You may want to rethink judging a book by a 1-star cover if you're a loyalist of the search engine. grifters are holding a number of restaurants hostage with terrible ratings in exchange for digital gift cards.

According to the NYT, each affected eatery received the same email threat.

The sender lives in India and the gift card requested each time could be worth weeks of income, according to the apology. We have nothing else to do.

Michelin Marauders

According to Alan B. Watkins, author of "Creating a Small Business Cybersecurity Program," it's almost impossible to prevent this type of crime because gift card payments are difficult to trace.

Instead, owners have to rely on recourse such as notifying authorities, communicating the situation to customers, and going through the internet.

The general manager of a San Francisco restaurant told the New York Times that you are defenseless. We seem to be just sitting ducks.

Customer Service Hell

Many restaurants have remained in customer service purgatory despite the fact that some have found recourse through the internet.

According to the manager at Chicago's EL ideas, the review could not be taken down because it was against the guidelines of the internet giant. I don't know how to get out of this situation.

This is not good. Take a scroll through the comments and see if the 1-star reviews have text or images, according to the New York Times.

To the restauranteurs, this hurts. We wish you good luck in the moderation battle.

Fbi offers a huge reward for the accused of stealing $4 billion.