We recently learned exciting news about a Google Maps update that makes it easier for you to contact the businesses you need to use from inside the Google Maps app. Messages is a brand new feature that opens up a whole new world of functionality to Google Maps and pits it against other big apps like Facebook Messenger and the fairly new WhatsApp Business. Now we have to bring you news of new way that scammers are targeting banks on Google Maps
Hackers are changing the contact details of banks on Google Maps to try and trip you up
Google Maps allows users to submit changes and corrections to listings on the navigation app. This allows fraudsters to change the contact details of financial institutions like banks so that when customers try to call or message their banks the fraudsters can intercept the correspondence. With the first interactions with financial institutions always being confirming security details on the account, this leaves customers very vulnerable to having their accounts compromised.
This scam was first reported in India and picked by local newspaper The Hindu. After receiving more than three complaints from the Bank of India, Police in the state of Maharashtra notified Google and put out a local warning relating to the scam. There is nothing stopping scammers in other parts of the world from trying the scam in their area.
In the story reported by The Hindu, Google acknowledged the problem but didn’t mention any specific fix. A Google spokesperson said, “Overall, allowing users to suggest edits provides comprehensive and up-to-date info, but we recognise there may be occasional inaccuracies or bad edits suggested by them. When this happens, we do our best to address the issue as quickly as possible. The Google Safety Center outlines tips to help consumers stay safe online.”
There doesn’t seem to be any sort of automatic defense against this problem in development, but Google will act quickly whenever an incident comes to its attention.
How to stay safe
This all means then that we need to be extra careful when we’re searching online for contact details to financial institutions like banks. If you do find yourself looking for a phone number online, don’t trust it unless the number is also listed on the bank’s official website. Should you come across the number through Google Maps or some other third-party website, a simple Google search including the number and the name of the financial institution in question should yield the contact page on the official website. If it doesn’t, you should suspect the number in question and think about reporting it.
For more tips on consumer safety online, check out the Google Safety Center here.
