By focusing on providing the best user experience possible, Google has earned a trusted brand name. Unfortunately, unscrupulous people sometimes try to use the Google brand to scam and defraud others. I am giving some of the example scams.
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| SCAM |
You find a cheap car online, and the seller claims that for your protection the purchase will be completed via Google Wallet. The car price is "too good to be true" and the seller claims a need to sell the car quickly because he or she is moving, moving out of the country, being called for military service, getting a divorce, etc. The reality is that there is no car, and you won’t be using Google Wallet. Instead, the seller will send you an invoice that appears to be from Google Wallet, but will instruct you to make the payment via Western Union, Moneygram or bank transfer. A legitimate Google Wallet transaction will require that you sign in to your Google Account and execute the payment using the Google Wallet interface. Google Wallet does not accept wire transfers/bank transfers or payments via Western Union/Money Gram, nor does it use any escrow type of payment. This is a kind of Google Wallet purchase scam.
You receive an email claiming that you've won a Google Lottery and are asked for personal details. You may also be asked to pay a fee to release the funds (such as a money release fee, currency exchange, etc.).Google doesn't run lotteries, and your email address hasn't been selected to win a prize. Do not reply back with your personal details. This is a kind of Google Lotto scam.
Google never guarantees top placement in search results or AdWords. Beware of any company making these types of promises.
Last week there was the news of NZ Herald that A Company is changing its name tree times in three weeks. And an employee of that company claims says that she was forced to make at least 100 cold calls a day to sell advertising to unsuspecting businesses. Solly Mamea also claims she was never paid for her stint at Google Directory, and became suspicious of her employer when she was told to change the name of the company when speaking to potential customers.
Both police and Google are now investigating Auckland-based Company Google Directory, which launched last month, and lists more than 100,000 businesses and state agencies across New Zealand. Company director Simon McLeod went to ground after the Herald approached him. He initially said he would answer questions about Google Directory by email, but has not responded, answered his phone or returned calls since.
Police were investigating the company and said “We are still evaluating whether this is criminal activity or a scam or a mix of both, and where we're going to go from here," said Detective Senior Sergeant Aaron Pascoe.
Be safe, keep reading….
