One of the challenges today for many business owners, including garage door repair and service providers, is competing with fraudulent businesses (spam) on online search engines. Google, Bing and other search engines are a useful tool which allows consumers to find service providers quickly. However, when spam is allowed to proliferate on these search engines’ platforms, legitimate businesses struggle and consumers constantly fall victim to fraudulent companies.

What Is Spam?

Many consumers are familiar with the term spam as it relates to junk emails and phone calls. Similarly, spam can be found online and regularly appears in search engine results. In digital advertising, it’s called web spam which refers to any malicious or deceptive technique used to manipulate search engine rankings, increase website traffic and trick users into clicking on links or ads.

Unfortunately, there are many unethical techniques that spammers can use to manipulate search engine results in an effort to push their websites to the top spots of Google and Bing search. Let’s explore some of the real-world web spam practices and their impacts on legitimate garage door repair companies and businesses in general.

The History of Fake Garage Door Repair Listings on Google Maps

Since Google Maps first launched in 2005, spammers have been using black-hat SEO methods to the detriment of many legitimate garage door companies. They mostly game the system by creating fake garage door repair pages and locations on the platform, steering people towards fraudulent companies, call centers and away from established businesses.

The practice is also common in all other segments of the home improvement and home services industry, including plumbing, painting, locksmith, etc. While this technique is against Google’s guidelines, the company is struggling or unwilling to crack down on scammers and eliminate the practice altogether.

Although Google made some changes to their platform, the problem doesn’t get any better. A prolific Google spam that still impacts both consumers and legitimate businesses alike is the locksmith scam, which ultimately is identical to the garage door repair scam. This scam involves several tactics to deceive consumers, including flooding Google, Bing and Apple Maps with fake local listings (virtual locations), but with no physical address or actual local presence.

Users who search for local garage door repair companies and other services will see search results with a local phone number for a supposedly local legitimate company. The information on the scammer’s business page appears to be completely authentic. In reality however, the phone numbers for these fake pages lead to scammers, who then subcontract or sell the user information to a gig worker (often unlicensed and unqualified) that is located in user’s area. There are different techniques that scammers use to attract unwitting customers, including:

• Websites made to look just like a legitimate company’s site.
• Use business names that are similar to an already established business.
• Use phony addresses to trick consumers to think that the company’s located nearby. Learn about phony garage door repair companies.
• Bait and switch pricing tactics, where the advertised price is much lower than what the customer is ultimately charged for the work. Learn about common bait and switch tactics.

Consumers are unfortunately none the wiser because the business’s fake location is right around the corner, the phone number appears to be local, and the prices being advertised are much lower than they should be. Consumers may then receive questionable services and are often being overcharged for both the parts and the services rendered.

So was the case with Island Garage Door. In 2022, the company reported that a scammer is posing as them and overcharging customers. The company’s owner, John Mikitaroff, had said: “I’ve got customers coming in thinking they’re calling us, and when they give the invoice, it’s not us,”. Adding that “we’re getting a bad rap right now for something we’re not even doing.”

John said that customers think they’re hiring his company, but they’re not. He isn’t exactly sure who’s behind it but claimed that the problem starts when customers search for his company on Google, and then find the scammer instead.

This case highlights the immediate threat for legitimate garage door repair companies, which eventually will be forced to close their business, if the problem will not be addressed properly.

Search engines like Google doesn’t make money from free maps listings, and that may be a reason why they don’t eliminate the practice. The company took an aggressive approach to fighting scammers during 2018-2020, but stopped for some reason. Since then, the company is unwilling to remove fake pages and correct false listings swiftly. Perhaps the scope of these scams simply overwhelms Google’s ability to find and remove those listings. Whatever the reasons, the consequences are harmful to both to users and legitimate companies.

There have been several lawsuits brought against scamming locksmiths over the years, with varying degrees of success. In 2014, a locksmith in Northern Virginia sued several search engines, including Google, arguing that search engines “deliberately mislead consumers by publishing false information with prior knowledge that the information is deceptive.”, seeking over $8 million in damages. Citing both state and federal laws that he believes were violated. The plaintiff wanted Google to remove the fake listings from their search results and the lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.

