Kay Dean's SalvageData Findings

Every image below is a frame from Dean's public video, “Fake Reviews for SALVAGEDATA,” published August 26, 2026. Each caption gives the point in the video where the frame appears, so you can check it against the source. We blurred two things: a private Facebook commenter's name and photo, and the face photos on four reviewer profiles. Everything else, including the other businesses these accounts reviewed, is shown as captured.

Dean pulled up the Google accounts that were reviewing SalvageData locations and looked at what else each account reviewed. Eight of them, with addresses as shown in her captures:

1. MD. AKBAR HOSSAN left a five-star review for SalvageData in Miami (4961 SW 75th Ave, Miami, FL 33155) within two hours of five-starring an astrologer and psychic healer in Australia (11 Wattle Rd, Maidstone VIC 3012), about 9,700 miles away.
2. Santosh Yadav left a five-star review for SalvageData in Carrollton, Texas (3733 N Josey Ln, Carrollton, TX 75007) within a day of praising Top Indian Astrologer and Psychic Spiritual Healer in Clifton, New Jersey (82 Market St, Clifton, NJ 07012).
3. benoy sebastian gave five stars to SalvageData in San Francisco (837 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103) the same day he gave five stars to Psychic and Astrologer Spiritual Healer in Charlotte, North Carolina (12123 Accent Berkeley Ct, Charlotte, NC 28262), 2,300 miles away.
4. Amrik Singh five-starred Indian Astrologer and Spiritual Healer in Jackson, Mississippi (1999 US-80 #15, Jackson, MS 39204) the same week he five-starred SalvageData in New York (122 W 29th St, New York, NY 10001). Both reviews were still live when we checked on August 27, 2026: see them on his Google Maps review page.

It is weird when one account reviews local businesses in different countries on the same day. It is far weirder that all of these coincidental globetrotters were reviewing psychics and the same data recovery company at the same time.

Then it gets weirder:

5. MOHAMED HMIDAN left five-star reviews in the same week for Boss Auto, a car dealer in Warsaw, Poland (Al. Jerozolimskie 65/79, 19 pietro, biuro 19/19), and for SalvageData in Sherman Oaks, California (14007 Ventura Blvd #9G), 6,000 miles apart. Both reviews were still live when we checked on August 27, 2026: see them on his Google Maps review page.
6. Amine Sabir five-starred the same Boss Auto dealership and SalvageData's Dallas location that same week, and a third account, Adesh Patil, paired the same dealer with SalvageData in San Francisco (video 1:51 to 2:03).

How believable is it that six different people all randomly went to the same astrologers, the same data recovery company, and the same Polish auto dealer in the same week? The chance that these are real customers is slim to none. The far more likely explanation is that these businesses paid the same SEO or reputation-management service for reviews at the same time.

7. thiru pethuru reviewed Master Jagan Astrologer Psychic and Spiritual in Charlotte, North Carolina (1017 Tyvola Rd, Charlotte, NC 28217) within two days of five-starring three SalvageData locations at once: New York (151 Avenue A), San Diego (1070 University Ave J101), and Phoenix (2432 W Peoria Ave #1221). San Diego and Phoenix are 300 miles apart; New York is 2,400 miles from either. Nobody has three data recovery emergencies in three cities in one week.

8. KEVIN ALEXANDER MART... (Google cuts the name off) reviewed SalvageData in Plano, Texas (909 W Spring Creek Pkwy) and SalvageData in Carrollton, Texas (3733 N Josey Ln) on the same day, plus the same Boss Auto dealership in Warsaw and an astrologer in Montreal. One account: two data recovery shops, a Polish car dealer, and a psychic.

That is the pattern of one review-spam operation working for all of these businesses at once, not the pattern of customers.

We checked all nine of these Google accounts on August 27, 2026, less than three weeks after Dean's captures. Two still showed their SalvageData reviews, each still paired with the astrologer or the Warsaw dealer: Amrik Singh and MOHAMED HMIDAN. The other seven no longer showed them: MD. AKBAR HOSSAN, Amine Sabir, Adesh Patil, and KEVIN ALEXANDER MART... returned no public reviews at all, and Santosh Yadav, benoy sebastian, and thiru pethuru now show only unrelated listings, mostly in India. Reviews that disappear by the dozen within weeks of an investigator publishing are not what real customer histories do.

The video shows a sample. Dean's spreadsheet shows the same overlap dozens of times in one window: 87 Google accounts, 77 SalvageData reviews, 86 astrologer reviews, and 29 Boss Auto reviews, nearly all posted in the first two weeks of August 2026. Sixty-three of the 87 accounts reviewed both SalvageData and an astrologer. The likelihood that these are real reviews is zero.

