Insane New Spamming Tactic on Google Maps

[JoyHawkins]

This is NUTS. I've seen this several times in the last few weeks.

People are noticing that several businesses with completely different addresses are all now showing up pinned at the same location.

I think there is a good chance this is intentional. Why? Because Google filters out businesses at the same location. So if you want your competitors to disappear, just move their pins to the same location, and they will vanish on Google.

I'm gonna send this to Google, but, in the meantime, be on the lookout for the businesses you work for/with.

 

[Pam Weber]

This is NUTS. I've seen this several times in the last few weeks.

People are noticing that several businesses with completely different addresses are all now showing up pinned at the same location.

I think there is a good chance this is intentional. Why? Because Google filters out businesses at the same location. So if you want your competitors to disappear, just move their pins to the same location, and they will vanish on Google.

I'm gonna send this to Google, but, in the meantime, be on the lookout for the businesses you work for/with.

This happened to one of our clients. We were able to get the pin moved back quickly as they had moved it to a completely different city within Florida. Crazy.

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I saw this once with fewer pins. But this is a higher level of spam.

 

[Hec93]

Hi people of good in the SEO!

I am experiencing this issue with one of my clients in the plumbing industry. Even tough we were able to move the pin back to the client´s original location, we keep finding that it gets moved again and again to the same spot the spammers moved it first.
Any suggestion on how we could address this without trigger a re-verification process and/or suspension? (since, as usual, the one who has the most potential to suffer is actually the client)

Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide!!

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'm collecting examples of this - can you DM me the links to the listings so I can send them to Google?

 

[Hec93]

I'm collecting examples of this - can you DM me the links to the listings so I can send them to Google?

Thanks for your quick replay!!.
Unfortunately, I am bound by NDAs so I cannot really share that level of detail, even if is for this good cause. I could expand a little bit more on the overall issue and provide a bit more of context if you would like to know.

 

[JS Girard]

You can share the area where the pin gets moved. There's probably a lot of inexplicable movement there and Joy can pick out examples by herself.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hi Joy! A client of ours who has been having this issue was brought to my attention yesterday.

Their pin keeps getting relocated to a place that is hours away from their address, and when the client tried to move the pin back via the ownership account, their listing was suspended - twice.

Yesterday I was able to move the pin to the correct location as a user, and no suspension happened - but their reviews disappeared.

The reviews are back, but the whole thing is super strange. There are also a ton of other businesses at this incorrect location.

Are you still gathering links to send to Google? If you are, Id be happy to send what I have

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yes! please DM me them.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Thanks Joy, will do! We have two other clients with this issue as well. I will DM the details to you once I have them all organized