Jeweler Ordered To Pay $34,500 For Trashing Rival In Fake Yelp Review
A cheap shot at a rival business ended up costing a jeweler thousands.
A jury awarded a Massachusetts jeweler more than $34,500 in damages last month after an employee at a neighboring business posted a fake Yelp review that accused the store of theft and urged customers to stay away.
“He told the people we were thieves, that we were cold-blooded thieves. I’ve never been convicted of anything in my life,” Stephen Blumberg, who owns Stephen Leigh Jewelers in Quincy, told CBS Boston.
Blumberg filed a defamation lawsuit against Toodie’s Fine Jewelry and Adam Jacobs, the owner’s son, after Jacobs refused to take down the incendiary review in 2013, Blumberg’s attorney, Carl Goodman, told The Huffington Post Thursday.
“It was up for about six months,” Goodman said. “If you see some bad reviews, you tend to say, ‘I’ll just go somewhere else.’”
Blumberg’s investigation of the review led him to Jacobs, who was working full time at Toodie’s, Goodman said.
