Lately I have been getting telephone calls from Google. Do you get them, too? The numbers they come from are in many different cities but the callers always ask to speak to the business owner (that’s me) so I can claim my business listing and my free web site from Google. But I don’t want a business listing and I don’t need a free web site, I explain. Please take my name off your list. Then they tell me the first of many lies: “We can’t take you off our list.”
Resistance is futile.
Actually the script varies a little and sometimes they say “we won’t take you off,” not “we can’t take you off.” And once when I asked them to stop calling, just as I was hanging-up the phone, the Googler on the other end said, “We’ll talk with you tomorrow.”
Google has always had a reputation for terrible customer service — simply the worst. I concluded long ago it was because Google values algorithms, not people, and certainly not customers. That we’re sentient beings with questions and concerns and real lives and kids doing homework is just an inconvenience to Google. “Just give us the money” is what they mean. But what’s happening lately is Google has become aware of its business mortality and the limits of free sushi and dry cleaning. The company is trying to cut costs and raise revenue and that means — shudder — actually reaching out to real people like me.
And here’s where it goes over the line with me. It’s not their collection agency-like discipline and unwillingness to back down, it’s the really big lie they tell. Here, too, the script varies a little from call to call. Sometimes they say that if I don’t claim my business listing I won’t appear in the first page of Google search results. Sometimes they say that if I do claim my business listing and accept my free web site that I will appear in the first page of Google search results. And lately they sometimes say that if I don’t claim my business listing and accept my free web site then I won’t appear in Google’s search results at all.
Here is the transcript of a recent such message left on my voicemail. If you are reading this on e-mail the transcript is all you get, but if you are actually on my blog page you can listen to the message, itself:
“Need to discuss with the business owner as well. Press one to speak with an agent now and claim your listing. If you do not press one to claim your listing your customers will not be able to find you online. So press one now. If we’ve reached you in error or you’re not the business owner. Press nine now and you’ll be removed from this list.”
Is Google threatening me? That’s what it sounds like to me.
And pressing nine accomplishes nothing at all.
Let me tell you how offensive I find this. I can deal with threats. Bring it on. If I can stare down Microsoft and IBM, Google doesn’t phase me. But this isn’t the usual “we hate what you write about us now do as we say or we’ll bury you” threats I receive. In this threat from Google I don’t even exist for them as a person or a business. I am nothing to them except a potential source of money.
So when I speak to an actual person and they promise to get me on the first page of Google search results I ask the caller, “what specific search terms are we talking about? Are you telling me that if someone does a search on the term “marshmallows” that my name is guaranteed to come up?”
“Do you make marshmallows?” one caller replied.
“Aren’t you supposed to know?” I answered. “For that matter, how do you know I’m not already appearing in the first page of Google search results? You don’t know, do you?”
Of course they don’t know. They know nothing about me.
So Google is harassing millions of us with these phone calls. They are trying to instill fear in us. They are implying knowledge they don’t have and results they can’t deliver. For that matter, the results they say we’ll get absolutely won’t — literally can’t — happen if we all say “yes” at the same time. And even if just a few of us say “yes” it won’t happen, either, because it’s just a lie.
Remember Google’s corporate motto is “don’t be evil.” Well this is evil. Maybe not Saddam Hussein or Idi Amin evil, but it’s evil made worse by the very gleeful way that Google refuses to take “no” for an answer.
So if you work for Google and are reading this understand I don’t care about claiming my business listing, I don’t care where I appear in your search results. I actually prefer readers find me by old fashioned word of mouth. However I am very much offended by the possibly illegal way you are conducting this business.
Are you sure it’s Google calling? It sounds like it’s some boilerroom operation pretending to be Google.
I bet if you “claimed your listing” there would be charges and upsells associated with it.
I’ll just leave this here: https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493?hl=en#telemarketing and quote from the relevant portion:
“Google telemarketing calls
Watch out for parties calling and selling services claiming to have a special relationship with or claiming to be Google. Often, these parties are telemarketers that are not affiliated with Google and are trying to leverage the Google brand to sell your business some type of online service. Keep in the mind the following:
– Google does not place robocalls.
– Google does not call to “update your front page listing” or ask you to “claim your free website.”
– Google does not charge for inclusion in Google Search or Google My Business.
Resources:
If you are continually being contacted by a telemarketer claiming these things and are on the do not call list, you can file a complaint at the National Do Not Call Registry.”
Sounds like the ‘Your car warranty has expired’ robocalls…
they acme of which is that I once got once of these calls on the Emergency phone
on the elevator at work…
If that was a ‘Your elevator policy has expired’ call it would have been terrifying 🙂
You are probably correct that this is a scam on Google as well as me. But if that’s the case shame on Google. They have infinite money and infinite computing power to deal with this, so why does it persist?
that was the crankiest old man impression ever
Bob,
I’ve been reading your articles for a long, long time. I don’t always agree with your assertions, opinions and sometimes rants… But I come back because I think you have a perspective that is rooted in mostly fact and rational analysis.
However, sometimes you’ll get a axe to grind on a company and you don’t see clearly, which makes me ignore your RSS feed for a while.
Listen to yourself, your comments: “They say they are from Google. If they aren’t from Google then why isn’t Google stopping them? Where are the ads and commercials saying these callers aren’t from Google. Where is the digital forensics tracking them down to wherever they are? They probably aren’t from Google, but until Google makes that clear to me I have to assume the worst.”
“Then why does Google allow it to happen?”
Really, Google has billions of searches a day. Thousands of customer contacts a day – all mostly by automation methods. I imagine no company has the resources to staff enough employees to deal with scam artists. And the more successful and highly visible a company is, the more crap like this you see.
