How to Report Fake Businesses on Google Maps and Protect Your Brand

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How to Report Fake Businesses on Google Maps and Protect Your Brand

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How to Report Fake Businesses on Google Maps and Protect Your Brand

Gabriel Pasqualini

CEO & Founder, Pulpou

Gabriel Pasqualini

CEO & Founder, Pulpou

Brand protection

Published Apr 16, 2025

Google Maps has become a go-to source for discovering businesses and services. But with its popularity comes risk: the platform has seen a growing number of fake business listings designed to mislead consumers and exploit trusted brands. Reporting these fraudulent listings isn’t just about protecting users from scams—it’s also a crucial step in safeguarding your brand’s credibility and ensuring fair competition online.

The rise and risks of fake business listings

Fake businesses are becoming increasingly common across digital platforms. These listings deceive customers, divert traffic, and damage legitimate companies’ reputations.

The simplicity of creating a Google Maps listing without strong verification makes it easy for scammers to impersonate brands, hijack web traffic, or direct users to unsafe or low-quality services. Despite Google’s continuous monitoring efforts, the lack of user awareness and slow reporting still allow many fraudulent businesses to persist.

The result is a double impact: users lose trust, and legitimate brands face unfair competition from impostors using their names.

Economic and legal consequences for brands

The consequences of fake businesses go far beyond lost visibility. Fraudulent listings can divert significant revenue from legitimate companies, distorting fair competition and weakening consumer confidence.

This growing issue has even led to more legal disputes related to commercial identity theft, forcing brands to spend resources defending their reputation. In many cases, the economic impact is measurable, not only in lost sales but also in damaged brand equity.

From chaos to clarity

From data to action

This image features a cute, pink octopus wearing glasses, holding a blue shield with a checkmark, symbolizing protection and safety.

A cute, red cartoon octopus wearing glasses holds a blue shield with a check mark, symbolizing security and safety.

How to report a fake business on Google Maps

Reporting a fake listing is straightforward and essential to keeping the platform safe:

Open Google Maps and search for the suspicious business.
Click “Suggest an Edit” from the dropdown menu.
Select the option to mark the business as fake or permanently closed.

These simple steps help protect both consumers and legitimate companies from scams that can harm trust and credibility online.

Preventive actions and monitoring strategies

Prevention is the best defense against fake business listings. Some key measures include:

Frequent Monitoring: Regularly review how your brand appears on Google Maps and other platforms.
Official Verification: Use verified business information to discourage impersonators.
Fast Reporting: Act immediately when detecting suspicious activity.
Consumer Education: Encourage customers to verify listings before engaging with a business.

Implementing these practices helps brands prevent impersonation and maintain a trusted presence. Emerging technologies, such as AI-based detection, can further enhance early warning systems by identifying suspicious patterns before they cause real harm.

Google Help Center — Report a fake business on Google Maps.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — Business Impersonation Scams Report.
Pulpou Brand Protection Insights — Fighting Online Brand Fraud through Data Intelligence.

Gabriel Pasqualini

CEO & Founder, Pulpou

Gabriel Pasqualini

CEO & Founder, Pulpou

Preventive actions and monitoring strategies

Pulpou is your Brand Protection Radar.

Pulpou is your
Brand Protection Radar.

Pulpou is your
Brand Protection Radar.