Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
- Google is suing a man it says was part of a scam network creating fake businesses on Google Maps.
- The network allegedly collected and sold the personal data of users who contacted those businesses.
- It’s an example of a ‘lead generation” scam, according to the lawsuit.
Google is suing a Maryland man it says made fake business listings on Google Maps.
The lawsuit alleges that Yaniv Asayag, working with up to 20 co-conspirators, then sold the personal information of users who contacted those phony businesses.
Google’s complaint, filed this week in California federal court, says the group “engaged in an ongoing pattern of fraudulent conduct” by creating and modifying business listings on Google Maps and Google Search.
Google General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado told Business Insider that Google does not allow fake business listings on Google Maps and uses a “range of tools to protect businesses and users.”
“Today’s litigation builds on our efforts and sends a clear message that impersonation schemes will not be tolerated,” Prado told BI.
The lawsuit says that Asayag and his associates created listings for service-oriented businesses that provide an immediate need, like HVAC cleaners, towing companies, or locksmiths. They would then “lure in unsuspecting consumers” to the fake business pages, which they bolstered with fake reviews, Google alleged.
They collected the personal information from consumers who contacted the fake businesses and sold it to marketers at real companies, the lawsuit says.
That strategy is sometimes known as “lead generation,” which can also be a legitimate marketing tactic when those leads are based on real data.
In one high-profile example, a judge sentenced Jen Shah, a former star of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” to more than six years in prison in 2023 after police charged her with wire fraud in connection to a telemarketing scheme where she generated and sold “lead lists” of innocent people to other scammers.
In the Google lawsuit, one fake business listing the company identified was named “ByDennis Cleaner,” which was changed to “MS Locksmith” one month after it was created. Google said that over the course of about a year, the network edited listings for almost 150 businesses more than 1,000 times.
The alleged scammers sometimes sold users’ personal information to real businesses that had a history of predatory behavior, like overcharging or extortion, according to Google’s complaint. The lawsuit says that “abuse” among locksmith businesses due to lead generation scams is “well documented.”
The FTC says the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to check the URL for a business you want to contact. The agency recommends searching the URL, as well as the business name, with “reviews” or “complaints” to see if anyone has warned about the listing.
There is no attorney listed yet for Asayag on the public court docket. Asayag declined to comment when reached by Business Insider on Friday.