Having a Google business profile can provide your company with a wide range of benefits. It allows you to engage with your customers, gain important insights into your clients, and build trust. However, your profile may be susceptible to scammers that want to take control of it. When this occurs, a scammer can take over your provide, change key information, and lock you out of making corrections. Here is what to know about these scams and how you can protect yourself.
How the Scams Work
The scam itself can seem innocuous at first: you receive an e-mail requesting login information to access your listing. The e-mail will usually come from a Google email address (for example, google-my-business-noreply@google.com). But, this is due to Google providing an option to request access to any listing whether it’s already claimed by a business owner or not. This can be especially frustrating for those companies which have a Google profile as their only online presence. If you don’t also have a website or social media account, being locked out from your Google page can leave you without an access point online.
What You Can Do
When you receive a message requesting access from someone you don’t know, your first thought is to simply delete the email. However, there is a loophole within Google where if the request is ignored long enough, the site can approve the request giving the sender access to your page. The first step you should take is to determine if the email is legitimate or a phishing attempt. If it’s fake, you can easily report it to Google to handle. For an actual request, click the “review request” button, select to reject the request, and submit. There are proactive steps you can take as well to secure your account. These include verifying your information on your profile is constantly up to date, tracking the e-mail used in connection with the profile, and setting up 2-step verification with your Google account.
Let Precision Help
Securing your Google business profile is key to maintaining a successful online marketing strategy. At Precision Creative, we have the tools to keep your online profile safe and secure and prevent potential scammers from gaining access to your listing. Call or e-mail us today to learn more about how we can help your business.