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Level 5

Fake Websites

I am noticing a TON of fake websites in my state. They are all usually small businesses like restaurants or motels but they all have the same domain name, are in foreign languages and are all coming from the same company that has hundreds of these domain names listed. They are targeting the small businesses that do not have listed websites, and probably never check their google listing. Keep an eye out for them I know there are more but this is the short list I was able to compile and who they are originating from.

gasthofstoermthal.info
.citymotelsoest.info
.treetopscafe.com
.tulipanoscsarda.info
.joggerspark.info
.riftandco.info
.llanteramunoz.info
.abcdinarica.info
.thefishpoolinn.info
.wildmango.info
.residenzacanoa.info
They all originate from PageFree.net
Registered with godaddy all to the same company
https://registrydb.com/citymotelsoest.info

United States
27 comments
Level 10

PageFree.net Mercadodaweb.com SPAM BOT

I've seen a great spike in PageFree.net SPAM BOT action in the last few days, turning from annoying into mass spam. I've seen a few dozen per city just around my town. I've Googled about it and found evidence of bot action in the Americas, Brazil, United States in Google Maps product.

I'd ask some moderator to take action about it in this same year of 2017, unlike vitrinevirtual.net and older bots and Spammers like desentopidora which took longer than a year to review. It's possible, yes!

http://redlar8.abcdinarica.info sample

http://maricalcados1.abcdinarica.info

http://pastelariacasadosabor1.wildmango.info

Level 10

Spam Websites Appearing in Listings

While doing my mill run of checking the facts, I've noticed a lot of websites are trying to add themselves into a listing. For example, if I had a restaurant named Example Restaurant, it would create a page for itself as examplerestaurant.******.info, then derive the name, address, Google maps widget and any other information into the website.

I'm concerned because when I click 'OK' when it says "Welcome 'Example Restaurant'" it opens up this other domain in a pop up with all these different ads and I'm quite suspicious of this domain as it seems to run some sort of script.

 

Here are the offending domains I've found so far (updated as I find more):

Spoiler
abcdinarica.info
berlindoener.info
breastinstitute.info

caferousseau.info
citymotelsoest.info
gasthofstoermthal.info
joggerspark.info
llanteramunoz.info
riftandco.info
thefishpoolinn.info
treetopscafe.com

tulipanoscsarda.info
wildmango.info

Furthermore for reporting purposes, here a screenshot of what the page looks like in it's entirety:

 

Here is the total screenshot of the whole page, click to see full-size. Note that the website of this is pinkcafe1.caferousseau.info. Substituting carerousseau.info with any of the other ones will also show the same page. Even substituting pinkcafe1 with pinkcafe2 will have the exact same page, except with different details (1 is from France, 2 is from Switzerland). And don't get me started with Cats!Here is the total screenshot of the whole page, click to see full-size. Note that the website of this is pinkcafe1.caferousseau.info. Substituting carerousseau.info with any of the other ones will also show the same page. Even substituting pinkcafe1 with pinkcafe2 will have the exact same page, except with different details (1 is from France, 2 is from Switzerland). And don't get me started with Cats!

I've derived the following information from my investigations (written in a code not to be clicked):

 

Clicking 'OK' in the top popup opens the page without the popup, and a secondary redirect page: http://mercadodaweb.com.br/mercadodaweb/home/ads
Be careful, do not keep the above page open for a long period of time, it just redirected me to a malicious pornography ad. Oops.
Without anything before the domain, the spam website in question is Brazilian website PageFree: http://www.pagefree.net/

 

I've already reported each of these as abuse as 'inappropriate' content.

Is there a way to find out who or what is adding all these domains and trying to put them on Google Maps so we can just bulk reject all of them? Or shut down the offending spam bot in question?

P.S. Thanks to @Arvoredo and @Mahri for your initial reports and additional findings.

Connect Moderator

Re: Spam Websites Appearing in Listings

@Briggs Hi !!!!

Your are talking about a real time problem and spamming on G-maps or other Google search. Which is the result of some cheap promotional mind people activities. who want to share their spamming to the normal public.  

But my afraid we have nothing to do ............

So we have to mark these listing using inappropriate or other reporting option to inform Google.  Google may do something if they think that are harmful.

This is my opinion..............

Happy Guiding !!

Happy Mapping !!

Level 5

Re: PageFree.net Mercadodaweb.com SPAM BOT

Found all of these domains in my local area. They are all from Page free. Usually small businesses like restaurants or motels that have no website listing and probably would never check their google info.
.treetopscafe.com
.tulipanoscsarda.info
.joggerspark.info
.riftandco.info
.llanteramunoz.info
.abcdinarica.info
.thefishpoolinn.info/
.wildmango.info/
.residenzacanoa.info/

Level 8

Re: Fake Websites

 

Thank you for letting us know this kind of Website Hijacking is happening, @Mahri!

 

I am cc: @JeslynL here, so that Google might contact you in private for further details.

Level 8

Re: Spam Websites Appearing in Listings

Thank you very much for reporting this kind of Website Hijacking are happening

 

I cc: @JeslynL here, so that Google might contact you in private for further details.

Level 5

Re: Fake Websites

I've found all these through the check facts feature, is there any way to figure out which spammer is doing this? Or just keep turning them down as invalid websites?

Level 8

Re: Fake Websites

When we encounter them in Check the Facts, we just mark them as invalid change.

 

Like what you are already doing, we can post in Connect about the Spamming activities, so that Google can find out who is doing that.

 

We as LG cannot know who is editing places in Maps.

Level 8

Re: Spam Websites Appearing in Listings

Hi @Briggs @YK1001, how are you guys?

 

We have similar problems in Brazil. 😞

 

In Google Maps website info of the business:

 

Thousands of Freepage .info websites. without authorization of owners.

 

Best regards from Brazil