how do you fix other people sabatage your gplace listing?

[Dat To]

just checked my gplace listing and someone named 'anonymous' has made 20 edits to my listing and told google that the reviews we got are fake and now it says our listing is 'pending' removal. can anyone help? has anyone experience this craziness?

[Flash]

You are posting in the Google Map Maker forum, and unfortunately our expertise is limited to that product. Normally I would send you right over to the Places forum, but there is the possibility that the edits were made in Map Maker rather than Places. If you could post a link to your listing we can check for you as to what we can see here, and then send you over to Places if we can't help.

[Dat To]

there were 20edits to my listing in mar!!  i didn't know that anyone can edit an owner verified listing!!  pls help

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 11:26 PM, Dat To <dat...@gmail.com> wrote:

http://maps.google.ca/maps/place?cid=7069239470643117231

this is how i found out about this, got this email today.  i took a look and it seems like these people have been editing tons of other people's DJ listings.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brenda ProCheff <Brenda....@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 6:57 PM
Subject:
To: dat...@gmail.com


Name: Brenda ProCheff
Phone: (416) 123456
Email: Brenda....@hotmail.com
Event Type:
Event Date:
Time of Day for Event:
Hours Needed for Gig:
Budget:
Type of Music:
Event Details: Did you notice that your Google Places account was mysteriously deleted recently by a user named “Anonymous?”

Well our company listing was also deleted on March 24th along with most of the DJ companies in Toronto.

This is what happened.

Our Google places listing was flagged as a fake listing with a fake address by the user “Anonymous”.  This was done to dozens of other DJ companies in Toronto as well.  Based on this flagging, a Google trusted reviewer without verifying details have deleted most of the listings thus almost 80% all listings disappeared from Google places..

Now do you want to know who was behind this deliberate unethical and illegal act…? Also do you want to know how we found out?

Here’s how..

Since our listing and most listings were deleted our web consulting company did an analysis of all the companies that were not deleted and their online activity and came with a shortlist of 02 companies. At this point there was no confirmation. However, one of the companies was Surround Sound DJ.
Based on this information we used the same strategy that the Original “Anonymous” user used and “Flagged” their listing for deletion. Once we did this, within several hours Surround Sound DJ tried to revert and undo the deletion using the Google user name “Surround”.  However, we repeated the flagging to Google.  At this point Baruch Labunski the owner of Surround Sound DJ panicked and accidently used the original username “Anonymous” and wrote a personal request to Google to stop us from deleting his listing.

Now we know as a fact that the original deletion was indeed done by Surround Sound’s Baruch Labunski and his SEO company rankhigh.ca and we have proof.

You can check this by yourself.
1. Log-in to Google
2. Go to your Google Map Maker (www.google.com/mapmaker)
3. Search for your company
4. Click History / Details
5. Now you can see all activity and who has deleted your profile (Check on Mar 24, 2012)
6. Click the user “Anonymous”
7. Now you can see all activity (Deletions ect done my the user)

Now Search for Surround Sound DJ
1. Click History
2. Now you can see Amanda Lanskibu & Anonymous User (The two names we used to Flag the Surround Sound DJ Listing)
3. Scroll Down
4. Now you will see some comments made by both Surround Sound and “Anonymous”
5. Check the comments
6. Click on the Anonymous user

Now you will know that the same user who deleted most DJ companies in Toronto is the same user who has made a personal appeal / comments begging Google not to delete the Surround sound DJ Listing: Their exact words “Please Remove this person Amanda Lanskibu she is trying to remove a map I won for over 5 Years please stop this person”

Convinced?

Now what are you going to do about the company who tied to illegally and unethically delete your listing in Google?
AD Tracking:
Keyword Tracking:

                             
                                     Take Care,
                                         Dat To
                  
Direct/Local/ Toronto (GTA): 416 834 2033
Strictly House at: http://dattrax.podomatic.com     
                   
This e-mail is confidential.  Any unauthorized disclosure, use or dissemination, either whole or partial, is prohibited. 
If you are not the intended recipient of the message, please notify the sender immediately.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 11:19 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

You are posting in the Google Map Maker forum, and unfortunately our expertise is limited to that product. Normally I would send you right over to the Places forum, but there is the possibility that the edits were made in Map Maker rather than Places. If you could post a link to your listing we can check for you as to what we can see here, and then send you over to Places if we can't help.

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Thanks for using Google Map Maker! =)

[Flash]

Yes, you are right, someone keeps marking it for deletion, and they sometimes even succeed.  And then because you are Places verified, the "Google Revert" bot comes in and reverses it.  These edits are nothing to worry about.  There could be dozens of more that you never even saw; if they are flat out denied they disappear.  Your listing is still there.

I do see the comments about too many fake reviews.  I looked at the first two page of your reviews; all but one are 5 stars by a brand new account, the three that go on to review a second business do spammy looking ones; in fact the same business appears a couple of times.  They all then never review anything again.  I can see why it would look suspicious.  But no one at Google is going to examine your reviews based on that comment.  I cannot  tell you if you are being reported elsewhere.  Best to go to the Places forum, which I see Bliss posted a link to, and see what they think of your reviews.

[Dat To]

Thank you for your time and opinions.  This person used the same profile and has done this to a whole bunch of other DJ services.

If the reverses are nothing to worry about then why am I on page 5 now when on pg1 before and most of the people who were on page 1 are on pg 3+?

Reviews are from fans from facebook and twitter who love our mixed house sets that they get to download, because they are free.  And some are people that have been to our parties. 

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:17 AM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Yes, you are right, someone keeps marking it for deletion, and they sometimes even succeed.  And then because you are Places verified, the "Google Revert" bot comes in and reverses it.  These edits are nothing to worry about.  There could be dozens of more that you never even saw; if they are flat out denied they disappear.  Your listing is still there.

