A large network of fake Google Maps comments/reviews and fake businesses

95% of the 100+ comments on this business are fake, presumably from a comment/review farm that was paid by the business owner (though I don't know that).

The same commenters - some of which Google Maps describes as "Local Guides" - also have commented on dozens or hundreds of businesses that don't exist at all.

The fake business entries are basically using Google Maps place locations for SEO and presumably, referral lead gen. Create dozens of business places with random addresses throughout a metro area, name them after a service that someone might enter ("Heating repair"), and list a Web site or phone number. Wait for less-savvy consumers search or stumble across them and call.

Among the dozens or hundreds of fake Google Maps businesses that this network has touched, here's two:

"Top Grade Rolling Firm": https://www.google.com/maps/place/Top+Grade+Rolling+Firm/@38...

Some of the fake reviews for nonexistent businesses even include photos:

"Santiago Appliance Repair Service": https://www.google.com/maps/place/Santiago+Appliance+Repair+...

That address is actually a random suburban house, not an appliance store.

Some of the fake businesses have gone undetected for years, and in that time, have collected a few real reviews from people who called and didn't receive the service. Here's one from "Heating Cooling Repair Services": https://www.google.com/maps/place/Heating+%26+Cooling+Repair... :

> If i could give them zero stars i would, don't waste your time.. I scheduled an appointment to fix my broken AC unit and was pleasantly surprised at getting an appointment the same week. I took off early from work to ensure I was home before the scheduled time. Nobody ever showed up, nobody called, and I called their number multiple times to see if maybe something came up and they never answered their phone.

Here's a Web site for one of these networks of fake businesses: https://nationalacservices.com/ . In that case, each fake Google Maps business links to a subdomain, like: https://lake-forest-park.nationalacservices.com/ .

Another: https://santiagoappliancerepairservice.us/

The fake Google Maps reviews are as generic as you'd expect. For example:

> I have been a patient at this medical laboratory for several years and have always had a great experience. The staff is friendly and efficient, and the facility is clean and well-maintained. I appreciate the quick turnaround time for test results and the ability to easily access them online. Overall, I have always received top-notch care at this facility.

The comments come from hundreds of Google accounts like these: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/102638895982367652158/re... https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/111709777137583909632/re...

Google Maps doesn't have a way to report an entire account as a bot; one can only flag a specific comment. There's also no way to provide enough information for Google Maps' trust & safety team to understand what's happening and figure out how they're evading Google's bot detection. So, it continues unabated.

1. My guess is the same as yours - it’s to avoid suspicion. And maybe creating new accounts is easy enough that there’s no reason to over-use one account.

2. Yes, I imagine this is either to avoid suspicion or because the person writing/pasting this comment wasn’t paying attention and chose the wrong rating. Even fake reviews will have an error rate above 0 :-)

3. I was curious about that too. Another possibility is that the service really does suck, that’s reflected in the old negative comments, and eventually these businesses resorted to paying for reviews. All guesses though.

My time to shine as someone who's pretty deep in this game.

There's an enormous and growing market of fake GBPs for the purpose of selling leads called Local SEO Lead Gen. (each entity can bring in thousands of dollars/month.)

The thinking is why go through the headache of dealing with clients who can fire you the day after they begin ranking (Local SEO is heavily "front loaded" work wise), will always try undercutting you on price, etc, when you can CREATE YOUR OWN entity, get that ranked and then SELL the leads to that plumber. You're the one with 100% control and if the plumber isn't happy, there's a dozen others who'll gladly take those leads.

Advanced lead gen owners use software such as MultiLogin along with mobile proxy farms to have hundreds of separate Chrome "entities" saved, all using different proxies, their own cookies, etc. This along with an infinite amount of other tools for call tracking, CTR manipulation, etc.

Mobile proxies have really changed the game, giving these lead gen folks an advantage. Because of the nature of mobile proxies (where multiple people can "share an IP address"), it's more difficult to detect. Since EACH GBP entity can bring in thousands/month, it's miniscule in terms of cost.

Reviews? Laughably easy to purchase and outsource, starting around $5/review. Combine this with fake Dalle images to attach to the review and/or GBP itself, and things can only get worse from here.

Google has actually begun VIDEO verification where you literally have to facetime with a Google employee to verify you own the business you say you own... even this can be gamed since any type of manual verification will be outsourced.

Oh and the real masters of this business model? Well they don't bother SELLING the leads to contractors, they will quite literally start their own company and will hire their own plumbers, electricians, concrete crews, etc to squeeze as much profit as possible.

I've seen random businesses listed appearing as a house in neighborhoods around the city before, but I always attributed them to a sole-proprietor type of business where they've listed their home address as their business address. I always thought it an odd decision, but could shrug it off as some people just are not as savvy about the implications of making those kinds of decisions.

But having it be the results of a bot farm makes sense too

I remember this being especially bad for certain niches like locksmiths. In that space, someone would create fake businesses and then take the leads they got via phone, email, websites, etc, and then refer the business to some actual locksmith. With probably heavy mark-up to cover the referral fee.