Google Is Failing Since 2005

The real-world consequences for businesses in various industries are all too painful. Some legitimate companies may have to shut down operations completely while others are struggling to thrive.

As reported by The Verge, an estimated 11 million business listings on Google Maps are fraudulent. While this information wasn’t surprising to many local business owners, it did finally expose the scope of the issue to a wider audience. People could finally see and understand how Google’s failings are impacting consumers and businesses. The investigation hopefully opened the public’s eyes to the scale and scope of the problem.

A research done by the Wall Street Journal revealed that 13 out of the top 20 Google search results provided false address and information to the user. It’s a significant number when you consider that consumers are often using the top results to find a company to do business with.

Reporter Katherine Bindley, of the Wall Street Journal, set out to uncover how so many fake listings exist on Google Maps. Her investigation led her to Hanover, PA, where she found a company that was able to place thousands of phony listings daily. She was able to visit the company in Hanover and learned that they also have a staff of people working in the Philippines to make the fake listings for them. The company was charging $99 for a single listing, or $8,599 for a bundle of 100. She reported this specific company to Google and the listings were subsequently removed shortly after.

That just shows that Google can take swift action when they want to. However, should the onus be on the public or legitimate business owners themselves to uncover and report these phony listings? It would seem that a company of their size should have the capabilities to find and remove those listings on their own.

In June of 2019, Google announced that they are taking the concerns of businesses seriously and are taking action to fight scams on Google Maps. The announcement came as the Wall Street Journal investigation was published. This indicates that Google understands the scope of the problem and that the public is concerned. They state that they have taken down over 3 million fake business listings and have disabled over 150,000 accounts engaging in abusive behavior.

The company’s process of constantly reviewing and removing thousands of fake garage door repair pages off the Maps platform is a senseless, inefficient and repetitive process. Instead of identifying the root cause of the problem and implement the necessary changes, the company performs the same tasks over and over again. It is wasteful, time-consuming, and error-prone. That said, even though Google invites users and business owners to report fraudulent accounts and flag suspicious accounts that violate their policies, since 2020, the company appears to be ignoring valid reports and refusing to remove fake Maps pages.

The problem starts with search engines which do not make an effort to verify a business’s address and information through the proper means, including mailing a postcard and confirm the business’s details with the official relevant sources, making it easier on scammers to create fraudulent garage door repair pages on Google, Bing and Apple Maps.

The Consequences of Google’s Fake Garage Door Repair Pages

As reported by Door + Access Systems, a fraudulent garage door repair company called GDS, or Garage Door Services, had more than 1,000 domains which were tied to fake Google Maps listings. They appeared in search results as local and legitimate garage door companies, but sent consumers to a central call center in Texas. The call center would then dispatch the jobs to local gig workers who would perform shoddy work and overcharge for services.

Shortly after, Google took action by rolling out a service called the Google Guaranteed badge of “trust”, which is too swamped with fraudulent businesses, fake reviews and misleading information. This allowed garage door companies to undergo additional screening measures to ensure their legitimacy. This background check had to be performed before the garage door repair businesses could advertise on Google. In November of 2017, Google paid ads service informed companies offering garage door repairs that without verification, their ads would be removed in January 2018. Businesses then needed to complete and pass the verification process in order to continue running ads.

Door + Access Systems claimed that one of the ways which phony garage door repair companies attempt to scam their way through the verification process is by producing fake evidence of their physical location. Apparently, this was one of the methods used by the scammers at GDS, also known as Neighborhood Garage Door Service. The fraudsters were awarded the title of the worst garage door company in the nation.

These scams don’t always impact businesses and consumers only. Sometimes regular people can find themselves caught up in strange scenarios involving scammers, like in the case of Maven Garage Door Repairs. As reported by the Riverfront Times, St Louis resident Missi Ryan was surprised and confused when angry people started knocking on her door. People who claimed that they had paid for garage door repair services showed up at her doorstep seeking a company called Maven Garage Door Repairs. Apparently, the address that was listed on the company’s Google Maps page was in fact Ryan’s address even though she had no connection to the fraudulent garage door repair company.

