On Friday, April 3rd, 2026, somebody posted on Reddit complaining about fraudulent Google Business Profiles (GBPs) in the market. The fraudulent GBPs are targeting air duct cleaning services. There appear to be two networks and a handful of other GBPs violating the TOS. I feel there are two different networks because each uses the same theme for its website, which doesn’t match the other’s. The first network focuses solely on dryer vent services, whereas the second network is linked to GBPs and to websites for roofing, sliding glass doors, and chimney cleaning.
I identified 181 GBPs in the first network. This network is in California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and one in Washington. I have been able to remove 75 GBPs. I have several websites that didn’t link to a GBP. Google removed those GBPs. The second network is much smaller. I found 32 GBPs. I was able to remove 17 GBPs.
While these networks appear to be different, there are similarities. They are using private residences for the addresses. These are service-based businesses. They travel to their client’s home to perform their services. Yet, they show popular times on their profiles. Popular times mean people are visiting the business. Nobody is bringing their dryer or dryer vents to these businesses. The profiles also have several fake reviews.
The above GBP for Evolve Dryer Vent Cleaning Services uses a private residence, yet it has traffic around the clock. The reviews are fake. One user using the name of ohn Carter left a review for a psychic in Brampton, Canada, and for an appliance repair company in Los Angeles, California. There are other fake reviews posted on this profile.
There are services that offer Click-through Rate (CTR) manipulation services. One of those companies is Jumper Media. The CEO, Colton Bollinger, claims that they don’t fake the clicks. He states that they are offering in-game discounts to people to travel to the businesses and leave their driving directions turned on. Jumper Media once offered fake reviews. I am not sure if they still do.
There is a negative review on Jumper Media’s GBP claiming that the person was supposed to receive 100 fake reviews and only received 20. Somebody replied to the review and acknowledged that their vendor dropped the ball. They signed the review as Cotlon, the company’s CEO.
These networks rely on black hat tactics to outrank and perform like legitimate businesses. They sell the leads to anyone willing to pay. Consumers don’t know who is showing up at their door, whether they will be price-gouged, or whether they will receive subpar service. The second network posted the photo of their “owner,” Carlos Montoya.
There appear to be two different Carlos Montoyas. Here is the second Carlos.
Is this a case of not changing the owner’s name or of mistakenly uploading the wrong photo? This image has no matches. I ask this because there is evidence that these websites were edited overseas. There seems to be a lack of oversight and quality control.
One of the profiles I was able to get suspended is live on Google as of this morning. The profile is still showing the address. Did they apply for reinstatement, or were they able to create a new profile again?
Regardless, these websites and GBPs are a plague on the system. They prevent consumers from making an informed decision. The companies that sell black hat CTR manipulation and fake reviews are also to blame. At some point, Google needs to take stronger action and start suing the people behind these networks and the review sellers. Until that time, we will continue to play whack-a-mole.