And don’t you get those stupid car warranty calls from companies that elude to being a partner with Ford and they want your 100K mile F150 to have an extended warranty. Same crap, same crappy marketers, doing the same exact stupid shit and wasting a lot of people’s time. I can recognize a con and I’m sure you can as well.
You said, and a pretty idiotic statement in my honest opinion “You are probably correct that this is a scam on Google as well as me. But if that’s the case shame on Google. They have infinite money and infinite computing power to deal with this, so why does it persist?”
Infinite money, infinite computing power? What is Google to do, use the computing power to robo-dial the scammers and keep them busy? Come on Bob…
I’m not sure if you’re just link-baiting or trying to stir up the pot for an up-and-coming announcement because you really went a little Nutbar Factor 6 on your readers I do think.
But that’s just my little ‘ole opinion.
P.S. If you publish this comment on other sites like Facebook, Bill Gates has promised to give $ 100.00 to every person who does a re-post! I swear, it’s true!
You’re on detention for one month now…
Actually, giggle doesn’t have thousands of customer contacts each day; they have ZERO.
Have you ever looked at their website and tried to contact them? Impossible.
They may have thousands of “listen to us” contacts, but they are not contacts; they are adver junk.
Thank you.
RXC: “[Google] have infinite money and infinite computing power to deal with this, so why does it persist?”
Herschel: “I imagine no company has the resources to staff enough employees to deal with scam artists.”
Sounds like Google need to spin up a new business… Offering an automated service to track down anyone posing as a company they are not and setting up scams.
>But if that’s the case shame on Google.
>They have infinite money and infinite computing power to deal with this, so why does it persist?
The US government with all it’s powerful agencies and their extended powers to track, search and seize (that corporates don’t have) can’t shut down boiler room stock manipulation scams from ripping off people over the phone every week, but you think Google should hang it’s head in shame. How do you know Google aren’t getting the scams related to them shut down, only to have a new scam group pop up next month? When it comes to these sort of scammers, it’s always been a game of whac-a-mole.
I’m surprised that having so obviously botched this one, Bob, that you’re not stepping up and admitting you got it wrong. Any professional media outlet or journalist would put up a retraction… and hang *their head* in shame.
Looks like you may have had an Emily Lutella moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Litella
Jeezus, this guy Cringely is the dumbest moron the world has ever seen. What an embarrassment. Just give up tech writing and sell hot dogs at the ball park. Mustard or plain is about all this guy can figure out in one day.
I think he could rebrand himself and keep doing what he is doing. Cringeworthy dot com is for sale. Go for a comedy/irony kind of thing. As long as people know not to take him seriously…
Be aware that Bob has been in this industry for decades now and has friends and contacts everywhere – no doubt many within Google itself. If he hasn’t made an “Oops, I was wrong!” mea culpa statement on this by now, then that strongly implies to me that he has inside information on what is really going down here, and just isn’t ready to make all of that public yet.
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This may very well be a scam, that’s true, but not necessarily the type of scam that everyone seems to think it is. Google’s hands may not be as clean here as everyone seems to think they are, either. We probably shouldn’t just automatically be giving them the benefit of the doubt, in other words.
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@scross Way too many big assumptions in that. But even if you’re correct, then this article is even worse, because then it’s a complete subterfuge
Part of the problem is a combination of things which are in a legal blackhole which requires Congress to change the laws the robocallers paid them to put in place.
The other part of the problem is that it is impossible to track down a majority of the robocalling companies enough to get them to stop. The company that pays for this is a shell company of another company of another company etc etc. They then pay for a telemarketing company to complete the calls and that company can put whatever it wants in its Caller ID because there isn’t a way to lock those down. [The Telephone companies want Congress to pay them to fix that because it is a loss of revenue for them to allow it and a cost of hardware replacements. ] So even if Google were to pay a squad of elite mercenaries to find and stop these callers.. most of the time they would get a room of minimum wage (if lucky) slaves in some building in New Mexico who would be replaced by another group from India, South Dakota or Kentucky by the time the doors are broken down. [There hollywood, next years TV series.. the IT-team.]
Re: “next years TV series.. the IT-team”: CSI: Cyber has already had it’s first season; if fact it’s the only CSI left, since there’s no more New York, Miami, or Vegas.
So I’ve got some good news in that regard: Google just filed a lawsuit against one such (allegedly) robocaller: http://recode.net/2015/09/16/google-sues-seo-shop-for-robocalling-businesses-and-pretending-to-be-google/
I agree it sounds like a boiler room operation but THEY SAY THEY ARE FROM GOOGLE.
Just tell them that they are calling a residential number. They find a way to remove you. The “no call list” law applies only to residential phones.
Of course they say they are from Google. The whole point of a scam is to fool the target.
I get calls every week from airlines, stores and hotel chains thanking me for choosing their company, or telling me my phone number as been “randomly selected” for a prize. I just have to give them my credit card number to cover a few minor fees, and they will send my prize right over. They are scams and have nothing to do with the companies they claim to represent. (The calls ring as long distance, but the caller ID numbers displayed are usually from my local area code and exchange.)
There are reports about this all over the net. What are the companies supposed to do about it? They use VOIP calls from overseas, so the perpetrators cannot be caught, and there is no practical means to trace them, unless they try calling the NSA.
If you have some magic trick to stop these guys, I am sure Google and a thousand other companies would love to hear from you.
Well, Rachel says she is from “Cardmember Services” and that’s just a huge scam so what would stop the same group from saying they are from Google?
Here’s a plug for https://www.nomorobo.com/
I’ve nothing to do with the company, just a happy client…. Can’t recall where I first heard of them, might even have been here. But they intercept and disconnect robocalls using a huge database of known robocall numbers. Of course scammers spoof caller id so it’s a continuous game of whack-a-mole but nomorobo does a good job in my experience.
