Recently, Google published new data on its combating fake content and cybercrime in both Google Search and Google My Business.

In previous posts we talked about Google's fight against the millions of fake businesses posted on its Google Maps platform.

Today we are going to review some of the key points from Google's latest report on how they combat this particular type of cybercrime.

How a cybercriminal acts on Google My Business

For better or worse, anyone with a Google account has the ability to add content (photos, reviews, data corrections, etc.) to Google Maps and My Business very easily.

From Mountain View, the Californian company is proud to present its mapping platform as a a true reflection of the real worldin terms of places and companies.

But, just as in the real world, there are malicious people and haters. They take advantage of the tools at their disposal to try to harm others (competing companies or other people) and often go unpunished for such actions.

How to detect cybercriminals

The battle against users who try to damage the reputation of other companies is relentless. It is the never-ending story of the fight against SPAM and cybercrime at Google.

Through the artificial intelligence it tries to understand the behaviour of both real users and those who are just trying to publish this content (e.g. those who have never visited the company they rate).

Google's example: if a user with a Bangladeshi account leaves a review on a car sales company in Mexico, that review will most likely not be published or will be automatically deleted.

This is good news because on a local scale, if a user from Barcelona, for example, tries to leave a fake review on a company in Malaga, it will be more difficult.

Who are the cybercriminals at Google?

Google Maps' protection teams categorise users who commit these types of attacks and cybercrime into two main groups: Scammers and Vandals.

Fraudsters would be those cybercriminals who are ultimately seeking a economic benefit by publishing fake reviews to blackmail companies, or by directly charging for the publication of these reviews.

Vandals would be those who are motivated by personal or political issues or simply by wanting to attract attention by posting content on the internet. These are more difficult to combat as their content tends to be fairly randomThe company has no fixed patterns and is not looking for a financial return for any other company or person.

For example, during the covid crisis19 there was a surge in anti-Asian racist sentiment (especially against people from China). Many users took the opportunity to post negative reviews of businesses run by people of Chinese nationality or descent. The vast majority of these reviews were successfully removed.

Fighting cybercrime in Google My Business

Over the course of 2021, Google's cybercrime data saw a significant drop compared to 2019. Among other things because due to the pandemic and the quarantine, far fewer people were active on platforms such as Google Maps.

In any case, these are some of the 2021 data that Google shares with us:

• Blocked or deleted around 55 million of fraudulent reviews and nearly 3 million fake accounts.
• Deleted more than 960,000 reviews and some 30,000 fake company profiles on Google Maps.
• Reviewed and deleted about 160 million of photos and some 3.5 million videos that violated Google Maps' policies.

The full article from Google's The Keyword blog can be read in full at here.