Google Maps is widely used for multiple purposes of finding a location, navigation and even looking for some companies listed on the platform. You can get office addresses and their location using Maps but over the years people have edited profiles to change phone numbers and addresses.
Such attempts have made Maps less reliable, but Google is now using AI tech to remove the edited profiles and any fake profiles of a company so that people aren’t duped online. Google Maps says it has removed over a million profiles in the past year, using its expertise in machine learning, which has helped in identifying scammers and fraud profiles listed on the platform.
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It has also blocked more than 100 million edits that were made to target specific Google Business Profiles in 2021. Google says using machine learning, the ability to catch such accounts and fake profiles improved.
It also helped Google remove 7 million fake business profiles, which is a staggering number, to say the least. It mentioned that a small portion of these takedowns was based on actual humans reporting the profile.
Online frauds are a big menace, and scammers find new ways to attack consumers. Google Maps and its popularity has made it an easy target, and by changing phone numbers or addresses of certain brands, these attackers are able to dupe people, making them pay for products online, or even able to capture their payment details somehow.
Google is using its improved AI tech to weed out such culprits, and the results shared in the latest report suggests it is working. But when you consider that 7 million fake business profiles existed on Google Maps, the problem is hardly getting solved anytime soon.
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What the company can do is ensure that future profiles are created with stronger security checks, verifications in place.
Also, it goes without saying that a two-factor authentication of business profiles is paramount, and something that can thwart such mishaps for the consumers.