I do see the comments about too many fake reviews.  I looked at the first two page of your reviews; all but one are 5 stars by a brand new account, the three that go on to review a second business do spammy looking ones; in fact the same business appears a couple of times.  They all then never review anything again.  I can see why it would look suspicious.  But no one at Google is going to examine your reviews based on that comment.  I cannot  tell you if you are being reported elsewhere.  Best to go to the Places forum, which I see Bliss posted a link to, and see what they think of your reviews.

--

[Flash]

We are not concered with SERP in Map Maker, but rather we concentrate on accuracy.  SERP questions would need to be asked in the Places forum.  But to be clear, in actual fact most if not all of your reviews are not from customers who have not used your paid DJ services?

[Dat To]

thanks, i'll ask in places forum about people making edits to negatively affect someone's listing as a strategy for their better rankings

yes, most are fans leaving reviews of how much they like our music

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 11:55 AM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

We are not concered with SERP in Map Maker, but rather we concentrate on accuracy.  SERP questions would need to be asked in the Places forum.  But to be clear, in actual fact most if not all of your reviews are not from customers who have not used your paid DJ services?

--

[Flash]

I denied the remaining edit; you should not see anything pending any longer.

[Dat To]

Thank you so much for your help. 

Have you seen companies do this sort of thing to other people?  Because I think these people have done this to many people in my category.  I'm just shocked that people can go into someone's listing and say anything and do it multiple times from the same email and wreck people's listing

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:20 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I denied the remaining edit; you should not see anything pending any longer.

--

[Flash]

There are certain categories that get spammed more than others; particularly ones that don't require a store front to operate.  You happen to be in such a category.  If there was not a mechanism to go in and edit other's listings, then there would be no way for us to go in and rid your category of true spam.  You would be on page 300 in the SERP rankings because there would be that many fake listings ahead of you.  So it is a necessary process for them to be editable.  However, you have not been "wrecked"; the general public does not look at Map Maker and you remain listed on Maps.

[Dat To]

Thank you so much for you time.  I was so shocked when i got that email yesterday.  I didn't know that people could do those things or even want to.

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 1:10 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

There are certain categories that get spammed more than others; particularly ones that don't require a store front to operate.  You happen to be in such a category.  If there was not a mechanism to go in and edit other's listings, then there would be no way for us to go in and rid your category of true spam.  You would be on page 300 in the SERP rankings because there would be that many fake listings ahead of you.  So it is a necessary process for them to be editable.  However, you have not been "wrecked"; the general public does not look at Map Maker and you remain listed on Maps.

--

[Linda Buquet]

I'm a Top Contributor at the Places forum and encourage you to also post there. I can escalate and get the Google spam team to take a closer look at this. I remember seeing another DJ posting not too long ago so he may have been affected by this too.

HOWEVER note that you have a couple pretty serious violations in your Place page that could lead to suspension. You should probably clean them up before you post there and get more eyes on your listing. You can't add city to your categories, so you need to get the 2 Toronto mentions out of your cats.

Linda

On Sunday, April 15, 2012 9:08:08 PM UTC-7, blissfulight wrote:

Toronto DJ Services

Anonymous

Profile reported:  The Spam Fighting Form.  

Places Forum:  http://goo.gl/xhKYO

[Dat To]

sorry, i don't understand.  i didn't add Toronto to my categories.  You said i have that twice?

--

[Dat To]

my mistake... oh, i see what you are saying, but that's the biz name.  so take out of the category section?

what's the other violation?

[Linda Buquet]

No I'm talking the 2 categories. Toronto DJ Service, Toronto DJ Services

In fact even just repeating  DJ Service singular and plural I think would look spammy to the algo. 

PLUS DJ Services repeats your name, so really not good.

G really does not like keyword repetition and if you've already be flagged for spam, even if the allegations were 

false, I'd just worry you may have a target on your back and work to be sure your listing was beyond reproach.

I'd totally remove Toronto DJ Services as a cat and delete city out of Toronto DJ Service. 

[Dat To]

i took your advice and took out the two 'toronto' instances in category, but i guess the change is not instant.

and i also see 'wedding planner' in my categories, which i didn't pick,  i didn't even pick 'wedding dj' because we don't do that.  and that's not showing up in the backend but showing up in front end.

i'm not going to take 'Toronto' out of our bus name because that's our biz name

[Flash]

The "Wedding DJ" entry has been selected by Google's algorithms rather than coming from your Places page.  That is exactly the sort of item that you would use Map Maker to edit.  I went in and removed it, plus I elevated your DJ listing from a secondary category to the Primary category.  It is now awaiting review.  If one of you wanted to go into Map Maker and make an identical edit, I will cancel my edit and approve yours instead; otherwise we will just need to wait for a person or the Approval Bot to approve my edit.

[Dat To]

Thank you so much for all this help.  Didn't know that this google places listing thing was so complicated.  We are the only dj services i think in listed that doesn't do weddings.

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 2:45 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

The "Wedding DJ" entry has been selected by Google's algorithms rather than coming from your Places page.  That is exactly the sort of item that you would use Map Maker to edit.  I went in and removed it, plus I elevated your DJ listing from a secondary category to the Primary category.  It is now awaiting review.  If one of you wanted to go into Map Maker and make an identical edit, I will cancel my edit and approve yours instead; otherwise we will just need to wait for a person or the Approval Bot to approve my edit.

--

[Dat To]

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 11:19 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Flash <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

You are posting in the Google Map Maker forum, and unfortunately our expertise is limited to that product. Normally I would send you right over to the Places forum, but there is the possibility that the edits were made in Map Maker rather than Places. If you could post a link to your listing we can check for you as to what we can see here, and then send you over to Places if we can't help.

--