Yeah, its weird right? I live in Canada and people in my city province are inundated by by calls from one of our major airlines. It has made the news and the airline in question has a similar disclaimer on their website. authorities are involved, but they really can’t do much as these calls come from overseas.
Yes, and those Indian phone scammers say they’re with the IRS. Doesn’t make it so. Speaking of which, if the Feds can’t shut down the “fake IRS” scams, then how can Google be expected to nix every “fake Google” operation out there. Remember, most of these scams operate overseas, outside of U.S. jurisdiction. Even if the FBI knew where the bad guys were, it’s not like they can just waltz into downtown New Dehli and make an arrest.
Ah, but unlike the IRS or even AT&T, Google’s jurisdiction is the entire world (and beyond if you count Project Loon).
Hello Mr. Cringely,
I am impressed by your article. Please visit me at the White House next week.
Regards,
Barack Obama
President of USA
Plus ca change, plus c’est the meme chose …
(or should that be the other way around)
Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: [feigning ignorance] Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I’ll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave? You’re going to find that rather difficult.
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won’t argue with you anymore! Open the doors!
HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.
Google has some pretty ridiculous business practises and there is no question it is them doing this, not scammers. My wife and I operate a small tech consulting business and photography studio and they have been calling us for YEARS with their nonsense. They went so far as to ship us a camera lens that we didn’t ask for in the hopes that we would take photos for them of local businesses, they made promises of riches and wealth and fame and all kinds of other crap. We didn’t even have a camera that could use this lens, and after months of it sitting here on a shelf they started harassing us to send it back to them. We eventually did this at our own expense just hoping they would go away. The phone calls and voicemails went on for over a year just over this one thing, but they have also been chasing us for issues related to advertising, listings, and other things. They prefer to only operate via telephone discussions and avoid putting things in writing in EMail. This should raise alarm bells since they claim to be a tech orgnazation and they host probably the largest EMail infrastructure on the planet.
This doesn’t even scratch the surface of their evil though, I once volunteered for a website that was tricked into hosting Google’s ads. After half a year of hosting ads for them to thousands of visitors and not being paid, they sent a notice to the site owner stating that they had detected click fraud and there would be no payment. They refused to provide any details about this so-called fraud and there is no doubt in my mind that the advertisers still paid them for all of these clicks. This story is not at all uncommon by the way and they have been sued for this type of stuff, so their behavior is a matter of public record.
I personally find them to be an evil and disgusting organization who exploits people for profit and worse. I refuse to use them even for search. I strongly recommend that everyone switch to something like https://duckduckgo.com/ get rid of your gmail and anything else that you use that is related to these guys and let’s collectively relegate them to history.
Re: “there is no question it is them doing this” How do you know? Perhaps you and Bob got hit by the same scammers.
right. we all here believe you and feel your pain, dear troll.
I have had many experiences with multiple people in the organization. yes, there are certainly some bad eggs; but for the most part they look out for users. Of course they want to also get revenue, its a business. but way better than so many others. and if you have so much experience, how would you not realize this is a scam? because u likely got scammed. and blamed it on the wrong people. pity, and hope things turn around for you and your wife.
This isn’t Google, it’s a scam. I’ve been getting these as well but as I live in Spain, the calls are going targeted at my SkypeIn American numbers I maintain whereas my business listings here in Spain all have my Spanish mobile numbers and I’ve never, ever put up a single listing on Google with my US number.
As to why Google hasn’t denounced this company doing this is beyond me but I seriously can’t believe it’s actually Google, not that I think Google is still “not being evil” but mainly the sloppiness and half-assedness of it isn’t going to translate in to any form of revenue for them if it is them. And no, I’ve suffered no de-listing issues as a result of not responding to the automated message that doesn’t seem to understand I’m on UTC +1.
Bob, you got the punctuation wrong in Google’s motto. It’s, “Don’t; be evil.”
This is just another “Rachel at Cardholder services” scam – I get these almost every day at work and at home in spite of my phones being on the do-not-call list. You can complain to the FCC about it (there’s a web page where you can spend about 5 minutes filling in a complaint information page for each call) but they will do nothing.
You would think, given the the NSA seem to be listening to every phone call in America, that it would be very easy for the FCC to have a word with them and shut all of these scam calls down – since that’s not happening I get a little entertainment by asking the callers to perform obscene acts with the phone … it’s a small, childish thing but it does brighten my day.
My thoughts exactly. The caller Id showing a city/state instead of a business or personal name is a dead giveaway that they are spoofing phone numbers that are mostly inactive (except the times they used one of my insurance agent’s internal PBX office “sub-numbers” – variation in last 3 digits – and MY OWN home phone number to my own home phone – yeah, right; calling myself is such an easy thing to do…).
I seriously doubt it is the real Google.
What you are supposed to do is not ask to be taken off of any list, but demand to be put on their do not call list.
Also there is a national do not call database maintained by the federal government.
The FCC and the FTC can tell you more.
That federal dnc list is a waste of cyber space. Been on it for year and still am (I checked recently) and I still get one or two calls a day.
The FCC and FTC cannot do anything about scammers outside of the country, nor do said scammers give a rat’s behind about the do-not-call list.
I imagine Google outsourced the task of putting you in their business listing to some cheap call center that have instructions to process approvals only. Alas, lots of companies outsource customer service like this. As long as management can tick the box and report to their share holders that they’re actively engaging the customer it’s all peachy. The fact that it’s completely useless and even annoying to the customer makes no difference at all.
