Fake Businessesīesides adding fake contact details to an existing, legitimate listing, scammers create completely fake business listings to lure unsuspecting consumers. There are numerous cases of unfortunate victims losing a significant amount of money to scammers after calling a fake business contact. And when an unsuspecting Maps user reaches out to the fake contact information, whether a phone number or email address, they are duped into providing their personal information, including banking details, if the business they are contacting is a bank. Unfortunately, scammers use this feature and replace the contact details of businesses with fake information. In order to keep its information accurate and up-to-date, Google Maps allows its users to suggest edits to business listings. If it ever does a spring cleaning, listing owners will get sufficient time to verify their listings. Plus, Google doesn’t randomly delete business listings from Maps. But anyone can verify a Google Maps listing in a few steps and free of charge. So the unsuspecting businesses end up paying the scammer. The prospect of losing a Google Maps listing is worrisome to any business. A scammer will claim that if the business doesn’t pay money to get it verified, its listing will be removed.
In this scam, fraudsters contact businesses and claim their Google Maps listing is not verified or confirmed. Listing Verification ScamĪnother related scam to the Google Maps listings is the verification scam. So unsuspecting businesses end up paying money to scammers for something that is free or impossible to do. And there is no way to gain a prominent position apart from buying Google Maps ad space. So they approach their victims with schemes about getting them listed on Google Maps and sometimes even pitching a prominent position.īut all these services come with a price tag, even though anyone can list a business on Google Maps for free. Malicious actors know this, and they capitalize on small businesses’ relative unfamiliarity with how Google Maps listings work. It helps customers discover the business and know when and how to reach them. A listing on Google Maps is quite helpful for any business.
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