Calls Claiming to Be From Google

The call

The phone rings at the counter. A recorded voice says it is calling about your Google listing, which is not verified and is about to be removed. Press one to speak to a specialist.

Or a live caller, friendly and fast, says your business is missing from the first page of Google, and that a partner company can guarantee the top spot for a monthly fee.

Calls like these are common, and they are usually answered by whoever is nearest the phone rather than the owner.

Most are a sales pitch dressed up to sound official. Some are worse, and end with a stranger holding the keys to your listing.

What is actually true

A few plain facts settle most of these calls.

• Google My Business is free. Listing, verifying and keeping a listing cost nothing.
• The unpaid results cannot be bought. Nobody can sell you a position in them.
• Ads are a separate product, labelled as ads and set up through AdWords.
• Verification happens when you request it, usually by a postcard with a code.
• Listings are not removed for failing to take a phone call.

The second is the claim most callers lean on. Where a business appears among the unpaid map listings depends on how relevant, how close and how prominent it is, and nobody, Google included, sells those positions.

Why the calls work

They work because most owners are unsure how the listing works, and the caller sounds certain.

They create urgency: the listing goes today, the offer ends this week. Urgency is there to stop people checking.

They use words that sound official, such as verified, partner and specialist. Plenty of businesses really have never verified their listing, so the warning sounds plausible.

And they reach staff who were asked to look after the phone, not to make decisions about Google. A polite employee presses one to be helpful.

What the callers are after

Some want a monthly fee for search work, sold with promises nobody can keep. That is the mild version.

Some want the login to your Google account. Others ask you to read out a code that has just arrived by text, which can let them verify your listing in their own account.

Some want card details, for a fee to keep a listing that was never at risk.

Once somebody else controls a listing, they can change the phone number, the website link or the hours, and getting it back takes days of back and forth.

Check the listing yourself

The answer to every one of these calls is the same: hang up, then look for yourself.

Sign in to Google My Business with the account that manages the listing. If it shows as verified and the details are right, nothing the caller said applies to you.

If nobody knows which account manages it, find out now, while nothing is wrong. It may be a former employee's address, or the email of whoever built the website years ago.

If nobody at the business can get in, Google has a process for requesting access to a listing someone else has claimed. It takes days, so it is better started calmly than in a hurry.

A worked example

A family-run dry cleaner in a small Interior city took several of these calls a week, mostly answered by whoever was at the front counter.

One afternoon a new employee followed the recording, reached a live caller, and was about to read out the business's card number for a verification fee when the owner walked in.

The owner ended the call, then realised there was an obvious question nobody in the shop could answer: who actually controlled the listing.

It turned out to be the web company that had built the shop's site six years earlier, through an email account nobody at the shop could open.

With that company's help, the listing moved to an account the business holds. A second person was added as a manager, and a note went up beside the phone: we do not discuss our Google listing with callers.

The calls kept coming. They just stopped mattering.

Keep the login in the business's hands

A listing is only as safe as the Google account that controls it.

That account should belong to the business, ideally tied to a business email address rather than one person's private one.

Add a second owner or manager so the listing never depends on one password, and remove anyone who has left.

Turn on 2-Step Verification for the account, so a stolen password is not enough on its own. And never read a code from your phone to someone who called you.

Staff need a script

The person who answers the phone needs a simple instruction, not a lesson in how search works.

Something like: we do not discuss our Google listing by phone; please email the owner. Then end the call politely.

Write it down beside the phone. A rule that exists only in the owner's head does not help the part-time employee on a Saturday.

When the caller really is Google

Now and then a call genuinely does come from Google, usually about an AdWords account you already have or an offer of help setting one up.

Those calls do not threaten a free listing, do not ask for your password, and do not need an answer on the spot.

If in any doubt, end the call and sign in to your own account directly. Anything that genuinely needs your attention will be waiting there.

The counter-case

Not every cold call about search is a scam. Plenty of legitimate firms help businesses with their listings and their search results, and some of them pick up the phone.

The difference is easy to hear. A legitimate firm says who it is, never claims to be Google, never guarantees a position, and does not ask for your login before you have agreed to anything.

And a business whose listing is already checked, owned and protected can treat these calls as background noise.

Hang up on anyone claiming to be Google, and check the listing yourself.

This week

1. Sign in to Google My Business yourself.
2. Confirm which account controls the listing.
3. Check the hours, phone number and website link.
4. Add a second owner or manager you trust.
5. Turn on 2-Step Verification for that account.
6. Write a short script beside the phone.
7. Never read out a code to a caller.

Step two is the one most businesses cannot answer on the spot. Until you know which account controls the listing, you cannot protect it, and a caller who sounds sure has the advantage.

The same check, applied to every other site that lists your business, is covered in reviews on sites you did not know listed you.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.