I recently got a new follower on Google Maps called “lgstats” claiming to be a Local Guides stats dashboard data miner for a website called “lgstats.xyz”
Just wanted to alert other guides of this potentially malicious activity in case it targets you as well.
@CalebD That definitely doesn’t sound legit. Is it possible to send me the link to the profile, or at least screenshot? You can DM me if you like.
Also please report the profile so it can be investigated
@iyudhi Thanks for the prompt reply.
My apologies, but I already removed the bot as a follower; so, I am unable to provide a screenshot. I did, however, report the account to Google before doing so.
I suspect this is a bot put in place to create detailed stats on our contributions.
I did follow the instructions on https://lgstats.xyz/about to verify my profile when I saw the bot started to follow me.
So now my full profile name is now shown on the site and I can look up quite detailed historic and current contribution stats.
It is really wierd that no one takes responsibility to have created this site. From sentences like “Made with 
.” and the writing style I suspect @AdamGT could be behind this. Just guessing.
I can not assure you that it is safe to allow the bot to follow you, but sofar I have not observed any problems related to this bot. In stead I like to check my contributions from time to time on the site.
Cheers
Morten
Here is how the bot presents it self:
You can see the profile here:
lgstats-crawler
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AvUDWcVbJrrAMnQT6
Again, I think it is benign and helpful.
Check out the website I linked to above.
Cheers
Morten
@MortenCopenhagen This is what I see when I click on the link you posted above. It’s good that it looks benign, but always good to be careful for things like these
On mobile you can see that the crawler bot currently is following 10.302 Local Guides.
The profile text support my suspicion the @AdamGT is behind this. The leaderboards are mentioned.
Cheers
Morten
@CalebD I don’t see that the bot claims to be from Google. Actually the opposite is what I see. But it is really strange that nobody claims ownership / responsibility for this.
@MortenCopenhagen Got it. I was accessing from PC browser.
It’s great if it turns to be safe. My point is that to always be diligent for things like this. It may not be the same case in the future.
Thank you both for the thorough discussion of this. @MortenCopenhagen I assumed that the .XYZ extension was reserved for Google/alphabet sites; hence, my statement that it was claiming to be with Google.
I updated the post title to reflect that it is using the XYZ extension from Alphabet, but might not be affiliated.
@CalebD xyz domain is not affiliated with Google/Alphabet. They did popularize it after claiming abc.xyz as their corporate website, but anyone can register the domain
@iyudhi thank you for the clarification.
All-in-all, the consensus seems to be the bot is likely benign. Since the account has been reported, if Google finds the case to be otherwise, I’d imagine they’ll take action.
Thanks again to you & @MortenCopenhagen for hashing this out with me.
Thank you for sharing this info of utmost valuable, importance for all to heed warning in our security. When I read your Post today, I almost jus’ couldn’t believe what I was seeing. You’re Post came through to my Gmail today while I was dealing with a suspicious email. You’re experience and mine sound similar to one another’s.
This morning another crawler showed up in my list of followers :
I encourage @AdamGT to comment in this thread and to consider rephrasing the profile texts to avoid similar issues in the future.
I guess more crawlers are needed due to the max to follow 10.000 profiles per account.
Cheers
Morten
@MortenCopenhagen You may want to go easy on the tagging. I’m sure Adam is aware that you’re trying to get his response and will reply back when he’s got a chance.
Hi @MortenCopenhagen ,
We are currently looking into what is reported here. Thanks for sharing your concerns.
I also would like to share a gentle reminder that we always encourage Local Guides to be mindful of their words and avoid making claims that could feel like accusations towards other community members. Our community is helpful, and Local Guides take their time to share helpful articles, processes, and tips because that’s what Connect is all about. We support free expression here on Connect, as long as they are aligned with the 5 core values of Connect.
Hi @MortenCopenhagen and @CalebD
I found another variation of this. Here is the link to the profile. What is interesting though is the ones you noticed-- in the screenshots, they show 0 contributions. However, in this case, I see this one lgstats-architect has 43 contributions. I remember we are not supposed to make multiple profiles and post contributions under different profiles. I wonder if this particular profile might be a spammer. 
Another thing I’m thinking is… my profile was restricted when that user followed me. Not sure if it’s now the case if our
profiles aren’t public, that a crawler would have to follow our account to verify our data for Leaderboards… Just me rambling… but would love to hear your guys’ thoughts. 
I got the same o nes following me @MortenCopenhagen I removed them
Did you try the features available on lgstats.xyz? I see improvements and they are very helpful. But I guess if you don’t let the bots see your contributions, then you will not be able to see the detailed stats including history. You can see mine here: https://lgstats.xyz/guide?uid=116647701492246965139
I still wonder why the creator wants to stay anonymous! And hence not get any credit for his work.
Cheers
Morten
