Google Maps Scam: Scammers may be using Google Maps to trick people, here’s how – Times of India

Google’s Maps service not only shows users the way to their destination but also recommends other helpful options. These options include restaurants, shops, entertainment and hotels in the locality. Apart from this, Google Mapsalso offers contact details of these business listings. Now, a Twitter user named Shmuli Evers have reported (spotted by Android Police) that scammers are using these contact listings on Google Maps to trap users.The tweet shared by Evers claims that scammers are replacing the legitimate hotline numbers on Google Maps with their own phone numbers.
How was the scam discovered
Evers’ Delta Airlines flight was cancelled. When he couldn’t connect to the customer service number, he tried the airlines’ hotline number available on Google Maps. Evers explained that his flight was canceled and he needed a new flight. After that, his call got disconnected and the alleged scammer called him from a French number while the Caller ID showed no relations to Delta Airlines.
The scammer identified themselves as an airline representative and Evers gave his name and the confirmation number of his new flight. The scammer then directed him to send the confirmation number of the new flight to another number via SMS and also asked to pay for the new flight reservations. Evers got alerted that he was being trapped in a scam and hung up the phone. On doing so, he was bombarded with texts that asked him to pay five times the price of his original ticket to re-book.
Later on, Evers discovered that the first hotline number on Google Maps was connected to Delta’s local help desk at John F. Kennedy Airport. He also discovered that the hotline number avialabe on Google Maps for American Airlines was also wrong. However, both the numbers have now been corrected.

Fake business on Google Maps
Several information about different business, like hours of operation and hotline numbers found in Google Maps are crowdsourced. This is enabling multiple fake businesses to appear on the platform. Rumours suggest that some scammers are also calling small businesses and asking to pay up for an “unpaid bill”. These tricksters are imitating to be from Google and also threatening these businesses about removing their Google Maps listing if they don’t pay.

Google can stop crowdsourcing information and allow only legitimate businesses to provide information for Maps. However, many businesses don’t want to provide Google with this data. This would lead to Maps losing the ability to offer information about many businesses. This is why Google continues to receive crowdsourced data.