After a recent win in a court case against a Russian-originated bot network, Google has announced a new legal proceeding against a group of scammers that have been seeking to manipulate business owners by calling them up and trying to charge them to access Google My Business.
“Today we are filing a lawsuit against scammers who sought to defraud hundreds of small businesses by impersonating Google through telemarketing calls. They also created websites advertising the purchase of fake reviews, both positive and negative, to manipulate reviews of Business Profiles on Google Search and Maps.”
Google says that the fraudsters call up business owners and seek to charge them for their Google Business Profiles, which you can (and should) access for free.
“A Business Profile is a tool that allows business owners to take charge of the way their business appears on Search and Maps, and it allows consumers to find their favorite (or, soon-to-be favorite) coffee shops, restaurants or hardware stores. It’s a tool designed to empower people. However, some scammers have tried to abuse and profit from it through deceptive and predatory practices.”
Google says that in 2021 alone, it detected and stopped more than 12 million attempts by bad actors to create fake Business Profiles, and nearly 8 million attempts to claim Business Profiles that didn’t belong to them.
This new legal push aims to establish a precedent for such, which could then better enable Google to combat this type of fraud in...
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