How to Deal with Google Robots

  |   Mar 21 2016   |   Posted in: Informational Address

Do you receive numerous calls every week, or even every day, from a “Google” robot trying to “update your front page listing,” or to “claim your free website?”  If you are unsure or not if these are scams, I’ll make this very clear for you… They are.  All of them.

Here is a direct page taken out of Google’s support page:

Google telemarketing calls

Watch out for parties calling and selling services claiming to have a special relationship with or claiming to be Google. Often, these parties are telemarketers that are not affiliated with Google and are trying to leverage the Google brand to sell your business some type of online service. Keep in the mind the following:

• Google does not place robocalls.
• Google does not call to "update your front page listing" or ask you to "claim your free website."
• Google does not charge for inclusion in Google Search or Google My Business.

These calls are annoying and disruptive to the workday.  I just received the second one today and have become so annoyed I wrote this blog post.

Here are a few tips to avoid being scammed:

1. Hitting “2” to be taken off the list does nothing.  Instead hit “0,” this is a robocall phone hack to be directed straight to a real person.  Hitting 0 will usually work with any type of automation.  (I’ve used it on my bank a couple of times when getting frustrated with the automated menu).
2. Ask these 2 questions:
   1. “What company are you with?”  They will always elude to being with Google but they aren’t.
   2. “Why do I receive these automated calls?”  Warning: They will be very rude to you and try to make you feel like you are wrong in questioning them.
3. Deny that you are who they say you are.  Tell them that they called a private residence and you are reporting them to the National Do Not Call Registry.
4. If you ask for their name or any further information, they will hang up on you.  I’ve never gotten passed two questions.
5. NEVER give them real information.  Not even a little bit.  This could lead to you being hacked in much worse ways.

Hopefully these tips help you to keep your information safe.  Remember, Google and any other holder of our information would never call using a robot or try to acquire information without you contacting them first.  This goes for email as well.  No matter how good the offer is, always remember the age old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”