A couple months ago we reported on the topic of Google business verification fraud through the old fashion US postal service.
It is a common thing that scammers do to gain trusted listings in Google Maps through the Google My Business center. In order to verify you are a business, Google either calls your office or mails a postcard with a pin on it. If you don't really have a business, both solutions are hard unless you find someone willing to use your address for your business so that you can get your fake local business verified by Google.
Northeaster Exterminators (a very local business) shared one example of someone using Craigslist to pay someone $50 to use their address for this purpose. He posted a picture of the Craigslist listing on Twitter:
I tracked down the listing here and you can see it live on Craigslist over here.
This is how Google Maps spam starts.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
