04-27-2020 05:19 PM - edited 06-01-2020 06:23 AM
You arrive at home after a long and somewhat stressful day at work. And then you notice that – hurried as you were this morning - you have forgotten your keys. So you can’t enter your own house. Damn. A locksmith will be needed to pass the barrier you are now staring at, originally meant to keep out burglars, but not you: the front door.
Fortunately you do have your smartphone with you, and there is an app on it which is great at finding businesses around the area where you live: Google Maps. So you enter locksmith as a search term there, and the locksmiths pop up within seconds. Great – life is already looking a bit brighter again. None of the locksmiths in the search results is known to you (after all: how often does one require the services of a locksmith? If you find yourself forgetting your keys every week, there’s probably another type of service provider you need to consult…), so you just pick one nearby, as it should preferably be someone who doesn’t have to travel too far to reach your non-cooperative front door (as they most likely will also charge you the time needed to get there as well as the distance covered).
What did I find on the map?
Let’s say, for the sake of developing this case study, that I live in the area of Brussels and am urgently in need of a locksmith. So, I open Maps on my phone and type in locksmith. This is what then shows up.
Quite a few locksmiths in the area. Nice result, wouldn’t you agree? A bit strange that most of them have the word Proximity in their name. Would there be something like a chain of locksmiths? Never heard of that. So let’s have a look at the list with the search results.
Well maintained POI-entries, it seems. Slotenmaker is the Dutch word for locksmith and the word in the middle is always a city name. A pity, though, that none of them has any ratings or reviews. The next step then is taking a closer look by opening one of the list entries.
Wow, open 24/7, that is quite convenient. Or is it a first indication that something could be wrong here? Another strange thing: there is no house number in the address. The street is one where also other businesses are located, as you can see from the Street View preview – oh yeah, right, the fact that a Street View image is showing up there means that there are no pictures of the POI either, not from the business owner and not from local guides. That is actually also a bit strange, as the business is claimed. And perhaps the map marker is also not in the best possible location, as checking the Street View images doesn’t seem to show the locksmith in an obvious way in that area. So the owner seems to be a bit sloppy: not entering the house number, not positioning the map marker correctly, not even adding 1 single picture,…
OK, but there is a link to the website, so let’s check that.
Looking quite good - finally a sign that makes it all look a bit more trustworthy? It’s all in Dutch, as that is the local language, but you can believe me: it contains the information you would expect on such a website. The markings in yellow, by the way, are mine and serve to illustrate why the website is in fact not a sign of trustworthiness after all.
Because, if I check out the website of one of the other POIs, it turns out to be a perfect copy of that website, with only the name of the town replacing the other town name (the yellow markings I added).
Checking out more of the POIs, I notice that the oddities I found on the first one are really a pattern across all of them: 24/7 opening hours, no ratings or reviews, well-known street but no house number, no pictures, and nothing to be seen on Street View.
A final look at the website reveals one last suspicious feature: the text on the contact page above the button to submit a request is very strange. It’s in Dutch – well, I should say: the words are all Dutch - but the text is complete rubbish. It seems to be a word-for-word translation of a GDPR-related message.
What did I do?
All of this reminded me of something I had read about, but never had seen on Maps myself: locksmith fraude. The scheme I read about was basically this: someone sets up fake locksmith POIs on Maps and makes them look like local businesses. They then collect the incoming calls or web requests only to sell them as leads to real locksmiths. So, in reality a lead generation operation, not real locksmiths on actual addresses.
Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding: I’m not saying this is a case of fraude, but only that it has a lot of the characteristics of what I had read about before. A final hint that something fishy might be going on here turns up when I start looking for other services that are also needed rarely, but when needed it is often urgent: window suppliers and services to repair heating. Just check the following 2 pictures (armed with the knowledge that the Dutch word for window supplier is glazenmaker and that the Dutch word verwarming means heating) and think back of what I have been explaining earlier…
By now I had collected enough indications to conclude that in my view these POIs on Maps were not real, physical places and therefore needed to be removed from Google Maps. So I reported some of them as Does not Exist, some other as Spam (just to see if the effect would be different).
What was the result?
The ones I have reported are now (a couple of weeks later) no longer to be seen on Maps (both the ones reported as Does not exist and those reported as Spam), as you can see in the final screenshot: when I use the full name of one of the POIs I reported as search terms in Maps, it should obviously show that one as the first search result, but it is simply no longer there at all.
