A DEV.to article titled "5 Best Places To Buy Google Reviews Online In 2026" appeared on the platform this week, ostensibly offering a roundup of services that help businesses artificially inflate their Google My Business ratings. The headline itself is eyebrow-raising enough—buying fake reviews violates Google's policies and can result in business penalties or removal from search results—but the actual article content raises additional concerns: most of it appears to be corrupted, garbled text that's essentially unreadable.

What We Could Actually Extract

From what little survived the encoding mess, the summary references a service called ProGmb.com that connects businesses with review-faking capabilities. Contact information provided includes Telegram handles (@progmbofficial), a WhatsApp number (+1 (920) 212-9737), and an email address (progmb.contact@gmail.com). The article claims this company helps "connect busin"—the text cuts off mid-word, likely due to the same corruption that mangled the rest of the piece.

Why This Matters for Developers and Business Owners

Look, I cover dev tools and infrastructure, not ethics 101—but this is worth addressing because fake review services affect everyone who relies on Google My Business to make purchasing decisions. For developers building integrations with Google's Business API or local SEO tooling, understanding the shadow economy around reviews is relevant context. These services typically use networks of accounts to leave positive reviews en masse, which is detectable and punishable under Google's spam policies.

The Platform Problem

DEV.to, owned by the for-profit company DEV Community LLC, has faced criticism before for hosting promotional content that blurs ethical lines—affiliate-heavy "best X" articles, SEO manipulation guides, and now apparently review-fraud services. Whether this article represents a genuine attempt at journalism or simply SEO farming is unclear given how much of it is unreadable.

Key Takeaways

  • The DEV.to article is largely corrupted data, not readable content—possibly scraped from another source with encoding errors
  • Services selling fake Google reviews violate Google's Business Policies and can result in listing removal
  • Developers working with Google My Business APIs should be aware that review manipulation detection exists on the platform side
  • Platform moderation at DEV.to continues to allow questionable commercial content under "educational" framing

The Bottom Line

If you're a developer or business owner, spend your energy building genuine customer relationships instead of looking for shortcuts. And if you're going to publish on DEV.to—maybe actually check that your article renders correctly first.