Listing Suspended for Suspicious Activity / Quality Issues (But We Didn't Do it)

[Gilad Gafni]

Our listing address was somehow changed from Las Vegas, NV to Miami, FL.

This wasn't done by us, however, was enough to trigger "Suspicious Activity / Quality Issues" and get the listing suspended.

This happens just days after I received a request to manage the business from a person that I do not know (I declined the request).

My question is 2-fold:

1. How do I prevent complete strangers from editing my GMB profile (not just suggesting edits)?
2. What's the turnaround nowadays for GMB reinstatement?

Thanks!

 

[Allie Margeson]

Nikki at Sterling Sky wrote a helpful article about updates to GMB listings.

We've dealt with 2 separate suspensions in the last month and both took less than 48 hours to reinstate. You'll want to have evidence such as your business license or registration with the Nevada Secretary of State to speed things along when you submit the initial reinstatement form.

Is there a specific address your business was moved to? It would show in the suspension notification email as "[Business] at [address], your Business Profile on Google has been suspended..."

I'm curious, because this also happened last night to a business I have access to. The business based in TN shows in the email as "[Business] at 70, Miami, FL 33160."

 

[Gilad Gafni]

Thanks! I completed the reinstatement request last night (right before I posted here). This morning the listing was already back up.

This is strange because "70, Miami, FL 33160" is the same address that our business was switched to.

Last week I received a request from someone to become a manager on this business. It never happened before and may be unrelated but the fact that it was so close to this incident seems odd.

 

[BenFisher]

I heard about one today that was moved to Fl as well, from CA. Law firm

 

[BisnarChase]

I'm curious how this is possible unless you've been hacked. If it's not a "suggest edit" then how could anyone change your details?

 

[Professor M]

If it's not a "suggest edit", it could be an issue with a third party API (perhaps pushed test data by mistake)

 

[KymM]

I'm curious how this is possible unless you've been hacked. If it's not a "suggest edit" then how could anyone change your details?

This sounds more like a strange GMB bug than a hacking or intentional edit, given that several people have seen the address change to Florida. I know a while we had several listings get moved to Kansas as part of a glitch, and this seems similar.

 

[Sherry Bonelli]

Third-party tools attached to your Google accounts can make changes to your listing without your approval and get your listing suspended. It happened to my listing a few months ago