You presumably work at Yelp? This isn't a case of killing the messenger. This is a case where the company wants business owners to conform to its way to dealing with spam rather than have its engineers come up with a better solution to the problem

Read this very well written article on the problem and possible solution and maybe you'll have a better idea of the problem at hand.

http://justinvincent.com/page/1874/yelp-you-cost-me-2000-by-...