NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 10th April (61)

Google Maps users should NOT trust EVERYTHING in this app, and this is why

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/790524/Google-Maps-Update-Trust

Summary

We shouldn't be trusting everything that Google maps tell us... New research conducted by Google and researchers at the University of San Diego shows that tens of thousands of fraudulent businesses are being created in the app every month. In a bid to drive web traffic towards their fraudulent schemes. For example, the app may list a locksmith at an address where there are actually no business premises. When a customer calls the listed number they are put through to a centralised call centre system which hires thousands of unaccredited contractors to do jobs all over. According, to the researcher's customers, are often coerced into paying more than the originally quoted prices and can't complain at the store because it doesn't exist.

Key Statistics

• Researchers looked at more than 100,000 listings flagged by the Google maps team as abusive between June 2014 and September 2015.

• The group found that less than 1% of all Google Maps listings were fraudulent. 

• The US was home to more than half of all fraudulent business listings followed by India with 17.5%.

  

Example of a fraudulent listing

My Opinion

I think for many people this a shocking story to hear because we all put so much faith in Google Maps to get us from A to B, while for some others it will just be another story that fuels their reason for being so sceptical of the online world. With regards, to the fraudulent listings, you would think with the likes of the 'street view' function we would be able to see whether the address looks legit however by fraudsters listing themselves next to well-known names like the petrol station example above or within retail parks, many of us are likely to struggle to spot the difference. I think that the moral of this story for many is going to be that unless it has a real store that you can go too to make a purchase do not contact the named listings. While others may consider this to be a simple glitch among many thousands of legit listings.