Spammers Hijack Top Florist Google Local Listings

On Friday morning an alert San Diego FlowerChat member noticed that two of the Google Local Ten Pack listings for his city had abruptly changed.  Instead of displaying the names and details of the real shops, Che Bella and Rosita’s Flower Shop, the listings sported ‘Convenient Flowers’ and ‘Amazing Flowers’ and the links pointed to URLs which then redirected (via affiliate links) to national floral affiliate reseller companies.

The hijacks were reported in Google’s Maps Group Spam Report thread.

Mike Blumenthal, of Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search spotted the posts and then gave me a ‘heads up’ on how the spammers did it:

1) They could only change unclaimed listings and did so via the ‘Edit’ links.

2) Some time in late August, under a variety of different user identities, the affiliate(s) began changing the names, addresses, phone numbers and URLs - and in some cases, adding user reviews which included the “new” business names. (The timeline and changes can be viewed on each listing via Google Maps by clicking on the company name, selecting ‘Edit’ in the pop-up balloon, and then clicking ‘View History’.)

The positions at or near the top of local search as well as the now stolen user reviews were preserved – but all of the traffic was directed to the affiliate links.  Florists weren’t alerted by phone because most of the listed numbers had been changed.

The florists with whom I spoke did not realize their listings had been hijacked until the information had populated into Universal Search and was seen on the main Google search page.

One shop owner who tried to reclaim her listing was unable to get anywhere because she couldn’t validate by phone nor receive a postcard - since both the phone number and address had been changed.

The good news is that in some cases, by simply re-editing a listing and reverting the details back to the original information, the correct store details can be restored. (Although it will take time for the data to re-populate to the Ten Pack.)

But that hasn’t worked for everyone.  Michael of Church Street Flowers was able to restore his domain name, but is still stuck with a bad phone number and the affiliate’s phony business name. He started the process of claiming his listing Friday afternoon so there may be a lock on the data at the moment.  Four ‘users reviews’ for the phony florist were also added to his page, and that may complicate the name change as well.

My advice to anyone who got hijacked is to change back the data in the exact reverse order in which it was first changed. If it was modified over 3 or 4 steps, try doing the same in reverse. Once corrected, claim the listing immediately.

For more information about claiming local search listings read the Florist SEO Blog.  Do it now or you business could be the next victim. 

Since all these changes were made by hand, and not some bulk upload, finding and reverting them will be a tedious challenge. I’m hoping the Maps team will take a look at the user IDs and activity and give these florists any help they can.

Needless to say, Google’s method of allowing users to change legitimate company data is seriously flawed, but I ultimately hold the floral companies who offer incentives for this behavior - the resellers and the floral wire services – responsible. Their lack of enforcing their own Terms of Service makes all legitimate local florists prey, not partners.

Oddly enough, it was an affiliate of a 1-800-Flowers affiliate reseller that hijacked one of 1-800-Flowers' top franchisees, Veldkamp’s. Maybe this latest episode in deceptive wire service affiliates will finally be a wake-up call.