Dean counted SalvageData's Facebook reviews by month. For six years the page got a review every month or two. Then 17 positive reviews arrived in November 2023, 21 in December, and 16 in January 2024. Four months of nothing. Then 46 in June 2024 and 46 in July 2024. Since July 2024, not one positive review in more than two years. Real customers do not show up 92 at a time and then stop.

Dean took the 56 accounts that reviewed SalvageData on Facebook in June and July 2024 and checked what else they had reviewed. 32 of them also reviewed Brick Pointing NYC. 27 reviewed Desirable Painting and Floors in Broadview Heights, Ohio. 18 reviewed Oriental Rug Care in New York, 12 reviewed Duramax Painting & Power Washing in Mogadore, Ohio, nine each reviewed two moving companies in Van Nuys, California, and eight reviewed Duct Squads in Oklahoma City. Four of them left negative reviews of the same pediatric surgery practice in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Fifty-six strangers who lost their data do not also share a bricklayer in New York and a painter in Ohio.

Two of the 56 accounts, Fally Fred and Luiz Rodriguez, use the same profile photo of three people at a table. Dean says it is an iStock stock photo (8:20). She shows three more stock-photo profiles between 8:29 and 8:43.

Dean ran one of the 56 reviews, posted by Collins Steven on July 5, 2024, through Pangram, an AI-text detector. Pangram returned “AI Generated, 100% of this text is AI,” with its own caveat on screen: “Confidence limited, short text.” Dean says more than half of the 56 reviews came back the same way and the rest were too short to test (9:13). A detector gives a probability, not proof.

Right after the 92 June and July reviews, a Facebook user asked SalvageData about pricing and then wrote, “All your reviews seem like they are fake accounts.” The company's page replied:

“[commenter's name] We believe in transparency and have nothing to hide. Our goal in sending direct messages is to help you more accurately and effectively. Each data recovery case can vary greatly depending on the type of device and the specific issue it has. By discussing your situation directly, we can provide a more precise quote rather than a broad price range. Additionally, our full pricing range is available on our website at https://www.salvagedata.com. Personal messages are intended solely to better serve you. If that weren't the case, we'd simply link our website under every comment asking for a price.

I want to assure you that our reviews are from real clients who have used our services and shared their honest feedback.

We've worked hard to build a reputation for quality and reliability, and many of our reviews come from clients who were genuinely satisfied with their experience. Additionally, we encourage all our clients to leave feedback, which helps us improve our services and maintain transparency.”

That is SalvageData's answer, printed in full.

In September 2025, five people each became the first person ever to review a SalvageData Yelp listing: Owen G. of Santa Ana (Los Angeles listing, Sep 12), Efren W. of Austin (Sep 15), Leon H. of Delray Beach (Sep 17), Matthew L. of Philadelphia (Sep 24, four stars), and Patrick L. of Dearborn (Sep 27). Every one of the five profiles has exactly two reviews. Five first-ever reviews, five two-review accounts, one month.

Owen G.'s review through Pangram: “AI Generated, 100% of this text is AI,” again with “Confidence limited, short text” on screen. Dean says all five came back that way (12:33).

Dean's Yelp sheet covers 73 reviews on 61 SalvageData Yelp listings, all posted between July 28 and October 5, 2025 (her counts, 13:02 to 13:16). 47 of the 73 were too short for Pangram to test; of the 26 long enough, 25 came back “AI Generated” (13:54 to 14:13). Only three of the reviewers had ever posted three Yelp reviews; the rest had one or two (14:48). More than 70% of the 61 listings had no reviews at all until this ten-week window (15:15).

Josiah C. of El Paso, Texas is typical: one Yelp review in his life, five stars for SalvageData in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and “First to Review.”

On the Google accounts (4:16):

“Well, I don't believe Kevin's, Thiru's, or any other reviews on this spreadsheet are legitimate. The review patterns here are just not credible.”

On Facebook (9:24):

“I'm confident in concluding that SalvageData has received many fake Facebook reviews.”

On Yelp (12:46 and 15:25):

“In my opinion, there was a concerted effort over a two-month period in 2025 to increase SalvageData's presence on Yelp by posting fake reviews.”

“It makes me wonder, were most of these Yelp pages created and populated with at least one fake review as part of a campaign to increase SalvageData's presence on Yelp? I find it probable given the type of review activity we've already seen on Google and Facebook.”

Closing the video (15:44):

“So that's what you get from SalvageData. Fake reviews in my opinion strewn across Google, Facebook, and Yelp.”

If SalvageData or any person shown in these records identifies a specific inaccuracy on this page, we will correct it. Our editorial standards and corrections policy explain how.

We are a data recovery company, so this page is written by a competitor of the company it documents. That is a reason to open the captures rather than take our word for it. It is also why we publish a list of competitors we recommend, none of whom pay us anything.

Related reporting from this site: our reporting on review manipulation in the data recovery industry, our page on SalvageData, and Kay Dean's earlier records concerning WeRecoverData listings.