I  received an email earlier today that boldly announced:

Google is now using business reviews to determine business ranking. People are trashing companies with reviews, Complaint sites and Blogs.

We can help you defend your company by posting positive Reviews, Blogs and creating Websites to take over Search Results and control what people see about your company.

www.useless$pam.com (slightly modified by HJ) For Reviews and Reputation Service

How does posting positive reviews help in your businesses Google ranking?

1. Positive reviews increase your business rank by linking important and relevant websites to your website.
2. A constant stream of positive reviews improves your online reputation.
3. Positive reviews drive traffic to your business.
4. Positive reviews restore a tarnished reputation by pushing down negative reviews and links.
5. Helps protect against competitors or anyone else from attempting to run your ranking.

Tired of review sites? Hire us to knock them off the front page of Google under your search term.
Our company has been in the business of taking over the first page of google for our clients for 8 years and knocking off complaint sites. We can do the same for your company and review sites.
We will create special websites and blogs and link them to the 15 thousand websites we already have. These websites will knock the review sites away and replace them with content you control.

The company has hidden their whois information although it can be uncovered with a little more effort than I am willing to expend. Their Russian website has a google page rank of zero (0) and an Alexa rank akin to your grandmother's blog about her knitting class. (tongue in cheek... some of those knitting blogs get traffic!)

The email says “taking over the first page of google for our clients for 8 years”... their website says 10 years, the whois says both are slightly stretching the truth. The domain was registered on January 26, 2010.
 
More spew... For as little as a $100 a month (6 month minimum) useless$pam's repulsive packages will help you get rid of negative posts or feedback from the top 10 results in the search engine results pages.  Opt for their $7500 package and get 5 video postings.

Enough already. Its not only Google using reviews to determine business ranking. Clients are not only quick to write reviews for bad service. They write reviews for exceptional service. If you want a good review then provide clients with good service.