means.