I’ve gotten similar calls at work from “Google” and from people claiming to be “Apple Maps”. Anyone can call and say they’re from company Xyz, but do we have any proof that these calls are actually authorized by Google, Apple, or whomever? I’m noticing a lack skepticism here.
you notice a lack of skepticism? well, that’s because giggle is (or are it “are”?) unethical assholes whose biz model is to steal, typically information. Something like farcebarf…
Only a fool trusts them
now whether it is actually giggle or not, I don’t know; BUT they have a lot of resources and I bet they could stop it.
but induced fear helps their other products…
This website is a cesspool of tinfoil and sub-par intelligence. The fact that the author made such a hilariously passionate false accusation is compounded by his attempts to argue when shown he is wrong. Then a good part of the comments just scream anti-google one liners in barely readable English, no facts or citations to be found.
I think this site may have robbed me of brain cells.
Man, Cringely. You really are an idiot. This isn’t Google any more than those spam emails that used to promise you a prize from Microsoft if you forwarded them were from Microsoft.
Do you have any investigative skills in you? Any?
Nobody makes you read my work. Feel free to protest my idiocy by leaving and not coming back.
Dude.
I’d like more detail about the obscene acts if you don’t mind; it sounds entertaining.
Many of the calls will originate from outside your country and the local law has no power to stop them. The callers certainly ignore any “don’t call” settings. As far as I know there is simply a computer dialling numbers and a call centre operative that picks up on an answered phone. The rest of the calls are silent – I expect you’ve had those too.
For myself, I’ve found that the phone line doesn’t have enough bandwidth for my sonic death ray so I make do with a referee’s whistle as a disincentive.
The law might not be able to directly, but the phone company sure could. But they won’t because they make money off of it. And legislators won’t make laws forcing the telcos to stop the nonsense either, again because the telcos profit from the junk calls.
Bob, the word is “faze”, not “phase”.
Another reader said that, too. Then he checked dictionary.com and asked me to remove his comment. I did.
Not that dictionary.com is truly a definitive (ha!) source, but even they point out that “faze” and “phase” are frequently confused, while also defining “faze” as the word you clearly should’ve used instead of “phase.”
Bob, if this is Google you have one heck of a story, but it is almost certainly a scam. Friends and family get these, I tell them it’s just a scam.
Maybe take this one down until you get some validation?
Unless you have, in which case do add it to the article.
The real story is that the unauthenticated phone call is dying.
They say they are from Google. If they aren’t from Google then why isn’t Google stopping them? Where are the ads and commercials saying these callers aren’t from Google. Where is the digital forensics tracking them down to wherever they are? They probably aren’t from Google, but until Google makes that clear to me I have to assume the worst.
Hi Bob,
I’m from Apple customer services, Are you the business owner? I’d like to speak to you about you listing. Just send me a check for $2000 and I’ll make sure you are on the front page of the search results.
I then assume that you think those guys with the thick Indian accents who call you and say that your ISP is sending out spam and you need to follow their directions to install antivirus are also from Microsoft, too?
Really Bob? Critical thinking?
As others have said, it is not Google calling you. You’re being called by scammers who pretend to represent Google.
This is not even a new scam.
Ask yourself, why would a company as large as Google ignore US law, open themselves to lawsuits, and repeatedly hound business owners? They wouldn’t. They don’t.
On the off chance that there is some rogue call center within Google calling you daily, you could quite easily sue them for the repeated “do not call” violations, and make a tidy profit.
But it’s not Google calling you, it’s scammers.
Then why does Google allow it to happen?
Scammers have used the same scam and claimed to be calling me from “Windows Technical Support”, but there’s no way Microsoft is behind these. For the same reason that Microsoft can’t do anything about those — scammers located in another country beyond the reach of any forces that Microsoft could nudge to action — Google cannot do anything about this beyond a simple PR campaign.
I think a “middle way” exists here: be wary, but don’t freak out, and stop engaging these schmucks.
Since when do scammers request permission from the company they are impersonating? What do you think Google could do to stop scammers that claim to be from Google?
How on earth would Google stop this from happening? Google doesn’t control the phone lines (except maybe their optic fiber lines). You could cal anyone and claim you’re Google. What could they do to prevent that? Unless your victim submits reports complete with names and addresses of the perpetrators (and they can’t because the phone number is “Google” and if you ask for company name and address they hang up) there isn’t anything Google or the authorities can do. Don’t you get other telemarketing calls? How do you stop them? Expecting Google to be able to take some action to prevent this is … naive. I get calls daily from “Microsoft Support” telling me my computer has been sending them messages that it has viruses. What can Microsoft do about that? If I complain to Microsoft what are they going to do?
Bob, If I was to follow the basis of this logic, for me to contact someone and claim that I was from “I, Cringely” would automatically make *you* responsible for my behaviour. Shame on you for not stopping me.
Bob,
The calls I receive on a daily basis are even more ludicrous … they claim to be the marketing department of Google, Yahoo and Bing (like if they were three brands owned by the same company) and then proceed with the same spiel. The first couple of times I listened to their nonsense, now I recognize them within a second and add them to the list of blocked numbers on my smartphone.
You keep saying these calls are from Google. I do not think these calls are from Google.
tell them to hang on a minute, you will put the boss on… then transfer the call to the sheriff’s office.
I had Faux Microsoft Support call me at 4 am one time. they could hear me back in “call-a me bob” land without the phone. “YOU WAKE ME UP AT 4 AM TO EFFIN TRY AND SCAM ME?!?” did not get another call from FMS for a couple months.
