A Westcountry business was left reeling after online trolls were paid to leave hundreds of bad reviews on its Facebook page.
WAX, a bar which opened this summer at the former Lloyds Bank on Central Square in Newquay, was targeted over the course of the weekend.
The bar management say that the negative one-star reviews were paid for by a local person, either because they “thought it would be funny or wanted to hurt our business”.
Fortunately, Facebook admins reacted quickly and removed the 150 fake reviews before any damage could be done to the bar’s reputation.
A spokesperson for WAX said: “On Friday morning we were confused to see that our Facebook page review rating had gone from five star to one star.
“It turns out our Facebook page was attacked with over 90 one star reviews from people from South America hitting our page in the space of one minute. We then got hit again on Saturday with another 60.
“It appears that this attack was paid for by someone locally, who thought it would be funny or more worrying wanted to hurt our business.
“Sadly, this cowardly action hurts our team the most, a team of individuals who care deeply about the quality of the service they provide and were extremely proud of the five star rating they achieved.
“If you are the person who paid for this to happen, please take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror and grow up.”
WAX manager Sam Karkeek contacted Facebook, Cornwall Live reported.
Sam said: “Facebook acted fast and removed the reviews. Hopefully that is the total amount paid for, and no more should flood in. We are now back to our original 4.9 star rating score.
“Thank you everyone who left a review, shared this post or sent us a lovely message. It means the world to us all.
“If you can take anything away from this it’s how important it is to review and share positivity when you experience good service at a local business.
“So please take the time to review some other businesses you have been impressed by. It means more than you know to them. Thank you again.”
