Since December 2023, I have been battling Pestway’s lead-generation map spam in and around Detroit, Michigan. I have identified 166 Google Business Profiles (GBPs) linked to Pestway. Google has suspended and removed 139 GBPs. 18 GBPs have been marked as permanently closed. Somebody has been reopening a few of them this past week. There are …

I recieved an anonymous tip to investigate Circulo de Amigos Child Care Center’s Google reviews. The first thing I noticed is that the name violates Google’s TOS for naming guidelines. They listed the name as: Circulo de Amigos Child Care Center(Montessori inspired, Multicultural Nature Based learning center). This violates the TOS. I discovered several people …

For this project, I looked at 5,734 Google Business Profiles (GBPs) across 35 categories. 31 categories are in the home service industries. The other four categories are known for spam and abuse. 58 GBPs were suspended before I could map out their GBPs. I looked at GBPs in and around Toronto, Ontario. Some of the …