There needs to be a fasttrack system to flag, punish and remove habitual violators of Google’s terms and conditions. I am aware of several businesses who’s sole business strategy is to game the Google My Business platform, and hurt real local businesses while deceiving local customers. Their entire strategy is one of deception and not only should they be stopped, they should be prevented from ever listing their businesses again. These companies will actually answer the phone and tell the biggest lies with no conscience for what is right and wrong. Usually, these very poor businesses practices aren’t the only things they do that is shady.
Today, someone told me about another one of these businesses that had been removed 11 months ago for cheating the Google Maps platform. Approximately 18 month ago, we reported this business and several months later their listing was finally removed. The entire removal process was very long and we had to make multiple reports. At one point we even submitted every fake Google Maps listing they had in the country. There must have been 30-40 listings. Unfortunately, only a few were ever removed and now they seem to have added new listings in those cities where they had previously been removed.
While the business I am discussing has a new listing in areas where they had been removed, they are following the exact same strategy. They have a new virtual office address and no local employees and they continue to deceive the public and cause harm to real local businesses.
Every business that I reported as having a fake virtual office several months ago now has new listings with new fake virtual offices.
Is there a way to fasttrack the removal of a flagrant and repeat violator of Google’s terms and conditions? There are a few businesses with listings in my community and in every major city across the nation that have made it a business strategy to acquire fake Google Maps Listings, deceive local consumers and harm real local businesses.
I’m aware one business that lost their Google Maps listing last year after being reported for using a virtual office and having no employees in our entire state. While all their listings (at least 30 listings) across the country had been reported as violations, only certain locations were removed. Unfortunately, at least one of these companies has new virtual office spaces and new local listings. It takes considerable time and energy remove these violators. If there is no long-term punishment for these violators they are just going to keep following the same cycle.
As a genuine employee of a local business that spends a considerable sum on Google advertising, I know these businesses really hurt local consumers and local businesses. This is particularly true in out industry. Is there any way to speed up the process of reporting and having the listings of habitual, flagrant violators removed more swiftly and perhaps, with greater punishment? If there is no fasttrack program, could we at least do something about the large scale violators to remove all of their illegitimate listings?
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I have had to continually report a Local Guide,who continues to steal my photos from an unrelated website. The user continues to steal my photos without giving any credit to me, or the website they are stealing them from.
Is getting an attorney my next option? I have watermarked my photos and the user still steals my photos. The watermarks are also still on photos that they steal.
I have reported him numerous times (8-10 times) for my photos. Others from the website have also reported them.
Is there any other option? I have done all the proper steps laid out by all of you wonderful and helpful moderators, but nothing
seems to get done. My photos still show up on this guides page, and the user continues to steal photos unhindered.
We encourage a further discussion about this issue via a different channel due to privacy reasons. Please keep in mind that Google cannot determine copyright ownership, however we do remove content after receiving a valid and complete takedown notice. You can learn more about this in What is “Copyright”?.
I’m managing the My Business profiles for several business in my town and I keep stumbling upon this local guide that is basically spamming reviews. A big number of reviews on her profile are: “good” and a 3-star rating which practically kills the rating of businesses who have no stars rated yet. Her “reviews” span from automotive part dealers to supermarkets to hotels to real estate agencies, etc.
Could please someone reach out for dealing with this?
Thank you for reaching out. I will now send you a private message with instructions how to report said Local Guide. Just keep in mind we won’t be able to share the results of the investigation with you.
As a reminder, the Local Guides program is for individuals only, If you’re a business owner is better to address this issue to Google my Business.
I work in a public school system and have had a school contact me about inappropriate (sexually, violence, etc) content being posted when searching for said school. I have the name of the Local Guide I would like to report, if for no other reason than I think they are a student under 18 which violates the terms as well.
Thank you for reporting this. I will send you a private message with instructions on how to report this Local Guide. Keep in mind we won’t be able to share the results of the investigation with you.
Hi, I want to report a user on Maps that have published photos sexually explicit (so it’s urgent the removal).
