{"id":11528,"date":"2022-02-01T12:25:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T11:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zapiplay.com\/?p=11528"},"modified":"2022-03-09T00:37:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T23:37:36","slug":"ciberdelincuencia-en-google-my-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zapiplay.com\/en\/cybercrime-at-google-my-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybercrime in Google My Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, Google published new data on its\u00a0combating fake content and cybercrime<\/strong>\u00a0in both Google Search and Google My Business.<\/p>\n

In previous posts we talked about Google's fight against the millions of fake businesses posted on its Google Maps platform.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

How a cybercriminal acts on Google My Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

From Mountain View, the Californian company is proud to present its mapping platform as a\u00a0a true reflection of the real world<\/strong>in terms of places and companies.<\/p>\n

But, just as in the real world, there are malicious people and\u00a0haters.<\/em>\u00a0They 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.<\/p>\n

How to detect cybercriminals<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Through the\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0it 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).<\/p>\n

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if a user with a Bangladeshi account leaves a review on a car sales company in Mexico, that review will most likely not be published or will be automatically deleted.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Who are the cybercriminals at Google?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google Maps' protection teams categorise users who commit these types of attacks and cybercrime into two main groups: Scammers and Vandals.<\/p>\n

Fraudsters\u00a0<\/strong>would be those cybercriminals who are ultimately seeking a\u00a0economic benefit<\/strong>\u00a0by publishing fake reviews to blackmail companies, or by directly charging for the publication of these reviews.<\/p>\n

Vandals\u00a0<\/strong>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\u00a0fairly random<\/strong>The company has no fixed patterns and is not looking for a financial return for any other company or person.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0during the covid crisis19<\/strong>\u00a0there 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.<\/p>\n

Fighting cybercrime in Google My Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In any case, these are some of the 2021 data that Google shares with us:<\/p>\n