GMB Listings Suspended and Gmail Account Suspended

[bhartzer]

Have a clients who got an email (to one of their recovery emails) that their Gmail account was suspended for sending spam. They really only use that account for GMB verifications and notices, so it was kind of odd.

We were able to recover the gmail account, and upon an account security review I was able to see that someone logged into the account from the Philippines yesterday. So most likely that's why the gmail account was suspended. Don't see any spam in the sent folder, so not sure why it was suspended.

Anyhow, it looks like the GMB listings were most likely suspended at around the same time. They've been posting regularly on the posts, and get lots of traffic--they have two listings for two different offices in two different cities. Both locations are suspended.

Is it 'normal' for GMB listings that are suspended to also get their Google accounts suspended as well? Seems rather odd to me that both GMB listings were suspended and the gmail account was suspended for sending spam, all at the same time.

We were able to get the gmail account back, set up 2 factor authentication, and have appealed the GMB listing suspensions.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Curious to hear the reasoning for the suspensions and if you're able to get reinstated.

Also, there's a lot of crazy stuff happening with GMB these days. Support is getting more and more bold in their poor decision making. And, in my opinion, they are also becoming increasingly more hostile to small businesses as well. Lots of rogue suspensions. Also, they're now fake calling people to "order" something to see if you're a legitimate local business. They seem a little out of control at the moment.

I'm curious to see if this is another instance of a fringe suspension for next to nothing wrong.

 

[bhartzer]

Talking with the business owner, it appears that they hired a third party "marketing company" to handle their online marketing. Apparently a company that ONLY does online marketing in their industry.

When they got suspended, they came (back) to me, as this was a former client. In reviewing the account, it appears that someone from the Philippines logged into the account, they are in the USA and supposedly this third party vendor is also US-based.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Talking with the business owner, it appears that they hired a third party "marketing company" to handle their online marketing. Apparently a company that ONLY does online marketing in their industry.

When they got suspended, they came (back) to me, as this was a former client. In reviewing the account, it appears that someone from the Philippines logged into the account, they are in the USA and supposedly this third party vendor is also US-based.

That sounds like it might be why the gmail was suspended.

Why was the GMB page suspended?

 

[bhartzer]

We have no idea why the GMB page was suspended. Trying to figure that out.

 

[BenFisher]

This is fairly common actually. If the Primary Owners Google Account is suspended then the GMB listing will become suspended. This is why as an agency you never want to be the primary owner of all your GMB listings, just an Owner or Manager.

In this case, you need to remove the suspended Google Account from the GMB listing and then request a reinstatement request or head to social and request a reinstatement.