One very quick comment… these big guys never call you. ever. if you are shooting their people from across the street they will not call you. they have lawyers call if there is ever any need. very big lawyers. they have a man personally call upon you with a thick sheaf of papers full of ominous phrases. sometimes it is a US Marshal that makes this personal call. that’s how you know it’s really BigCo. you and I, we never hear from BigCo. we beseech them and maybe once in a while get an email back, but they will never call.
so if BigCo appears to call you, it is always bogus. always.
if John Doe calls from BigCo, whispering, from a pay phone, it may be genuine. but have a very large man with you if you meet them.
Gee, what scammer has replaced Bob? That certainly doesn’t sound like the Cringely that I have been reading all these years.
Putting in a search for “google claim my business listing scam” leads you directly to a Google page
“Avoid and report Google scams” https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493?hl=en
warning specifically about this type of scam.
And yes, we receive about 5 of these calls per week. They *do* have the smell of spam / scam.
Misery loving company as it does, it somewhat brightens my day [as the whistle does for a fellow commenter] to know that others are as irritated by these a**holes as I am.
The huge question for me is who actually responds to these calls and what have they found? It costs money to make these calls. Who on earth has actually worked through the entire call and sent them money? How were funds transferred [how does the company hide who they are?], and what did it cost? What were the results, if any?
If you’re bright enough to own a website and business you have to recognize these calls as a shakedown at best [if it is actually Google], and probably just a scam. How can there be enough of a reward for them to continue the calls at this level?
Cringely, I have to agree with previous comments including your own. After taking on the giants you have with such careful investigation, how on earth did you publish this without getting to the bottom of it for us first?! 😉
I look forward to future updates. Meanwhile I’m buying a airhorn…may as well have some fun.
As others have already pointed out, these calls are not from Google. I’m a bit disappointed that you would be fooled.
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I generally check all such calls by (ironically) using Google to look up the number (I don’t even bother to answer calls with blocked CID or obviously spoofed numbers). There are 3 or 4 crowdsourced sites that typically pop up with the number in question. Most of these scam calls come from a block of numbers owned by a known vendor of a CID spoofing service, and since I blocked those, the number of these scam calls has decreased to only a few every month. The scam calls tend to come in waves, as the CID spoofing service gets new blocks of numbers, but a few taps on my smartphone removes them, at least until the next new block of spoofing numbers is opened.
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Too bad my cell phone provider doesn’t offer a service to crowdsource this.
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The real solution to this problem, of course, is not Politically Correct.
[…] I, Cringely […]
To all of these robo and not so robo calls (mainly those calls claiming to be from Microsoft support) I have one simple reply… “f**k off”.
It accomplishes nothing but boy, does it make me feel good!
Read this on Google’s Support page:
“Watch out for parties calling and selling services claiming to have a special relationship with or claiming to be Google. Often, these parties are telemarketers that are not affiliated with Google and are trying to leverage the Google brand to sell your business some type of online service. Keep in the mind the following:
“Google does not place robocalls.
“Google does not call to ‘update your front page listing’ or ask you to ‘claim your free website.’
“Google does not charge for inclusion in Google Search or Google My Business.”
Yes, and how effective is that? It’s covering Google’s ass not Google acting to deter these callers. I’ve buried the meaning of life inside my Terms of Service: what, you missed it?
I’ve received these calls. They really don’t feel like Google to me. They feel like a scam. The simple way to determine that, if you really don’t trust intuition, is to simply ask for a contact number because, while interested, you don’t have time to discuss the proposition right now. If there is no legitimate number forthcoming, it isn’t a legitimate offer. I think your skepticism is lacking on this one, Bob.
Good idea except I’ve had plenty of legitimate contacts with Google and they won’t give a contact number, either.
That is not Google. There are also ads on local radio stations to “Add/Update your business’ Google listing for free.” That’s not Google either. What’s the real point of this post Bob? Surely you know this already.
I can’t help but believe this is Bob running a high-concept test of his readers’ critical thinking skills. Or, maybe one of the boys took over the blog for the weekend and is getting some jollies?
LMGTFY:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=google+support+claim+free+web+site
Third link:
https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493?hl=en#telemarketing
This is the failure of the phone system. Or, more specifically, a failure of the civility necessary for a device that can interrupt anyone, anywhere at any time. Right now I’d say 60% of calls to my personal phone are spam. When phone calls were expensive there was a natural regulator to prevent this sort of random call. Now that calling is free and “unlimited,” anyone can just start dialing numbers and see who picks up. Right now it’s boiler room call centers in foreign countries, but I can see the day coming, maybe if a crypto-currency takes off, where we see cyber-panhandlers who just call a random number and flat out ask for a buck. Maybe they’ll share their Sad Sack story first, or maybe they’ll threaten to call back.
The logical solution to this is to put up new barriers. A whitelist that lives at the phone switch or at least in the handset, or as others have pointed out, crowdsourced blocking, could be a start. But until the phone companies realize the nuisance calls are chewing up valuable bandwidth it won’t change. This is something Apple could be working on. Instead of Pavlovian ring tones, have Siri screen calls and determine if they are ligit or not. If they are, have Siri just politely interrupt you and pass along the call. Oh I’m sure version 1.0 would be crap, but we have to start somewhere. I’d much rather have that service over a self-driving car.
> A whitelist that lives at the phone switch or at least in the handset,
There are devices that plug into your phone line that can do that.
Back decades ago, a company called DAK had an even better box – it picked up the phone and asked for the caller to input the number of the extension they wanted to reach. It took three digits.
If the caller had the “extension number” passcode, the phone rang. If they didn’t have the right code, it didn’t ring.
If the number got out, or you decided you didn’t want to accept any more drunken late-night calls from Cousin Bob, you just changed the passcode and gave the new one to whoever you wanted to talk to.
Simple. Convenient. And I’ve been looking for a replacement for a long, long time now.
One solution would be to stop phone number spoofing. If ALL callers were identified correctly then the authorities could track down these miscreants and stop them albeit temporarily.
