We’ve been hearing from a lot of our clients lately who say they are getting repeated, irritating calls from people claiming to represent Google. Most of these calls start with a recorded voice asking you to press a number to update your listing or “verify your business.” Some of you have been getting as many as 10 of these phone calls each day!
People are understandably angry about this – after all, nobody likes having their time wasted. However, despite what these people claim, they have nothing to do with Google. They’re scammers trying to sell you things, and they’re using Google’s name to try to appear more legitimate.
How to beat these "Google" scammers
Google doesn't really beg people for business.
Google doesn’t actually make telemarketing calls. They’re one of the biggest companies in the tech world – they know they can just sit around and wait for people to bring them their money. The telemarketing calls we’re all receiving are from scammers, illegally using Google’s name to try to deceive people.
Google is naturally annoyed that these crooks are damaging their reputation, and are doing what they can to inform people how to deal with them. They added a page to the Google My Business Help section to help people tell the scammers and real communications from Google apart.
Google does not:
- - charge for inclusion in Google My Business or in Google Search.
- - offer to improve your search ranking or manage your business’s online profile.
- - ask you for your password or verification code. You should never provide sensitive information about your account (like your password and verification code) to a caller.
If you receive a robocall—a call placed with a recorded voice—for any of the above reasons, it is not from Google.
Let Google know if you’ve been harassed
Google is doing their best to crack down on these scammers, but it’s difficult to track them down. They have written a guide for what people should do if they are targeted by these scammers and have asked people who have received these calls to report them so that Google can take action against them. They are currently in the process of suing one of these companies, but there are an unknown number of other companies running the same scam.
The only good way to get these robocalling companies to stop harassing everyone is for Google to sue them to shut them down, and the only way for Google to track down these scammers is by having people report them. So if you’re being harassed by robocalling scammers who are making your life miserable, make sure you report them to Google. And in the meantime, don't believe someone if they say they're calling from Google or that they work with Google and want you to pay for something. If you give these people your money, you're just going to end up with an emptier bank account and a lot of headaches.
We get about 8 calls a week telling us “this is your last chance, you must update now” and I never know for sure. I wish you could do something about it!!!
Rich Nero