An interesting ‘scam’

Why would a garden shed be listed on Google maps as a hotel?

A resident local to me recently posted a curious message on our council area ‘crime prevention’ page (although it’s mostly used for reporting crimes for other residents to be scared about!).

I won’t ‘name names’ of either the person or the region, but I believe it’s still of some interest to our readers.

Here’s what ‘Mary’ wrote:

I just happened to look at Google maps and have discovered my farm shed is now listed as a hotel with a website, email (that doesn’t work) and a phone number (that isn’t connected). There is dummy text padding out the website etc. It is obviously to scam someone. Wondering what I should do with this knowledge. I have reported this to Google with a photo from the front of the shed. Anyone have any suggestions?

Having personally taken ‘ownership’ of a couple of businesses/locations on Google Maps, the author knows that creating this profile is not particularly easy. Once a registration is submitted, there is normally a card mailed to the address to ask the land-holder to confirm the details.

However, more broadly, we are somewhat confused as to the motivation of the person who created this entry. Are they (as ‘Mary’ suggests) attempting a scam? Perhaps it’s simply a prank since the web site contains garbage and neither the email address nor phone number are reachable – hardly a useful way to scam someone into believing that there really is a hotel!

Is there another option? Not that we can think of but readers are encouraged to speculate in the comments if they have other thoughts. We remain curious.

Google is notoriously difficult for journalists to contact, but should we manage it, their response will be added to this piece as a footnote. Further, we have asked ‘Mary’ for the web site address and other detailks for further investigation. More if we have it.