Another #LGCTM success! Guess what I will now be doing with the ones still showing up in the screenshot (and afterwards with a bunch of window suppliers and heating repair services)?
[UPDATE 10/05/2020]
I decided - a couple of weeks after starting to report more of those POIs as spam - to make the exact same search for the exact same area as the screenshot I used to start this post. The result is looking quite nice, if you ask me: still a few to go, but most are gone now.
[UPDATE 01/06/2020]
Take a look at the screenshot below. No further comment needed, I guess. Me happy.
This post is part of the Local Guides Clean The Map project (#LGCTM). All details and links to loads of other posts can be found here.
And here's an overview of the case studies published so far:
04-27-2020 06:14 PM
That is incredible Jan, you are a true Maps master!
(btw, I really enjoy reading your posts and content, loving the sarcastic notes 😁)
>>>>> ❤️ Follow my profile on Google Maps ❤️ <<<<<
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"I want to help the global community in making daily decisions, by contributing reliable information to Google Maps."
04-27-2020 06:30 PM - edited 04-28-2020 04:23 AM
Thanks @JanVanHaver
For your post about spamming.Now it's one of my mission in this lock down to clean the map by reporting personal properties like Private home or duplicate places,Yes sometimes It's successful and sometimes it's Not Applied but now I can follow your tips and also the tips from Copenhagen. Thanks again,
Cheers
04-27-2020 08:30 PM
Great job @JanVanHaver
In my city I had a similar situation, a lot of Gas stations were appearing in the middle of subdivisions, I reported them a few months ago, I´ll check later if they are gone
04-27-2020 10:09 PM
My feeling while i was reading your post was like watching/reading a story of Sherlock Holmes! hahaha
Great job @JanVanHaver !!!
II Runner II Traveler II #LocalGuidesMexico II Check my Instagram! II Latest posts: Monumental monoliths of pre-Hispanic Mexico (1/3) II A monumental sanctuary in the mountains: Otomi Ceremonial Center II Coconetla Ravine: an amazing spot at Los Dinamos Natural Park in Mexico City II #TeamTacos
04-27-2020 10:34 PM
Great Post @JanVanHaver I was also going to say way to go Sherlock!!!
04-28-2020 12:28 AM
What can I say? @JanVanHaver you're a Master in this crusade #LGCTM I'm an enthusiastic about clean the Map, I get angry many times when I find duplicates or triplicate or three or four different stores in the same address.
Thanks for your great work.
Greetings.
Silvi 🇦🇷
#furryfriendphotochallenge / Typical dessert in Argentina / ideas Maps Connect
04-28-2020 01:18 AM - edited 04-28-2020 01:42 AM
Like all the other commentators I need to congratulate @JanVanHaver on his talent and efforts.
I have quite a few fake and annoying lock smith's on my private observation list in Google Maps. And I have not been nearly as successful fighting them as Jan.
Here a few points from what I have experienced:
From emailing with a few of them I learned that the competition in this category is fierce and they are paying big bucks to shady SEO experts to set up their web sites (so it looks like they have legitimate branches even though most have no physical presence). Also, the so-called SEO experts apply every trick in the book to protect the Google Maps listing from legitimate edits. I don't have time to go into those tricks here.
It is almost impossible to remove such places.
They try to hide their fraud by using the Service Area Business type of listing where they don't show a real address.
They push keyword stuffing in the name field way beyond any other category I am aware of. Marketing slur and geographic references that others are removed for adding.
So yes, I am very upset about the behavior of locksmiths and a few other categories that don't need happy and repeat customers.
Mobile phone repair shops, Bluetooth bike rental schemes, and gadget repair shops being some of them.
Hoping for better tools to fight such dishonest practices from Google ASAP.
PS I did try out the newer complaints form from GMB where such cases should be taken care of quickly. We can even attach a spreadsheet as documentation of many questionable listing in one complaint. I did that twice to no avail. It seems you need to be an anti-SEO-expert to use the form successfully!
Cheers
Morten
04-28-2020 03:18 AM
Hi @JanVanHaver,
this is a great case study, what a great finding!
It is quite an elaborate way to resell their services but indeed messy way for Maps because they are not real POI's and fraud towards customers who might think to ring the POI.
Thank you for sharing.