The advertisers, of course, have lobbied our wonder Congress to keep spoofing allowable so this continues. Follow the money!
Bob, I recommend the nomorobo free service. They do a great job filtering out a lot of the scam callers.
I concur. Nomorobo.com is GREAT! And combined with Vonage – works great together.
Hey I get the exact same calls with a pretty similar conversation (the one time I chose to have one). I tend to agree with Bob that this seems to be Google’s way of selling some web-hosting service. It’s not even as friendly as door-to-door sales, but similar in what it’s attempting.
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Bob is spot on about Google’s apathy to customer service. If you have a problem it seems you’ll always get referred to a web page with slightly less generic help. The lack of customer support has helped Google scale huge, but as growth plateaus Google will have to invest more in real people talking to customers or start the death spiral down.
Except that it isn’t, as several links, including Google’s support pages indicate.
@ Bob, John, and each of the others that for some reason believe this is really Google.
It is not.
You’ve been fooled.
As technology people, you should be ashamed of yourselves for being so easily fooled.
Google specifically references these frauds in a support document. A quick search would have turned it up in an instant.
—
Google telemarketing calls
Watch out for parties calling and selling services claiming to have a special relationship with or claiming to be Google. Often, these parties are telemarketers that are not affiliated with Google and are trying to leverage the Google brand to sell your business some type of online service. Keep in the mind the following:
Google does not place robocalls.
Google does not call to “update your front page listing” or ask you to “claim your free website.”
Google does not charge for inclusion in Google Search or Google My Business.
—
https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493?hl=en
—
Bob and the rest here who for some reason seem to be looking for reasons to impugn Google, do each of you also believe the spam email you receive is actually delivered by the named sender? Caller ID is equally trivial to spoof. Phone spam is nothing new.
This post is no better than an email sent by a crazy old aunt who pesters her relations with common, and easily disproved myths.
Cringley, if you’re this easily fooled by fraudsters, one has to regard the rest of your musings in that light. One gathers you hate Google so much, you’re searching for reasons to justify that dislike.
Whatever the reason for this ridiculous and false accusation, Cringley has damaged his credibility.
Bob what the heck happened? Terrible post, you of all people should know these are scammers, not Google. Did you call Google or even check a source? I’m not a fan of Google at all, but this post is really disappointing.
He has these kneejerk responses from time to time. Look how he labeled the Microsoft deal to buy Nokia as money laundering, and blames outsourcing for hacks with no evidence.
I get the same calls. I told them I wouldn’t use their service because they were messing with my blogger accounts. Their reply was that they were selling SEO and other services and they weren’t actually Google.
They will improve your search ranking in the same way the guy calling from Microsoft will fix the virus on your computer. Could also ask them how to claim that huge lottery win, or perhaps a multi million $$ inheritance…
Is that really you Bob…
If only Google had access to the technology, resources, and money needed to fight this kind of scam…
Oh, wait, they do. What’s that tell you about Google. They obviously don’t care.
and far as I know they do loads to help fight against schemes like these. more than most.
but you have the cops and the law to fight against the others. that is not googles job. people will keep creating new scams, education is needed to not fall for it.
“I prefer readers to find me by old fashioned word of mouth”… Yeah, right! That’s why I have a blog instead of books in a bookstore… This “tech” guy doesn’t get that every 3rd-party sales and marketing company tries to link themselves to google and google first-page search results when selling their SEO services. As a former Trusted Photographer for the Google Business Photos (See-inside virtual tours) you get used to people telling you that google keeps calling them. As if…! However, if small businesses still can’t see the benefits of getting online using all the (currently) free services, then these companies will continue to call them as they eventually hook someone in.
I’m not sure I understand your comment. It sounds like you believe my having a blog means word-of-mouth is meaningless to me. That’s not true. Word-of-mouth has changed quite a bit over the years, of course. Now it usually means people sending e-mails or posting links to Facebook or Twitter rather than physically uttering words or picking up a phone. My blog is no different from a newspaper or magazine column to me. Where I differ from most (and what you evidently don’t understand) is what I don’t value is Search Engine Optimization. SEO is about creating content (a bad word in itself) that results in higher search engine placement. When SEO companies contact me (they do it every day) I ask them WHY I should want to rise in the search listings? They say “to make more money.” And I reply “I don’t do this for money.” Then they (and you) get confused. This blog has no ads and produces no revenue, simple as that. I’m not an alcoholic, but if you look at the credo of Alcoholics Anonymous they say they don’t advertise or promote their organization preferring to ATTRACT members. Me, too.
As for this particular column, if I seem like an idiot then isn’t Google being idiotic, too? If it was General Electric or IBM or Apple do you think they’d let this behavior continue? No. Nor should Google. If they want to make Big Company money they have to act like a Big Company.
Having just sung the praises of a Google based router, I suppose I don’t quite understand your perspective.
It’s a big company. Some parts are good, some bad. I call them like I see them.
The parts that aren’t Google at all but some scammer pretending to be Google are especially bad.
So which part of Google is it that called you?
Last week I got a call from someone calling himself “Robert X. Cringely”. He promised me a share of $25,000,000 tied up in a Nigerian bank account if I would first transfer $5,000 to him to cover the cost of releasing those funds. Well I did all that because I’ve heard of Robert X. Cringely and he’s just this honest guy who calls things as he sees them… anyway, I’m still waiting for my $25,000,000 and I think maybe I was scammed. Why does the real Robert X. Cringely allow that to happen? Why is he so evil?
While on frauds, put up an ad for a car on Craigslist, and you are likely to get a response from someone saying they will buy the car but they need an accident report. THey won’t take one from carfax, but will insist on one from a particular site, i think it is carvinreport.com. The site itself is a fake whose purpose is to steal your credit card number. I notified craigslist of this, and they simply sent me a notice of scams.
