When you report something suspicious on Google Maps or on Connect, we take it seriously. Keeping Maps and our community a safe space for everyone is one of our priorities.
So how can you identify scams and let us know?
A scam is a fraudulent scheme that deceives people to give away money or personal information. Watch out for messages, emails, or phone calls from unknown contacts that request personal information, or offer a financial transaction. Be careful of links to websites or promises of rewards that “unlock” when you provide personal details or fill in a survey. When in doubt, do not engage, click or fill in any requested information.
For example, a scammer may offer you money or rewards to rate or review a business on Google Maps that you haven’t visited. Once they earn trust, they may demand money in exchange for more similar jobs. They can introduce themselves as a business owner on Google Maps, a Google representative, or even a Local Guide like you. For more tips on spotting scams, check out this Help Center article.
If you find content or a profile that you believe violates our policies on Google Maps, what you can do is:
This is important for good Local Guides to stay away from such scam and spam activities and report them. This helps Maps and the community to remain clean and reliable.
Thank you for the reminder. There has been some scammers of recent alright. Very often they do change addresses and tactics for spamming.
We will be vigilant to report them as necessary. Thank you for taking the spamming cases seriously. We appreciate the behind the scenes work to make maps better.
I got a question related to this. Google also uses 3rd party data and spreads that on G Maps. With a simple search one can find tons of Airbnb listings and similar ones. According to the guidelines of the GBP, these places are not elegible to a profile. Other profiles are full of keywords on the name line, but are not claimed; this supposes that Google has put these on G Maps. Can you confirm this ? Is there any way Google could filter these profiles before putting them on G Maps ? Owners of the real business may not know that they have a profile that violates the guidelines and moreover they didn’t ask for it. Thanks in advance. Kurt (I’m also a PE in GBP, G Search and G Maps).
Thank you @Julie_A for sharing such a great information.
One thing I want to ask, that usually these scammers contact to the people (like many times I got messages) by social media, like Facebook , Instagram. And fewer msgs on Connect .So is there anyway we can share details about these people with Local Guides team?
Hi @Julie_A Thank you for the reminder. Especially lately, there have been a lot of fake comments and purchases on social media applications. Fees are paid for commenting on sites. This is a behavior completely contrary to the spirit of Google Maps. I’m sure you and other employees are doing your best to prevent this. I hope we encounter less such things…