Report: Google Local Service Ads Reviews Being Hijacked

Dec 4, 2023 - 7:41 am 1 by
Filed Under Google Maps

Google Robot Wall Tied

There are some reports of the reviews left on some Google Local Service Ads that say those reviews are being hijacked. In a sense, the reviews are being taken from one local listing and placed on another.

Mike Blumenthal shared these details on Near Media and on X. He showed how this local business get 9,304 reviews:

Google Lsa Review Hijack

But it really hijacked them or "borrowed" them from here:

Google Lsa Review Hijack2

He wrote, "Fl Affordable Air Duct Cleaning and Dryer Vent Cleaning of Miami appears to have over 2300 reviews. It is, however, deception. They have managed to hijack the review corpus of a totally different local profile, the Percy Warner Park in Nashville, TN. When you call the number in the ad, and ask you are told that you are speaking with Marketing 770. Obviously not sure where the call is originating."

Here is another:

Super interesting to see this being uncovered. It makes you wonder if this is being done to manipulate Google or is this some sort of weird bug or something else?

Update: Google is investigating the issue:

Forum discussion at X.

 

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