A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and fake businesses

Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by SteveGerencser on Saturday January 21, 2023 @09:24PM (#34473513)

What baffles me is how these networks flourish so easily yet Google can't tell a real business from a fake. The number of people calling me lately (I'm in the same business) about the Business Profile being removed by Google. Even active retail shops that have had their account for many years, with a clearly visibly business on Google maps. Their GBP simply vanishes and in a few cases, the only solution was to simply start over with a new profile.

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by troydavis on Saturday January 21, 2023 @09:32PM (#34473573)

And conversely, I reported some of the newer businesses in Google Maps (Suggest An Edit -> Does Not Exist) and Google rejected my edits. I've got a 15+ year old Google account with past approved Maps edits, these businesses are brand new and have obviously fake reviews, and that still wasn't enough.

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by TylerE on Saturday January 21, 2023 @11:49PM (#34474402)

Can’t tell or doesn’t care?

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by tomcam on Sunday January 22, 2023 @04:08AM (#34475649)

How can they start over with a new profile? It seems to me they would have to either move or get a new business name? I’m not trying to bust your chops. I am genuinely interested in this whole thing.

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by SteveGerencser on Thursday January 26, 2023 @07:55PM (#34541120)

It was actually suggested by someone at the BGP support team. We had a different employee there create the new listing while sitting in the store. It went live with 24 hours, only none of the old reviews, pictures, or reviews were there. So they are starting over on that front.

this makes me think that they felt like some other aspect of that GBP was why they deleted it. But since they won't tell us why, we have no idea. I could guess, but any guess is just that, a guess.

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by miohtama on Sunday January 22, 2023 @04:36AM (#34475773)

Google has more data and more money than anyone on this planet, so they easily could tell fakes apart from real ones if they really wanted. The question is why they do not want to do so ... Will end up another dumb topic to be regulated in the EU in the future.

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Re:A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and ... by trasz3 on Sunday January 22, 2023 @06:08AM (#34476241)

Why would Google care? Their business is making an appearance of providing useful information, not actually providing useful information.

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