Understanding Google Maps & Local Search


December 23, 2007

Google Maps being used for Philly fraud update

Category: Google Maps (Google Local) – Mike – 9:00 am

Updated 12/23/07

Google has yet to remove this Mapspam. I have included additional spam details at the end of this post. Does anyone know the economics of having this many phone numbers?

When searching on Philadelphia PA 19125 Locksmith but I found this response of intense interest:

PhillyFraud550.jpg
The reviewer Jack, has been busy tracking these folks down.


Here is the link to the spam that Jack is trying to expose.

One of the things intrigueing about this mapspam is the use of such a large number of different telephone numbers. The total numbers are of interest as well: 1,699 for 0 & 0 24 Hour Locksmith near Philadelphia, PA 19125. That’s a big number for one city.

It’s a surprise that any numbers are left for the rest of Philly.

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5 Comments »

  1. Gosh, that surely looks bad. My guess is that Jack got ripped off big time by these spurious locksmiths, and the multiple addresses are certainly damning. But will people read this as a legitimate bad review, think it’s a competitors’ sabotage, believe it? I wonder.

    Good find, Mike.
    Miriam

    Comment by MiriamEllis (412 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 7:50 pm

  2. One way or the other it sure is a mess. That is for sure.

    Mike

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (794 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 8:21 pm

  3. [...] not always the ones that they should be cracking. They were early into blackhat reviews, one of the dominant sources of bulk upload spam and were first to the party in compromising the records claimed in the Local Business [...]

    Pingback by Google Maps vs Locksmith Spammers: Spammers winning? » Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search — February 25, 2009 @ 8:22 am

  4. [...] Blumenthal has plenty of posts about it and has been a pretty loud voice for some serious quality control in Google Maps. Those posts, [...]

    Pingback by Google Maps Locksmith Spam Creeping into Canada (Toronto) | Stever.ca — April 30, 2009 @ 2:16 pm

  5. [...] 2007: Google Maps being used for Philly fraud update [...]

    Pingback by Google Local business listing spam — July 1, 2009 @ 8:39 pm

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