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Level 9
Level 9

Re: Florists Scam in London


@GusMoreira wrote:

took actions on the spammer accounts to removed and prevent this to happen again

Hi @GusMoreira

 

As far as I can tell none of the fake shops or fake LG accounts have been removed. It's been five months, map users are being ripped off and Google is sadly NOT taking the required action.

 

I started this thread in December 2016 and if you look at the first post you can still click on the POI I used as an example. From there if you click on the reviews you can find the entire network of fake shops and LGs

 

You will probably redact this next link https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/107840842069898507490/reviews/   even though it is completely obvious it is a spam account - 33 reviews, all five stars and all for fake florists

 

Here are some more shops

https://goo.gl/maps/qGysfiEGdQD2 Blossoms Flower Deliveries
https://goo.gl/maps/B5UoUzfqDc72 South Street Flowers
https://goo.gl/maps/gBtYTTsSJbB2 Notting Hill Gate Flower Deliveries
https://goo.gl/maps/Yk1HUtzpVjN2 24 Hour Flower and Fruits Delivery
https://goo.gl/maps/7LPPMUGDDHQ2 British Speaking Roses
https://goo.gl/maps/AWi6yKU5hb62 Ashleigh Hopkins Florist
 
You should try calling the number on some of these listings, you get the same guy who wants to take a phone order, but gets very awkward when you ask to visit the shop, then puts the phone down 
Level 7

Re: Florists Scam in London

A simple thabks would have been not too hard....

But actually sorry @GusMoreira i call BS

I have just randomly looked at 10 of the fake florists on the list provided. All still active as are their reviewers and also very recent reviews of real people getting scammed.

 

So no google doesnt care as far as I can see.  Maybe consumer affairs or others may be a better bet to get some action on behalf of the good folk who trust Google!


@GusMoreira wrote:

Hi @MarkMc

 

We do care and we are sorry you didn't hear from us.

 

All the details were sent it over to our spam team who investigated and took actions on the spammer accounts to removed and prevent this to happen again. We also continue to monitor this trend and accounts.


 

Level 8

Re: Florists Scam in London

The Local Guides are great people, upper management are not.

They're the ones responsible for descending Maps into uselessness.

This is just the most depressing example.

They freaked out and overreacted to limited and artsy "abuse" of maps (remember the story of the droid relieving himself?), ruining a thriving community of volunteers and then do absolutely nothing when strong and decisive action is not only fully warranted but needed.

Former Google Contributor

Re: Florists Scam in London

Hi @Pea and @MarkMc,

 

Thank you for listing these other places, in some of the links you've sent us I notice the place has already been removed or have been marked as closed.  We will pass it along to our spam team so they can investigative and take the appropriate actions on these users accounts to make sure we can stop these scam from happening.

 

 

As you guys have seen it, some investigations can get pretty tricky because we want to make sure to maintain real business online and only removing the spammy ones from the map so ti can take a few time until we collect enough evidence. As you know, we also really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us (like you are all doing right now), so if you stumble into a place on the map that you know that don't exist please mark it as spam or permanently closed (if existed one day but not anymore).

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the volume of private messages Google Moderators receive, I do not read or respond to private messages.
Please post publicly so others may benefit from your discussion. Thank you.
Level 9
Level 9

Re: Florists Scam in London


@GusMoreira wrote:

please mark it as spam or permanently closed (if existed one day but not anymore).


Hi @GusMoreira if you go back to the third post in this thread, you'll see that @Csaba did exactly that, he marked the place as permanently closed. However since it is Claimed they just reopened it. 

 

I feel you're not actually reading this thread and grasping the issue? Part of the problem is that this scam involves hijacking some POIs for shops that really did used to exist, but then changing the phone number. Asking us to mark them closed is pointless if they just get reopened. This requires action from Google at a higher level to permanently remove/lock the POIs

 

Also your spam team has done NOTHING to close the actual Local Guides accounts after five months. There are dozens of them, they are obviously spam accounts but they are left free to post fake florist reviews - even in the last week. Don't you have the personal power to suspend these LG accounts?

