Google Maps has over 200million business profiles to date, which helps many connect people to businesses every day. Google Maps is massive with Google reporting people are connected people over than nine billion times in a month. Recent data from Google shows that over three billion requests for directions are made in Maps per month.
Business profile listings usually rely on contributions from both Local Guides, both big and small business owners and even people. Due to the open nature of contribution scammers have also taken the opportunity capitalizing on local listings for beneficial purposes. Scammers charge business owners for free services and even impersonate as real businesses to defraud customers and secure leads.
Although the number of fake business profiles is low on the platform, scammers have been on the look too by changing their techniques every time Google cracks on them.
Latest data from Google indicates that the company too down over 3 million fake business profiles in 2018 among which “more than 90 percent” were removed before anyone could even see them. Users flagged over 250,000 of these profiles as fake while Google’s internal systems helped in detecting over 85% of these profiles.
But this time, Google is investing more to fight the issue. The company has created a dedicated team that will address these issues and constantly take action to remove business listings which violate ‘their’ terms. People can also report businesses for a review using the Business Redressal Complaint Form here.
If you have a business and want to claim your business profile, visit Google’s blog here for a step to step guide.
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