Google Maps yanks over 10,000 fake business listings - how to spot the scam

ZDNET As a Google Maps user, I tend to assume that the listings I find in a search are real and legitimate. But that assumption could get me in trouble. Google recently discovered more than 10,000 phony listings in Google Maps, CBS News reported on Wednesday. The listings ran the gamut from blatantly fake businesses to legitimate accounts that had been hacked or hijacked by cybercriminals. In response, Google removed the listings and has filed a lawsuit against the alleged scammers behind them. The old bait-and-switch tactic In an interview with CBS Mornings, Google General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado explained how one complaint uncovered a much wider plot. The probe started after a Texas business complained to Google that an unlicensed locksmith was impersonating them on Google Maps. In this hacked listing, the scammers replaced the existing phone number with a number of their own. Any person calling the new number would have been directed to a different locksmith who might hav ... Read full article.