Hacked! Ignoring Local Listing Leaves Door Open for Cybercrime

Posted by effectwebagency under Online Marketing
From http://www.effectwebagency.com 3492 days ago

Is this the first business to be headquartered 3 miles out from the coast? No. Their Google Places listing was simply hijacked. A Washington, DC-area restaurant is also citing a hacked Google maps listing as a major factor in its closure last year after their Google Places listing was modified to wrongly indicate they were closed on the weekend. In fact, they are suing Google as a result. Though their claims may not hold weight in court, Wired Magazine recently wrote, “the premise of the lawsuit—that the Serbian Crown was sabotaged online—isn’t as farfetched as it might seem.”

Local listings are in many ways a boon for small businesses, setting them up is practically free, and it’s an easy way to build visibility and credibility through consumer reviews.

However, since Google Maps is by nature a crowd-sourced project, it also leaves certain doors open for malicious behavior if you are not proactively monitoring your place listing.