Overview
Brinton Resto and his team represented a painting company that was being targeted with a surge of fraudulent 1-star Google reviews, each featuring detailed complaints about alleged poor work and xenophobic comments about Spanish-speaking contractors. To address this issue, they issued subpoenas to Google to obtain IP addresses and timestamps for the fake reviews. They then sought a court order to release internet subscriber data under federal law and provided Verizon, the internet service provider, with the collected IP addresses and timestamps. Through the cell tower data Verizon supplied, they identified the perpetrator by tracing a consistent cellphone number. A search of this number led us to a competitor’s website that marketed itself in a nationalistic way (using terms such as All American, American Born and Raised, etc.), aligning with the xenophobic tone of the reviews. It turned out this competitor was a former contractor with a grudge against our client. Because of the investigative work involved, local counsel was able to negotiate a settlement for the client.
