June 20, 2019

Scammers Are Ruining Google Maps

These are probably all legit businesses. But how can you know for sure?Google Maps

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In the latest version of how everything good eventually gets ruined, the Wall Street Journal reports that Google Maps has been widely hijacked:

Google’s ubiquitous internet platform shapes what’s real and what isn’t for more than 2 billion monthly users. Yet Google Maps, triggered by such Google queries as the one Ms. Carter made, is overrun with millions of false business addresses and fake names, according to advertisers, search experts and current and former Google employees. The ruse lures the unsuspecting to what appear to be Google-suggested local businesses, a costly and dangerous deception.

Back when Google Maps was a good way to navigate around town but not much else, it was pretty accurate. But then millions of people started using it to locate businesses too, and that made it a target for scammers. It’s an example of what I was talking about yesterday: motivations change when something becomes popular enough to matter. If there’s no money to be made, everything is great. But as soon as there’s the chance of real money at stake, the scammers start to swarm.

There are ways to fight this kind of thing, of course, but it’s a neverending battle and it’s the reason that the results of starting up a new program of any kind are difficult to predict. Sure, the initial result might be positive (reducing poverty, making online maps more convenient) but what happens when the new program is no longer new, but simply an expected part of life? Then calculations change. And change again. And again. Real life is always a dynamic process, not a static one.

UPDATE: A reader emails to tell a different story about Google Maps:

I was a victim of a different version of this scam. Around Christmas last year someone filed an automated report that my house’s location was inaccurate and dropped a pin for my house over an abandoned house in my neighborhood.

UPS delivers to the Google maps address and a large portion of my online holiday shopping was delivered to the wrong address. (USPS went to the right place and one of the drivers did not deliver to the abandoned house.) I was not harmed by this as Amazon resent everything, but it was annoying and we all pay higher Amazon prices now because of this.

With the fake business scam, at least you can protect yourself once you know about it. You just have to treat Google Maps more cautiously. But if someone screws with your house location, there’s no way for you to know it unless you just happen to be poking around and notice that your address is wrong.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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