A lot of Unknown Users Requesting GMB Access

[Theo1313]

Has anyone else been getting a lot of unknown people requesting access to their GMB? In the past two days, we have received over 5 random accounts trying to get access to our GMB. I searched these forums and could not find anything. It just seems strange to have received so many requests out of nowhere. I thought something might be up.

Thanks,
Teddy

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Is this your listing? Or a client's? If it's a client's listing, then I would say there may be another marketing agency involved that you don't know about. If it's yours, then maybe a competitor? I don't know... I've not seen this myself.

 

[Theo1313]

Thanks for the reply!

I am the in-house marketing director for a home service company. No one should be requesting access. It just seems really strange that all of a sudden, after years, I get multiple requests over a couple of days. So I figured I would ask here to see if it is a widespread thing or something.

 

[hajnasiewicz]

Thanks for the reply!

I am the in-house marketing director for a home service company. No one should be requesting access. It just seems really strange that all of a sudden, after years, I get multiple requests over a couple of days. So I figured I would ask here to see if it is a widespread thing or something.

I saw similar reports over at the GMB Help Community. I'm sorry I do not know the cause or solution, just sharing an observation.

 

[LaurenHoward]

Has anyone else been getting a lot of unknown people requesting access to their GMB? In the past two days, we have received over 5 random accounts trying to get access to our GMB. I searched these forums and could not find anything. It just seems strange to have received so many requests out of nowhere. I thought something might be up.

Thanks,
Teddy

Yes we've been experiencing this too! We are getting a lot of random users requesting ownership and the business owners have no idea who they are. Some users are requesting access to multiple clients of ours that are separate, unrelated businesses as well. I even tried emailing one asking why they were requesting access to different businesses but no response.

 

[hajnasiewicz]

Received the following email message last night. This person is unknown in our (very large) organization and is not a vendor/partner. Note the message clearly states this person is Now A Site Manager. No option to decline. This person is not shown as a user in our GMB account for this location.

help....

 

[Nicole Basham]

Has anyone else been getting a lot of unknown people requesting access to their GMB? In the past two days, we have received over 5 random accounts trying to get access to our GMB. I searched these forums and could not find anything. It just seems strange to have received so many requests out of nowhere. I thought something might be up.

Thanks,
Teddy

Yes! We have had 5 requests for our agency listing and 2 requests for a client listing, all which started July 20th. I can't imagine how this is a good tactic for the random person requesting. It would seem like a real pain if another person got ownership because someone failed to reject the request.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Someone can't get ownership unless they are able to complete verification or you click the button to authorize them. So unless these people have access to your client's phones or mail, I wouldn't worry about it at all. I have seen a huge rise in the number of complaints about this and have passed it along to Google but I'm not sure they have a way to stop it. It's kind of like email spam - just an annoying thing we'll likely have to deal with. Simply delete the emails when you get them and you should be fine.

 

[DanielTexasLira]

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to share my experience as to why this may be happening.

I've received ownership from various verified accounts that were either a location that was acquired from the client or just a verified spam account. On these occasions, the business owners from these acquired locations didn't have the credentials for their GMB accounts to grant us access or make the necessary changes, like closing the old business.

No action was taken from the account owners for those other businesses, I just needed to wait for 3-7 days after I requested ownership and Google went ahead and granted me access. Here's the steps that I took from Google: Request ownership of a Business Profile - Google My Business Help

My assumption is that these could be real attempts to get a hold of your GMB accounts with hopes of you not responding to these requests within 3-7 days.

Moreover, I recently acquired a verified GMB spam account and it literally took me one day to acquire it. So, that was a bit concerning.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Moreover, I recently acquired a verified GMB spam account and it literally took me one day to acquire it. So, that was a bit concerning.

What do you mean by acquiring a spam account? Like why would you want access to a spam account?

 

[DanielTexasLira]

What do you mean by acquiring a spam account? Like why would you want access to a spam account?

The main reason I acquired it was because it was conflicting with a client's current location in Google Maps. Essentially, the spam account placed the pin right on top of the client's current location.

The client was not very please with that and requested if there was a way to remove it. I realized the quickest way to solve the issue was to gain access to it, change it to a SAB, and then permanently close it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Actually having it as permanently closed could be a bad idea. I'd strongly suggest you get it out of your account (so your account doesn't get suspended) and report it via the Redressal Form for removal.

 

[DanielTexasLira]

Actually having it as permanently closed could be a bad idea. I'd strongly suggest you get it out of your account (so your account doesn't get suspended) and report it via the Redressal Form for removal.

Yeah, I used a dummy account to access the account and removed it right after I made the changes.

I'll definitely report it using the Redressal Form to get it fully removed.