Level 1

Re: Florists Scam in USA

There are plenty of Flowers shops show up on google search mostly cityname followed by florist. eg. Atlanta Florist. They also claim to be local florist with some street address and phone numbers usually 1800 numbers. When you call them they will take your flower order and they turn around and call local florists in that town to have your order delivered.  I ordered through one of these numbers just to see how it works. Usually you will get flowers that are much smaller or cheaper looking. Doesn't match what you wanted and when you call them back they will refer you to call the florist who filled your order. The florists usually do not know that you ordered the flowers from some third party. When I ordered the flower I paid $120 plus tax and delivery. Then when I called the florist the total order for the flower was $50 including tax and delivery. Be aware of these third party order takers. Always call your local florist. They can tell you what they have in stock and you will get a much better arrangement because you are taking to the person who designs them, not someone who is writing down the order and does not have a clue about flowers.

Level 8

Re: Florists Scam in USA

BUMP.

Clicked through the british links. and guess what. still in operation.  Im concluding this problem is not solved.

 

Same type fake florists show up if you spend 10 minutes looking right here in Los Angeles CA.   
More interesting there are also several profiles in greater LA area "seemingly" dedicated to promote "mostly" fake businesses.  
Trend seems to be a surprisingly large number of high mark reviews with just a few words "Great flowers thanks guys" kinda thing.

 

One had the same picture listed on numerous "flower shops", all these flower shops can't possible be selling the same flower in the same window?  🙂

Dear googles,  

My gut feeling is this is a growing category of fake businesses inserting themselves between actual businesses and customers.  
Being a flower order taker who then re-direct and place the order with a local florist is naturally a completely legit business, in its own right, but propagating your listings by presenting to have locations in local areas you are not actually in, in order to be more relevant than the actual local store is obviously not legit.  
*this is not isolated to florists, while checking facts, I have noticed fake health screening listings,  non existent general contractors with 800 numbers,  truck drivers license seems to be a big one.  so this is a category.

My guess is, nobody can root these "chains" better than Local Guides.  but I think there need to be a pretty simple way to reporting this,  and a category such businesses can be reported as, since they simply are not just "not there" but also operated by people who likely can be traced to multiple similar listings 🙂   AND they are supported by Local Guide's who seems to be visiting and enforcing and fact-checking, non-existing business locations..  Im guessing data-mining would find probably most of these with some creative filtering.  send them to maybe 5 start or better guides only for fact-checking,  or maybe only to say 10star guides, this is a serious problem but there is good reason to believe that scammers are not going to be 8star guides with 200 solutions.  real quality guides can fact-check this and shut them down if given the powers. and they can easily fact-check and remove bad (ghost) LG's as well.

Both ghost businesses and ghost guides, needs a specific category, maybe one not visible to most users, but visible to "made guides" just like we can see some groups as exclusive content. marking a location as closed will otherwise result in it popping back up, it need a ghost category making it clear this is a specific kinda problem listing.  
Ghost operators are damaging real businesses by stealing real leads from legitimate business, taking these orders and then reselling the leads to the real business.    

Lets create a method and reporting system to protect users from ghosts & shell operations on Google Maps.  


Just my 2 cents worth of theory.
Sincerely Bo Lorentzen


Level 7

Re: Florists Scam in USA

Hi Bo,

As you say this is a serious problem but Google not taking seriously (or not bothered at all it seems) they cite privacy reasons offor nor being able to act or call out the bad actors.  I call BS on that.

 

It is an issues that local.guides can help with of course with better ways to flag but it shouldn't be responsibilty of guides to find and tag.  With all Google's smarts it would be quite easy to pattern match the bulk of the spam/scam perpetrators. Just like they auto send spam email to junk folders quite well.

 

My faith and trust in Google maps has dropped.

(With that faith tested it actually opened me up to looking for other map alternatives.  Never did I think the need for others or there woild be anything out there seek g Google is so big an ubiquitous with searching. (Live maps and old mapquest long ago ignored).

I found one such app called maps.me.

 A lot better for navigating than google and with more detail on coties and towns.  Saved my bacon in nepal when Google maps had no clue)