Scam on Google Maps directs you to fake businesses

Tens of thousands of fake listings are added to Google Maps each month that scam consumers into employing unaccredited contractors, a new study has found. The search giant, in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, has discovered scammers are a setting up their business location at a specific address, but are listing a fake suite number that the U.S. Postal Service has verified. When a potential victim calls the'contractors' for a service, a fraud representative gives them a cheap price quote - but the contractor coerces them into paying more on site. Google teamed up with the University of California over a year ago to'research the actors behind fake listings'. Google and the university found that the fraudsters would use an existing location and then setup a fake suit number that they would verify with the Postal Service.