Also that is not of the business in question
[Personal information redacted]
One is half naked and they are both spammy and not of this business
Dressed up as clowns ruining google businesses online I checked the local guide profile. One of the profile has a photo of looks like pills of some sort maybe ecstasy after researching it.
[Personal information redacted]
Complete Frauds and account has been reported as well as posts and information. Accounts should be shut down and I personally sue if this is not handled via your guidelines.
My case number would be 0-4571000028231. I want this removed yesterday.
Please note that I’ve edited your message because we value everyone’s privacy and sharing private information is not encouraged on Connect. Also remember that this platform is a global community with many people from various cultural backgrounds who speak various languages. Profanity of any kind is not allowed here as we want Connect to be a warm and welcoming place for all, so please refrain from using inappropriate language.
I will send you a private message with additional information on how to report a Local Guide.
Con gusto de saludarte aprovecho este post para solicitarte información sobre como reportar un local guide. Tiene 335 valoraciones de sitios y negocios diversos y en todos los casos que pude observar, esa valoración corresponde a la menor posible, o sea, 1 estrella.
Ojala puedas indicarnos el procedimiento a seguir para hacer este reporte. Saludos!
I am not only a Local Guide but also a business owner. It’s great because I have a broad perspective of how positive reviews help people decide which business to select, and how negative reviews provide valuable insight to businesses who are eager to improve. On the downside unwarranted reviews posted by irresponsible Local Guides who want to obtain quick extra points, or who post a bad review to a business that they have never stepped into can devastate a business.
I had this happen 2 days ago to my business and I looked up the given Local Guide’s reviews, and saw that she posted 72 one star reviews all at the same time on local businesses without any comments, businesses including a beautiful city park, a Tesla charging station (?), non-profits that are super important to the local community, a slew of gas stations (she obviously does not own a Tesla)…etc. Prior to that she hadn’t posted for 4 months and prior to that for one year. Her reviews are spam.
People, we need to keep Local Guides honest. There needs to be a way to report Local Guides who abuse the system, otherwise the system will lose credibility and anger businesses. It would be a win-win move and help protect Local Guides integrity and reputation, don’t you think? (I’m tempted to call out this one Local Guide but will refrain as I am hoping Google will give me the opportunity to provide them with her name.)
Hello A local guide with idendity posted wrong pictures on a google location. The location is my business. The pictures does not relate with the kind of business we do. He has the same pictures in another location in Malaysia. I think this is a violation. how do i delete the pictures. we also need to take down the pictures in Malaysia. He is posting pictures of sofas, chairs dinning set and settee in a location ( Betamart mall) that does no business like that. he repeated the same pictures in Sura KLCC mall.Malaysia
The personal information was removed from this comment. We do not encourage Local Guides to share private information publicly on Connect in order to protect yours and other users’ privacy and safety. Please take a moment to review our Community policy and check these 14 helpful tips for using Connect on using this community before posting.
Please note that for all business related activities, it would be best if you reach out to the Google My Business Help Forum. If you are not familiar what Google My Business is and you want to learn more about this program, feel free to check their official page.
We already have a procedure in place for reporting Local Guides who are violating the program rules, and I will contact you privately with instructions on how to proceed from here.
After learning a few techniques from this thread, I was able to increase my success rate at getting accepted from almost 0 to may be 75%. There are still some edits that I can never get accepted, no matter how many times I try. There is this one clinic that I can’t edit timings or phone number. I even tried adding a picture of the visiting card showing the phone number and timings, but even that picture never showed up though I tried at least 10 times across a few months. This is very frustrating!
Köszönöm a segítséget és bízom erre a problémára is megoldást találnak.
Van egy “troll” aki hónapok óta, gyenge minőségű fotókat tölt fel százasával méghozzá ismétlődéssel. Az ilyen lehet helyiidegenvezető? Méghozzá 10. szintű, 32 000 fotóval.
10-szer, 20-szor ugyanaz a fotó. De azért 95+ is szerintem ledöbbentő.