Google GOOG -1.97%↓ said last week it was taking down 10,000 phony listings from Google Maps and seeking legal action against entities that created them. According to CBS News, a scam network created false profiles on Google Maps and sold them.
Scammers have been sophisticated in their use of Google Maps. They provide phony reviews, have victims contact a call center who try to sell them fake services and products, and even provide a service at a higher charge. The CBS News report said that it removed or blocked more than 12 million fake business profiles two years ago.
In other Google Maps news, users have been complaining on Reddit that their timeline data has disappeared, according to a The Verge story. Google said it accidently deleted the data—and those not using its cloud backup could not recover any of it, the story said. The Timeline feature on Google Maps tracks users’ location history, allowing them to see where they were on trips and other travel information.
The company, last summer, said they were switching to on-device storage for Google Maps location data. According to The Verge, Google allowed users to keep track of their Maps location history without having it tracked on the parent company’s servers for privacy.
