Live data from Hacker News

Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

blog.abhijittomar.com

171–180 of 196 posts

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you work for Google for no pay? OpenStreetMap always needs work. Help the community.

Honestly for me it boils down to Google maps being just a superior app. It's not even the amount of data in itself(which is a lot already tbh) but just the app being better. I don't think I have seen a decent OSM app yet.

Google Maps is a great app, but the data is sometimes lacking. Open Street Maps is far more accurate at bicycle routes in and around Amsterdam, for example. Google regularly misses optimal routes.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you work for Google for no pay? OpenStreetMap always needs work. Help the community.

It's not quite "pay", but Google have a notion of "points" to reward contributors, who they call local guides: https://support.google.com/local-guides/answer/6225851?hl=en Anecdotally it's mostly credits towards Google's own products, free storage, etc, but also freebies like subscriptions to the NYTimes Crossword, etc -- at least at the lower levels.

I usually get a free movie ticket every month or so.

Everyone keeps thinking it’s like a full time job but really it’s a couple minutes whenever I go to post a review.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#173
post #6

I do a lot of Google Maps moderation and there’s a ton of bad changes being attempted every day. Honestly I’m amazed Google doesn’t bother to vet anyone really. Becoming a local guide is easy and not that difficult for a spam group to create enough fake accounts to get things pushed through. Just last night I caught the local Target that was reclassified as a “prison”. What Google needs to do is lock information for…

Why do you work for Google for no pay? OpenStreetMap always needs work. Help the community.

So point me to where OSM has an official app where I can verify edits with a few taps. Last time I tried to edit OSM there was quite the process and a complex set of rules.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the court says it is... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood https://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335288388/when-did-companies-... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/corpora...

The parent was talking about GDPR, so presumably Europe.

Corporate personhood isn't only an American invention. The German constitution explicitly grants fundamental rights to "artificial persons". The Italian constitution explicitly calls out trade unions as legal persons.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps copies a ton of data from open street map. The other day my oddly specific edit on OSM was on Google maps within 72 hours.

Google doesn't seem to do that in my area (OpenStreetMap is way more accurate and up-to-date). I'd be surprised if they do because of the legal consequences for tainting their database with unlicensed data. Did you set up a follow up test to find out if this wasn't just a chance occurrence? For example, by introducing a feature that exists (some unmapped named side street), but subtly misspelled on purpose.

When I signed up for OSM I checked the box that I consider my contribution to be public domain. I'm sure google checks for that and only imports the public domain changes.

Since my only goal was to get friends to my house instead of some corn field a mile away I accomplished my goals. I can see how someone who makes a lot of contributions would want otherwise, but my goals are different.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you work for Google for no pay? OpenStreetMap always needs work. Help the community.

So point me to where OSM has an official app where I can verify edits with a few taps. Last time I tried to edit OSM there was quite the process and a complex set of rules.

Possibly an effort keep you from scamming people by changing bank contact info?

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#177

If Google is going to have customers remain on their site for search information they have the duty to ensure it is accurate. More and more searches are now given a placard that is either community generated or scraped whether it be maps or the main search. A search that used to feature a link to the bank's "Contact Us" page is now being taken by Google with the link being buried further down between more ads. I get…

Most people want to remain anonymous on the internet or have disposable IDs and profiles. And yet they expect Google to somehow ensure that people are who they say they are. This is a hard problem and it won't be solved as long as people want it both ways.

We expect Google to ensure that businesses are who they say they are.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#179
I work at a major community development charity in Canada with 100+ branches across the country. Almost every day, I have to log into Google My Business to reject the "user-suggested edits" made to a particular location's phone number or street address. Half the time, it seems Google auto-approves these user edits, so we get complaints from clients who used the Google info and showed up when the office was closed.

Almost all the time, people will see the address/number listed on Google's search engine snippet, which is larger, has an image and is much more conspicuous than anything else on the screen. They'll make their plans around that, instead of clicking on the #1 search result, which is our website showing the official hours.

It's incredibly irresponsible for Google to let any Tom Dick and Harry make changes to this type of information, and then display it to the world without posting so much as a disclaimer to users to verify with the actual site.

Re: Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not quite "pay", but Google have a notion of "points" to reward contributors, who they call local guides: https://support.google.com/local-guides/answer/6225851?hl=en Anecdotally it's mostly credits towards Google's own products, free storage, etc, but also freebies like subscriptions to the NYTimes Crossword, etc -- at least at the lower levels.

Am I the only one who thinks that “Local Guides” is a needlessly misleading name? Before I looked up what it meant, I assumed that reviews tagged with “Local Guide” were actually written by locals, when in fact the author may just as well live on the other side of the world.

It prompts you to review/update info on locations that you've been to recently. Although you can do so for other locations as well.
Post reply on HN