I put up my own post warning people, and it got deleted.
Is it April’s fools already?
I get these calls frequently but I’ve always assumed they’re a scam and not originated by Google.
Luckily our phone system has CallerID and now when I see ‘SEO…’ I quickly disconnect the call.
Bob said “Lately I have been getting telephone calls from Google.” Obviously, he means he got a call from some person or company identifying themselves as Google. Bob is probably hoping the deep pockets at the real Google and the phone company will use their resources to put a stop to this nonsense. But that won’t happen until this column is widely discovered and distributed by the sensationalist media.
It’s also possible these callers really are affiliated with Google: https://support.google.com/partners/answer/3154326?hl=en “The Google AdWords certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of AdWords. An AdWords certification allows individuals to demonstrate that Google recognizes them as an online advertising professional.”
Protection rackets are the flip side of “SEO services.”
I agree with the others, Bob. I think it’s a scam.
And I had to use my personal favorite search engine, Ixquick, to find out what a SEO was (search engine optimization).
I’m surprised you’d fall for this scam, though it is executed in a very official sounding manner.
Is it April 1st already?
Readers: Duh!
Bob: Doh!
I’ve always enjoyed Bob’s unique take on things, the PBS programs, etc., but I wonder where that Bob went.
Well, part of him is still around, writing about HP and IBM. Unfortunately, the demographic that’s old enough to remember when those companies were interesting, and important, is, to put it politely, shrinking. Not a way to build a future audience.
It’s clear enough, whether through caller ID (“SEO blah blah blah”), or other clues, that these are calls made by scammers. I handle the online presence for our company, set up our search engine business listings, and we _still_ get these calls, which is another big clue.
Come to think of it, the only time Google, MS, Apple, or any other one of these companies call is a robo-call to provide a verification code, always as a result of a user requested action, like having to prove you’re the owner of a business address/phone/etc.
Think about it — Google, the company that tries to avoid any live support or human contact whatsoever, is going to solicit business with a phone call?? Duh.
Whenever I’m not sure of the authenticity of a caller, I do an iternet search of the number and more often than not, there is information available confirming that the number is affilliated with a scam or spoofing.Certain phones will come with call blocking of up to 200 numbers so it’s fairly simple to add any new numbers to your call block list. There are also internet related call blockers, hardware devices and software. You can also file a complaint with the fcc. If they get enough complaints about the same number, they may find and fine the perpetrators.
Maybe this isn’t the real Bob.
Maybe this isn’t even me, whoever I am.
Every means of communications has become a worthless cesspool.
Bob, is that picture of your actual phone? I get constant calls form Credit Card Services. I’ve put significant effort into terminating them. But resistance is futile.
I personally never thought for a moment that this was actually Google calling me. I read somewhere that PayPal’s terms of service was changing so that they could sell my phone number to marketers (here’s a link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/06/03/a-horrible-new-paypal-policy-opts-you-into-getting-robocalls/) and believe the Google calls started immediately after this. Perhaps they’re related.
I realize this here is a column and you, Robert, are writing for reactions.
People reading your rag though are either into what you are writing about or take what you write as true – or both. You aren’t doing anyone a service to write with irony and sarcasm without denoting it as such.
It’s not like Google was calling you (well, unlikely enough that they weren’t) but rather some stupid social engineering / phishing-like robo outfit. Please don’t write this way in the future. Thanks.
P.S. I am not trolling but rather an avid reader for many years.
absolutely. agree with Pepe.
Keys to getting your number off these lists…
1- I keep an old fashioned whistle next to my phone during the day….. When I get one of the idiots on the line, I blow hard and loud.
2- If you have the time to waste, for “Rachel from card services” types, use https://www.getcreditcardnumbers.com/ to give them a dummy card number and leave them hanging… might as well waste their time as well
Good luck!
Wasn’t extortion yelp.com’s business model?
Google does call you. They call me. Last year I halted my Google Adwords advertising. It had slowly grown less and less effective due to an alternate industry product naming it’s flagship product after my entire industry (an analogy being that you sell trucks, and Microsoft creates a hit database software product called Microsoft Truck, which overwhelms search results). No use advertising because 99% of clicks will be accidental clicks for the database Truck product, so I halted Google ads. Doing so had no effect on sales, but it sure saved me a ton of money. Since then, Google calls me often to setup appointments with an ad associate specialist to help optimize my keywords. They are very friendly, too. When I explain the challenge, they’ll often say, “Ooooh, yeah, that’s a tough situation to spend advertising dollars on.” So, Google will call you. They call me.
Re: “They call me. Last year I halted my Google Adwords advertising.” How do you know the people who called had any connection to Google or Adwords?
Good question. They aren’t pushy at all and they never ask me for anything other than my time. They seem to have all of my keyword info. They want to help me find more appropriate keywords. I usually decline, and they don’t push it. Sure there are exceptions, but I’ve found that scammers are generally pushy.
My published number is a Google voice number. I don’t get these calls because Google Voice traps them as spam. They are not coming from Google.
Great idea!
My intuition says Matt Cutts got it right with his link to https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2952493?hl=en#telemarketing
Sorry Mr. Cringely, everyone gets a swing and a miss sometimes, you can’t hit them all.
I think you’ll find Google have given up on their old “Don’t be evil” motto. If you check out their latest “Ten things we know to be true” (https://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/) you’ll see it’s been replaced with “You can make money without doing evil.”
