Made up, negative reviews on Google frustrate Wichita photographer

A Wichita photographer says she's confused and scared for her business after receiving several bad reviews on Google. The cause for the concern is that these reviews don't come from clients she's actually worked with.

Professional photographer Kacy Meinecke says she doesn't recognize any of the names of the people leaving the reviews. One long review, Meinecke says, is full of details that are made up.

Meinecke is especially frustrated because she's proud of the reputation she's built in Wichita.

"I have worked diligently on making sure I treat all my clients like friends and family, with respect, and give them the best possible outcome with their photos," she says.

Her work has been featured on magazine covers and ads throughout the area. A quick Google search of Meinecke turns up many five-star reviews. Now a few reviews are less than stellar. These don't come from clients.

"It was about six days ago, I woke up and I got an email alert about a negative," Meinecke says.

That's normal, at least occasionally for most businesses, but Meinecke says this review was from a non-client and included a made up story.

"I type in through our archives, the name's not there. We looked on all different accounts of social media, Google, to see if this name was even remotely familiar at all, and it wasn't," she says.

Two more one-star reviews followed, each one under a different name, and all lengthy and including personal details about Meinecke that aren't true or didn't happen.

She responded to each review and flagged them. She says she's contacted Google at least a dozen times in the past week and that first false review has been removed.

But the question now is, who is doing this, and why?

"I have no clue," Meinecke says. "And that's the crazy, scary, and funny thing about the entire situation."

FactFinder 12 went to a tech expert and the Better Business Bureau for answers, curious if the reviews might come from a bot.

"These reviews in particular are very lengthy and go in depth, repeatedly say the company's name, which would lead to indications it's not just a blast out there from a bot," says Denise Groene with the Better Business Bureau.

Soteria Technology Solutions owner Bill Ramsey agrees.

"Those are definitely not bots," he says. "Bots are usually quick, very few words. This is incredibly detailed. These are people that are actually doing this."

Ramsey says the negative reviews are likely coming from real people hiding behind fake accounts, and there's no easy, quick way to figure out who it its.

"Google could do some tracking f they wanted to, but honestly, that's going to be an incredibly time-consuming process for them," he says.

Meinecke says she has no enemies and can't imagine her competition being behind this.

"With the competition, we all know each other in the commercial photography world and we refer everything to each other," she says.

More than anything, Meinecke wants to protect her reputation and wants other businesses to be aware of fake reviews.

"That this stuff actually happens and it's very detrimental to businesses," she says.

So, what can business owners do in a situation like Meinecke's?

Groene says first, they should flag the review and contact the company where it's posted, whether that's Google, Facebook or Yelp. Also, she says the business owner should respond to the person leaving the review in a professional way.

She says Meinecke did everything right and now, it's up to Google to decide whether to remove the fake reviews.