Google sues scammer and deletes 10,000 GBPs

[keyserholiday]

Google announced that they are suing a spammer and his co-conspirators.

"From early in 2023 until last May, Mr. Asayag altered listings for 149 businesses at least 1,034 times. Most of the businesses were in the District of Columbia area, although some were in other parts of the U.S. as well as in Turkey, Google claims."

While this is nice, it's a drop in the bucket, and Google needs to do more. I have redressals for lead generation businesses that have not been actioned. These people make it harder for the people playing by the rules. Reinstatements are taking four to six weeks. People are struggling to get new listings verified as there is a ban on new locksmith GBPs from being created, and people are immediately getting suspended.

 

[Tim Colling]

While this is nice, it's a drop in the bucket, and Google needs to do more.

Amen to that. I speculate that Google simply doesn't want to provide adequate support for the Google Business Profile ecosphere because it is not monetized (at least, not directly). The worse they make the Google Business Profile owner experience, the more they motivate owners to give up and spend $$$$$ on PPC ads, too. Just a coincidence, of course.

 

[fisicx]

Maybe charge for creating a profile.

And there is no needs to spend money on adverts. A really good local website is easy to rank and don't forget there are loads of alternate ways to market a business.

 

[keyserholiday]

Maybe charge for creating a profile.

And there is no needs to spend money on adverts. A really good local website is easy to rank and don't forget there are loads of alternate ways to market a business.

I suggest this years ago, but again you have to put a team in place to monitor this, spammers could still skirt the rules, and paid ads makes more money than a time fee.