We’ve been there, haven’t we. Sitting in a restaurant when a bunch of chancer decide they don’t fancy paying the bill, despite having had a perfectly good meal with good service.

The usual scam goes along the lines of ‘the meat was cold’, ‘the steak was over/undercooked,’ or ‘I didn’t order those vegetables’, followed by ‘II want a discount or even a free meal’. Then there are those who come back and say they have had food poisoning. No proof of course.

The implied threat is always there though, a poor social media review or threatening a food standards complaint.

We have also seen the owners/manager often capitulate because otherwise it is too much hassle they don’t want a scene in the restaurant/pub.

The are scumbags really who put decent businesses at risk and at the same time the jobs of the often poorly paid staff.

Now it has got worse as a Sutton Coldfield restaurant, The Bracebridge, has discovered.

Here is a story that first appeared in the Express & Star newspaper/website written by Andy Richardson and has since beeen picked up by national TV.

Thanks for allowing me to reprint

Restaurants and hospitality blackmailed by scammers

Scammers are blackmailing restaurants into paying them hard cash – warning that they’ll post negative online reviews if they don’t comply.
And restaurateurs say they are at their wits’ end that online sites can be too slow to react when the issue is raised.
Restaurateurs have faced challenges since the rise of online reviews made them vulnerable to customers who might want to seek free drinks or a discount on their bill. 
Most restaurants have encountered end-of-the-evening conversations with those who’ve effectively blackmailed venues into providing a discount or a free drink, under pain of facing a bad review if they do not.
But the problem has become more serious as scammers home in on restaurateurs and tell them that they will post numerous negative reviews in a bid to damage their business. 
Organised criminals with multiple email accounts and the ability to post numerous damaging reviews are seeking to extort funds from business owners.
Sam Morgan, boss of The Open Restaurant Group, today spoke up on the issue, revealing he has been battling extortion during the past two weeks. He has released dozens of messages from an individual who has demanded a four-figure ransom to avoid negative reviews being posted.
Mr Morgan runs six restaurants, including The Bracebridge, at Sutton Park, near Walsall. His other restaurants are near Birmingham and near Liverpool.
Mr Morgan was contacted by a scammer who demanded money and threatened to post bad reviews if a transfer was not made to a PayPal account.
He refused to pay and contacted TripAdvisor and Google to say he had been the victim of an extortion attempt by a blackmailer. When Mr Morgan refused to comply with a deadline set by the criminal, a negative online review was posted.
Mr Morgan said: “It’s frightening what people will do and as a business owner there’s only one way to respond – you have to stand firm and say no.
“If you’re weak and agree to pay, these people will simply come back for more and drain your business until it goes under.”
Mr Morgan said there were two issues that restaurateurs were having to deal with. The first was the criminal act of extortion and blackmail by people seeking cash. 
The second was the delays and non-responses from online platform, who were slow to respond to proven cases of extortion and failed to take down fake reviews, thereby becoming complicit in damaging businesses. 
He said they often had no human customer service and left complaints to AI, which frequently provided zero assistance. Mr Morgan shared messages between him and a blackmailer in which Mr Morgan tackled the issue head-on.
His message said: “It’s fake. Just like the reviews.”
The blackmailer replied: “It will work, haha.”
Mr Morgan responded: “It won’t get you paid.”
The blackmailer said: “Let’s see and remember my word.”
Mr Morgan then said he’d work to delete any fake reviews. The blackmailer responded: “If you come back to me to delete the reviews I’ll increase the amount next time.”
The blackmailer also threatened to put the exchange online. Mr Morgan told him the conversation was fake. The blackmailer replied: “No, it’s not.”
Mr Morgan wrote: “You’re such a fraudster.”
The blackmailer said: “Whatever you think you can.”
Mr Morgan said: “Why do you do this to people? I don’t understand.”
The blackmailer said: “I’m doing this because you refused to help me.”
Mr Morgan said: “Why do I have to help you. I don’t know you.”
The blackmailer replied: “Okay. Let it be.”
Mr Morgan said: “I don’t help people who extort money from people.”
The blackmailer said: “I’m busy now … Doing more reviews.”
The blackmailer later adds: “Listen if you really want to help me then text me. Otherwise, I’ll do whatever I want. I’ll not stop this until I get paid. I’ll not stop, never.”
Mr Morgan said: “So what do you want for this to stop?”
The blackmailer replied: “You know what I want.”
Mr Morgan said: “£2,000?”
The blackmailer increased the demand: “Now £2,500. If you don’t do this now, I’ll increase the amount day by day. That would be your loss.”
The blackmailer later added: “You don’t really have any option.”
Mr Morgan said the exchange was ‘dark and chilling’. 
He said: “The blackmailer was aware of the damage that posting fake reviews would do to a business that we’ve worked so hard to create. He or she was actively pleased by that – it gave them a sense of power and they clearly wanted to make us feel vulnerable.”
Mr Morgan contacted TripAdvisor and Google and shared the tranche of messages with them.
The blackmailer subsequently posted two fake reviews that rated Mr Morgan’s restaurants as terrible and provided a false and egregious account to mislead potential customers.
Mr Morgan contacted TripAdvisor and Google again. TripAdvisor quickly placed Mr Morgan’s restaurants on a watch list but there was no initial response from Google, which used an AI chatbot and had no human interface.
Mr Morgan said: “There are two really serious issues at play. The first is the vulnerability of businesses in an online world where people can blackmail companies by posting fake content. The discourse between the blackmailer and I was overt, unarguable and crass in the extreme.
“The blackmailer asked for £2,000 – then changed that to £2,500 – and was explicit in their intentions. That’s a criminal matter, for the relevant authorities.
“The second issue is the one surrounding the responsibility of Google and other online platforms, where people can post reviews. The responses from big tech are frighteningly slow, or non-existent, and in not fulfilling their duties they become complicit in the publication of fake reviews.
“There needs to be a better system in place so that online platforms are alive to the threats and fulfil their duties in respect of customer service. They can’t stop people posting fake reviews – but they have a responsibility to act immediately to take those down and now allow themselves to be a platform for publication.
“TripAdvisor was quick to take action, but Google used a chatbot that responded ‘We can’t understand your issue’. These companies make billions – it’s just not good enough.”
A spokesperson for Google said the company would assess the screengrabs between Mr Morgan and the person seeking to extort cash. It said the matter would then be escalated to the relevant teams.