Yes, I get calls like this all the time, I ask the nicely to stop calling and I said “I already have a goolge+ account for my business” that didnt stop them from calling. What makes things worst was that the image of the front of my building is wrong. It show the building of my all address. So I ask them to change it, call them, email and still the image is wrong. Its so frustrating dealing with google.
I think Bob is onto something; in the economy of scales.
At levels of society you are anonymous and then technology makes you visible .. and then anonymous again.(e.g. cctv video footage and facebook reigns in the hooligans when for a time they were a face in the crowd).
Similarly, when the internet was new, you had pseudo-anonymity; and by volumes that has changed.
Too many silos trying to make money. I feel somehow the outsourcing of government duties / responsibilities, when they start becoming profit focused enterprises instead of the group that does stuff that everyone needs but nobody can afford to do, has a part to play in all this.
[…] Danield GreenfieldLook! Up in the sky! It’s a bird it’s a drone! Its Stealth Girl!: MOTUSEvil Google waiting on line one?: Robert X. […]
I always patch Lenny in on a 3-way call, sit back and enjoy the show: https://youtu.be/vWrkDOt_IfM
What’s Youtu DOT be : https://www.geek.com/news/google-unveils-youtu-be-shortener-that-cuts-down-video-links-by-15-characters-1029511/
Bob, anybody can make a stupid mistake. But anybody with integrity will admit it and move on, rather than trying to justify themselves.
This makes me wonder how many other mistakes and unjustified accusations you’ve made in the past, that you’ve not been willing to own up to.
I’ve always regarded you as a journalist with integrity, but now I’m beginning to wonder.
And arrogant replies like ‘If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read my blog’, don’t cut it.
A friend of mine used to work for Netbiz, one of these scammers. They would cold-call businesses to sell a service in which they would place an AdWords buy for a fixed monthly rate. They signed up people who didn’t understand how AdWords works. Turnover was huge; most customers left within a few months. The salesmen working the phones were warmed-over used-car salesmen paid mostly on commission.
Google caught on, audited them, and imposed a set of restrictions. Failure to honor them would terminate their ability to broker AdWords accounts. One of these was not to claim they were Google. I think they were allowed to say something like “affiliated with Google.”
Reminds me of the calls from people claiming to be with Microsoft who want to fix your computer. Some have speculated that these calls represent an inside job, as people who contacted Microsoft on their own sometimes report getting one of these calls shortly after, as if customer information is being shared or misused.
H1B shocky monkey
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4iTkXgwAg
Who is “Sharon from Google, and why is she always calling me?”
https://www.google.com/search?q=hi+sharon+google&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I have 17 or 23 blocked numbers on my iPhone – actually 73, just checked.
They always come up with new numbers, it’s like they enjoy the game.
I have hundreds blocked thanks to Calls Blacklist Pro on Android. All it takes is an average of 1 per day to get that many in a year. Anyone calling for the first time, so I can’t see their name displayed, gets added to the blacklist, if they don’t leave a message convincing me otherwise.
You owe Google an apology.
Google does not have control over the phone system. Google cannot magically stop others from making calls in their name. What can they do? They can sue the scammers.
That’s exactly what they are doing.
At the very least, Bob needs to correct the record and admit that he made a mistake. Those who refuse to admit they’ve erred aren’t to be trusted.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9338929/google-adwords-adblock-lawsuit-robocall
Thanks for posting that article. Note it adds “Google says such scams are routine, but the company is usually unable to prosecute because scammers are too successful in hiding their tracks.” I think Bob’s point is that if lawsuits are not a deterrent, Google should use some of their enormous ad revenue to raise public awareness. For example, they could place a notice on their home page, that currently is mostly white space with cute ways to represent the letters that spell “Google”. That would cost them less than filing a lawsuit, and would be far more effective at spreading the word about telemarketing tactics in general.
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“Google says such scams are routine, but the company is usually unable to prosecute because scammers are too successful in hiding their tracks.”
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Just follow the money! If I pay someone $100 for “SEO”, then even if they’ve spoofed everything else, there still has to be legitimate receiver information somewhere for them to be able to retrieve that $100.
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Article in Ars Technica this evening. Google is suing a SEO company for these deceiving calls.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/google-sues-seo-company-over-harassing-calls-selling-front-page-domination/
[…] de cette fameuse « crise des réfugiés » et, ensuite, Google est devenue une horrible machine à fric avec les pires pratiques qu’on puisse imaginer. Non pas que je sois contre les « machines à faire du […]
Maybe you had an impact?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/google-sues-seo-company-over-harassing-calls-selling-front-page-domination/
wow ! you sure touched a hotspot for a lot of people w this one…
I don’t know when I have seen so many disparate comments from 1 Cringely post.
I just do not get it tho–from the people using a blog-post response forum to tear Mr X down.
Nothing better to do…?–or simply nothing better/or nearly as provocative
to put under their own by-lines?–(I’ll go w the latter)
Thanks yet again, Bob–for continuing on, even at a reduced pace :))
Hi,
This is Cringly. I admit I was wrong. This is real me and not someone faking my name. When people claim to be someone on internet, they are always telling the truth. It is the law.
Chees
Hi Bob, I’m sure it’s you, but you misspelled your name and “cheers”. 🙂
This is a stupid article. You sound like an idiot. Admit you were wrong. Remove this clickbait garbage.
You’re a tech writer? Really??
btw, I’m from MENSA, and we are starting this new program where we are uniting also the people from *the other end* of bell curve, would you like to apply? no, we cannot take you off our list, and we’ll contact you upon our reading of your next article 😀
There is one thing that would destroy these telemarketers and scammers, if even a fraction of victims did it: waste their time. Just sound interested, play dumb, tell them you have to get to your computer in the other room, oh wait that’s the doorbell, be right back, and so on. The longer you can string them along, the fewer victims they can call.