The company presents themselves as Google. They are extremely persistent with many follow up calls, up to several times a day. They hit the emotional button telling you that your Google Page is no longer verified and that it will be removed from listings if you do not act NOW! We get these calls all the time, but they continue to infer that they are Google and this is legit. They are very organized, two levels of service, front line callers, then off the Account Manager who spews off his credentials, [including a name you know is false] verifies your information [easily viewed on your public Google profile] then hits you up for a fee of $99USD because you missed the verification deadline for the year. It goes on.
Learn from my mistake, do not get sucked in by their false claim to be Google. They are simply another Web Marketing service with a well organized method of scamming.
Type of a scam Tech Support
I received a call from "Google" (Peter Snyder – manager) asking to speak to the business owner, saying my business listing on Google was expiring next month (2 years after I initiated it). They verified my business name, services, contact details and key words. They then proceeded to send me a Google verification code by text message. They clarified 2-3 separate times that I should never share this code with anyone nor would anyone from Google be asking me for this code ever. After 15 minutes on the phone, they said I needed to pay a maintenance fee to keep my business listing active for another 2 years on Google. They claimed it would only be a one time fee of $99 USD, not monthly. They asserted this on 3 different occasions; "your listing will stay active from Aug 2019 to Aug 2021". When I refused to pay over the phone saying I needed time to clarify things first, the man on the phone became aggressive in tone and volume to put on the urgency and pressure for me to deal with this immediately. He said I had been called multiple times over the last 2 months (I never received messages and told him that). He said (employee name) answered the phone previously; I am the only one with access to the phone; he clearly was just making up things to coerce me. He said I could verify that Google indeed charges fees for business listings and told me to look up ("Google My Business maintenance fees") online. I asked for his contact info so I could call him back. He gave me the info and said I would be directed to Google’s marketing team (GoMarketin). He said if he did not hear from me within the next couple hours, my listing would be deactivated and I would no longer show up in searches on Google. He said verification codes can only be generated once every 6 months. He asked for my permission if he could call me back; I said "no". What do you know? He called me back the next day, twice, until I hung up and said it was harassment.
This company is pretending to be associated with Google and uses fear tactics in an attempt to scam business owners for money in a very surreptitious way. They need to be stopped.