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Thousands of Fake Google Maps Listings Redirect Users To Fraudulent Sites (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Tens of thousands of fake listings are added to Google Maps each month, redirecting users to fraudulent websites selling phony or overpriced services, or are part of some referral scam. Researchers say that 74% of these abusive listings were for local businesses in the U.S. and India, mainly in pockets around certain local hotspots, especially in large metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Houston, or Los Angeles. In most cases, the scheme was simple. A customer in need of a locksmith or electrician would search Google Maps for a local company. If he navigated to the website of a fake business or called its number, a call center operator posing as the business' representative would send over an unaccredited contractor that would charge much more than regular professionals. If a customer's situation were urgent, the contractor would often charge more than the initial agreed upon price. Researchers said that 40.3% of all the listings for fake companies they found focused on on-call services, such as locksmiths, plumbers, and electricians, and were for customers who were desperate to resolve issues. Further, overall, operators of fake listings managed to hijack 0.5% of Google Maps' outbound traffic for the studied period.
" If he navigated to the website of a fake business or called its number, a call center operator posing as the business' representative would send over an unaccredited contractor that would charge much more than regular professionals."
Locksmith and electrician are licensed professions. So calling for a locksmith, not getting a locksmith, but some schmo who overcharges you is a scam.
I have seen some cases where, say a restaurant was listed at a location that is actually an empty field. So Mr. Google Maps User gets directions and wastes time and gas driving to an empty field. My guess is that such listings are submitted by the competitor of the restaurant or maybe a disgruntled former employee or customer.
I have also seen my submissions to update bogus locations or bad info go unpublished, so for all we know some of the Google Maps community editors are Bad Guys themselves who seek to keep certain listings with bad info for the benefit of their buddies or businesses who pay them to keep things that way.
tl;dr Crowdsourcing works only as long as the crowd is trustworthy.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
Near where I live there's an elevated overpass, with a location almost directly under the overpass. Google maps suggests driving directly off the edge of the overpass to get there. So you know, get there, if you don't mind the 10m drop.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The ingenuity of shitbag scammers never ceases to amaze me. They manage to pollute everything, large or small. How I wish they would all die in a fire.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Sounds great, actually. I'd love to fall victim to this. Pay whoever for whatever work, then contest the charge with my credit card after I find out they're unlicensed and fraudulent. If they try to come back to my property to recover materials or whatever, they're trespassing. If they go to the cops or a court, they get thrown in jail. The actual work they do and parts they use are likely no worse than a typical licensed pro / contractor.
A man using Apple maps walked into a bar, or maybe a hotel, or possibly a church...
So in order to save a few bucks, you think it's a good idea to first let a criminal make off with a copy of your house keys, then give him your credit card info, and finally go through the hassle of trying to stop payment to him. What could possibly go wrong?