Google announced it has filed a lawsuit against "scammers who sought to defraud hundreds of small businesses by impersonating Google through telemarketing calls." You know, the calls from "Google" asking you to claim your business or update your business information. Those calls are most likely, not from Google but from a fake company pretending to be Google to scam you out of money.
Google said that this company also "created websites advertising the purchase of fake reviews, both positive and negative, to manipulate reviews of Business Profiles on Google Search and Maps."
He said some scammers have tried to abuse and profit from the free Google Business Profile tool "through deceptive and predatory practices." Google said in 2021 Google had to stop more than 12 million attempts from bad actors to create fake Business Profiles and nearly 8 million attempts from bad actors to claim Business Profiles that didn't belong to them.
So it filed this lawsuit (PDF) against GVerifier Technologies LLC d/b/a G Verifiers and G Verifier Pro; GVerifier Softech Services LLC d/b/a G Verifiers and G Verifier Pro; Shri Hari GoMarketin LLC d/b/a GHyper, GHyperlocal, and G Verifications; and Infinity GoMarketin LLC d/b/a GHyper, GHyperlocal, and G Verifications. The suit says these defendants allegedly "make false and misleading statements about their identity, products, and supposed affiliation with Plaintiff Google LLC (“Google”) in order to maliciously exact payments and sell fake or worthless services."
Local SEOs are happy about this because they are just tired of working with small businesses that get scammed by these companies.
Good to see Google hitting back against scammers. Small business owners need this help, and more.
— Amy Toman 🍁 [email protected] (@BubblesUp) November 30, 2022
https://t.co/VwdTk4bRiv
Great to hear that Google is suing one of the companies that offers paid reviews and other scams. @google https://t.co/atUEDZg3OS
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) November 30, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