Ryan believes that Maven Garage Door Repairs simply used her address for their business listing. She reported it to Google numerous times and had friends do the same. Despite the effort, it remained listed on Google Maps under her address. Ryan then turned to the local police, but they were unable to offer much assistance. A local reporter who further investigated the situation had found that when they called the phone number which was listed on the fraudulent garage door repair company’s page, a man named Phil answered who denied scamming customers while changing his story multiple times.

He admitted that they chose to use Missi Ryan’s address because it was centrally located in the town. This, he claimed, allows their garage door repair listing to pop up in Google’s results when people in the area search for the business.

In Feb 13, 2023, a helpless user published a post on the official Google Map’s help forum, claiming that a fraudulent garage door company is using his home address as their business location. The person who reported the company to Google multiple times, also submitted police reports and contacted the FBI but wasn’t able to remove the fake listing. Google not only refused to help remove the fraudulent page, but also ignored the post altogether.

Both cases (and many others) demonstrate how Google isn’t really working to find and implement a proper solution to the problem. The harm done by fraudulent garage door repair listings on Google Maps can have far-reaching consequences. Innocent people find themselves impacted, not just consumers or fellow garage door business owners.

Who’s Behind These Garage Door Repair Scams and Fake Pages?

The aforementioned scams can be perpetrated by individuals or organized groups who use Google, Bing and Apple maps to deceive and defraud unsuspecting victims. These individuals or groups can come from various backgrounds and may be located anywhere in the world, making it difficult to identify them.

These scammers are motivated by financial gain and constantly work to create fraudulent maps listings to deceive and exploit their victims. The scammers include call centers, lead generation companies, fly by night companies that subcontract illegal workers, and companies that use deceptive marketing practices.

Search Engines Are Protected Under the Federal Law

The world has shifted rapidly to an economy that is based on information technology. While industries have been changing and progressing quickly, laws and regulations to protect business owners and consumers still lag behind. Online platforms like Google, which maintains its dominance by paying the competition and spending millions on lobbying, are setting their own standards but unwilling to properly enforce them.

Frustratingly for both legitimate garage door repair companies and the consumer, tech companies such as Google, Bing and other search engines are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the US legal code, which shields them from any legal responsibility. The law says that companies operating online platforms are not legally responsible for the actions of users on the platform. Since search engines like Google cannot be held liable for the actions of scammers, businesses and consumers are left trying to navigate the system on their own.

The Communications Decency Act was signed into law in 1996. This was when the Internet was really starting to take off. Over 20 years later, it still provides legal protection for companies like Google. While Section 230 initially designed to protect free speech, big tech companies are exploiting it to deny responsibility and ignore the FTC rules.

As a result of their failure, Google has faced criticism for its impotent approach to preventing fraud on its Maps platform while monopolizing the search market. Massive garage door repair fraud and fraud in general continue to be carried out while the company enjoys full legal protection. Both businesses and consumers who fall victim to scam services have little recourse until lawmakers decide to take steps to amend Section 230.

In order to stop and prevent the practice altogether, Section 230 must be amended in accordance with the FTC rules regarding advertising and marketing on the internet. Regulators must act to impose heavy monetary penalties and crime punishments for failing search engines and the parties that are responsible for creating fake garage door repair listings on online search platforms, as well as for those who try to benefit from the practice.

Consumers Should Be Prudent When Searching Online

As fraud on Google, Bing and Apple maps search platforms is a growing concern for users, finding reputable garage door repair companies has never been more challenging.

The best way that users can help protect themselves from fraudulent activities that involve garage door repairs, locksmith, or other home improvement services is to research the company that they intend to hire, before hiring them.

Users can verify the company’s credentials and licenses on the relevant official sources. In California for example, you’d want to verify the company’s information on both California Secretary of State and CSLB websites. If the company’s information cannot be found or appears to be incorrect, avoid the company and look elsewhere.