Scam or Real? — CIOReview
Google Business Listing Calls: Scam or Real?
This article demystifies the current Google My Business call scams so you can protect your business and continue growing online.
Yes, there’s a Google Call Scam
In a perfect world, the sole calls you’d receive from your Google My Business listing would be actual customers expressing their interest. Sadly, that’s not the planet we sleep in . If you’re reading this text , likelihood is that you’ve received a call (or multiple calls) from suspicious persons or entities that claim to be working “with” or “for” Google. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, tens of thousands of Google My Business users have received similar scam calls attempting to sell services or request payment for benefits that Google provides for free of charge .
The good news is, you’ve come to the proper place. during this article, we’re getting to debunk the claims of the present Google My Business call scams and assist you identify legitimate listing calls so business can proceed as was common .
What Are REAL Google My Business Listing Calls?
Before we re-evaluate the present Google My Business call scam, let’s take a glance at the few scenarios during which Google will actually offer you a call.
1. Business Listing Phone Verification
Verifying your business on Google are often a pain sometimes . counting on the sort of business you’ve got , it’s going to or might not qualify for Google’s phone verification process. If it does, this is often one among the foremost common reasons Google are going to be contacting your business directly. The verification call can only be initiated together with your consent, meaning you’ll know exactly when to expect it. During the verification call, Google won’t ask you for any personal or business related information. Instead, they’ll simply provide you with a singular code for completing the verification prompt on your screen.
2. Non-Sales Tasks
Another common reason Google could also be calling your business directly is to perform some fact checking as a service to look engine users. These automated calls are strictly performed for non-sales purposes like verifying business hours or reservation availability. It’s also worth noting that these calls are only made to business with a public telephone number . So, if your GMB doesn’t have variety listed, you’ll automatically flag any Google-related task calls as a scam and hang up promptly.
3. Customer Service & Account Support
The last reason Google would be giving your business a call is in response to a customer service or account support-related matter. These calls are most ordinarily made in regard to a Google My Business, Google Ads, or Google Play account that you simply have recently submitted a mistake report or ticket for. During these sorts of calls, you’ll be speaking directly with a Google operator which will identify themselves intrinsically before proceeding for authentification purposes. they’re going to never invite payment information or offer any quite performance guarantee for business listings and Google Ads accounts.
What is the Google My Business Call Scam?
Sadly, there are many shady individuals and “businesses” out there that attempt to scam GMB listing owners with fraudulent calls. Below, we’ve outlined the foremost common Google My Business call scam to seem out for.
“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of Google”
If you’ve received any call that starts with this line or an identical variation, there’s a reasonably good chance you’ve been the target of a GMB scam. Initiated by shady third-party companies, these calls aim to convince Google My Business listing owners to buy services that are either already offered for free of charge , or that don’t exist.
By claiming to be calling on behalf of or maybe from Google, these scam calls are designed to realize the trust of whoever they’ve targeted by simply throwing out Google’s name. Once they need one foot within the door, they’ll typically proceed to supply a lift in search rankings or any number of optimization services for a fee.
The truth of the matter is, many of the services these third-party companies are trying to form money on are already offered to Google My Business listing owners by Google for free of charge .
Threatening to get rid of Your Listing
Another common scam they’ll employ is threatening to get rid of your company’s listing from Google Search and Map results if you don’t buy the renewal fee (which doesn’t exist).
How to Identify Fake Google Calls
Because there are numerous different variations of GMB call scams, you never know what quite tactics are going to be employed subsequent time you’re targeted. That being said, below we’ve outlined a couple of guidelines which will assist you identify any scammer.
1. Google Employee Verification
One of the simplest ways to spot a Google My Business scam call is by asking the caller to verify their identity. Any employee calling from Google are going to be quite happy to supply you with a verification email from an @google.com account. If they struggle to dodge the question or provide the other sort of verification like a false ID number, the decision is presumably a scam.
2. Google Never Asks for private Information
Another telltale sign that you’re handling a scammer is once they invite personal information like your password, verification code, or payment information. Always getting to protect their users, Google will never invite this information no matter the rationale they’re calling. If you hear an invitation for any of this information, it’s a scam.
3. Google won’t plan to Sell Services
As we touched on earlier during this article, Google will never call you attempting to sell services like account management, program boosts, or the removal of bad reviews. Because Google doesn’t contract with any third-party companies, you’ll immediately mark any call that tries to sell you something as a scam.
How to Call the important Google
We’ve got a more extensive article on the various ways to contact Google for your business, but if you’re just trying to find variety to call, try the amount below:
GMB Contact Number: 1–844–491–9665
Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 9am-6pm EST
Keep in mind that you simply may need to wait a touch while before getting someone on the road . albeit Google does an excellent job managing the huge number of contact requests they receive a day , thousands of business owners, a bit like you, are looking to speak to a live person.
Want to speak to a person’s About Google?
If you’re looking to talk to someone with questions on your Google business listing or your Google presence generally , Thrivehive’s got a team of experts who are armed and prepared to assist . Click here to open up a live chat or click below to book a free session.
